Tuesday, November 22, 2016

2961. 17-year-old eye extenteration follow up since May 2016 surgery

Nov 22, 2016

I got WhatsApp image of April from owner. Dog is fine and already 17 years old.




HISTORY
MAY 2016
This is a veterinary educational video for pet owners and vet students.  As the dog is very old at 16 years of age, no injectable anaesthetic sedation was was given. Just isoflurane gas. Dog has survived 30 minutes of surgery and anaesthesia and will go home today. No death on the op table. That is what the owner want and this is not possible in very old dogs in many cases.






































VIDEOS

For better survival rate, the vet stablised the dog using IV drip for the past 24 hours. This strengthen the dog for anaesthesia. Also, the IV drips given were to flush out the depressive effects of narcotics given by the first vet before surgery and anaesthesia.  Electro-surgery is faster than traditional cutting, reducing anaesthetic time and promoting survival rate. .

The dog survived the anaesthesia and is OK as at 14 days post-op. The owner is very happy. Some Singapore owners will put the dog to sleep rather than taking the risk of anaesthesia and paying for the surgery. This mother and adult daughter took turns nursing the dog to good health after removal of the eyeball and the dog thrives.  16 years is considered a very long life for any small breed of dog.

videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AuFwToIjA&feature=youtu.be








Tuesday, November 15, 2016

2979.. Corgi caesarean follow up: 3-day-old puppies

Nov 15, 2016
Visited the farm at 9 am. The breeder was not in.

3 healthy pups suckling surrogate dam. No complaints
Dam now nursing Dachshunds as she had very large nipples from puppy suckling in theprevious 2 pregnancies. A surrogate Corgi that gave birth naturally at 2 am the day after this dam but had 3 live and 3 dead pups nurses her puppies.  





2958. A 60th-day pregnant Corgi ruptured her water bag but no pup












Sunday, November 13, 2016

2957. Skin disease recurs after 3 years

Nov 13, 2016

The owner had to work in Thailand and so did not consult me after Jul 2013 as his dog had had recovered from generalized ringworm. Now, it looks like the disease had returned.




The owner came for the vaccination to board the dog this December. One month before boarding is required.


Thursday, November 10, 2016

2955. A 5-year-old male guinea pig has a large jaw swelling

Nov 11, 2016

Dental disease in a guinea pig

"Last year, after you had cut off the front teeth and the cheek teeth," the owner consulted me regarding his emaciated lethargic and pale looking pet in Nov 8, 2016. "My guinea pig had a good appetite and was putting on weight!  I have been coming to Toa Payoh Vets to trim the front teeth every month for the last 3 months but now he is not eating and is very weak. Just last month, I had his front teeth trimmed!" 

My records showed it was 2 months ago in September. Trimming the front teeth is cheap and fast. He asked my vet to do it and so he assumed all would be well. After all, this pet is 5 years old and he expects the pet not to live long.

"There is a left lower jaw swelling," I showed the owner. "This is a dental abscess and I needed a skull X-ray to check on the teeth."

Aspiration of 12 ml of the most foul pus on the first day. On Day 2, I lanced the abscess and the stench of the pus was overpowering. Smelt like rotten meat or egg wafted into my nose and that of my nose. I used hydrogen peroxide to flush out the inside of the big abscess. Baytril antibiotics and dextrose were injected in the past 2 days. Then I got the X-ray done. It showed lower Molar 2 tooth loose and abscessation of the mandible.

"An X-ray is of no use since the treatment will be the same," my vet gave his opinion.
"A skull X-ray shows which teeth if any is affected," I said.  We try to save money for the owner but in this case, diagnosis of dental disease depends on 3 procedures:

1. Physical examination
2. Endoscopic oral examination, using an otoscope
3. Skull X-ray, preferably 2 views.The left oblique view was taken to save money.

Clipping the front incisors every month for the past 3 months did not help. It is cheap but the lower molars overgrow cutting into the tongue as you can view in the images. The guinea pig eats less. Teeth continuously grow but not worn out by chewing. Less eating. Lose weight. Emaciated. Molar teeth roots mis aligned. Decay. Abscess in lower jaw. Swelling seen in left lower jaw. No stools passed. Will die soon if not treated.
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The below are the updated images in 2020 for the video production






Use the appropriate rodent dental equipment. This rodent cheek dilator is very useful
in opening the mouth wide for a detailed physical examination

Gas anaesthesia without injectable anaesthetics is safer for the GP









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Older images in 2016, not photoshopped well.



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The mouth cannot be examined properly just by opening it. It needs anaesthesia. But the risk is so high. So, we are back to square one.

NOTES
1. Dental disease. Runny eyes, runny nose, drooling, teeth grinding, selective eating, not eating, weight loss, slobbering.

2.  Guinea pig may not have the palpable protrusions at the ventral aspects of the mandible or at the lateral aspects of the maxilla as in the rabbit or chinchilla. Therefore, it may be hard to detect malocclusion.

3. GP + chinchilla
2(I1/1, C0/0, PM 1/1, M3/3) = 20 teeth.

Rabbit has I2/1 in case you don't know. It has 4 obvious front teeth and 2 more shorter and smaller upper front teeth behind the front teeth!