May 4, 2018. Mushrooms may teach us a life lesson as in this case.
I saw the group as small white buttons at 11 pm yesterday. Now, at 5 am, May 4, 2018, Friday, they are grown up as a cluster as if they are united as a family against predators.
May 3, 2018 11pm on reaching home, I saw these white buttons
May 4, 2018. 5 am, the mushrooms had grown except for one on extreme left (loner)
"Skin diseases have many causes," I said to an owner whom I had not seen for more than 8 years as there are vets nearer to his home. He had seen one vet who said that there was no cure after only one consultation and no tests for allergies. So he just used ear drops from this vet over the years till today.
"I have been to several vets," the senior citizen told me today. "They prescribed steroidal antibiotic ear drops, but the ear infection returned again after a few days." He is tired of cleaning up the right ear. "No more vets," he told me. "I used cocconut oil and water to clean the ear for the past one year!"
He had surfed the internet. He chanced upon Toa Payoh Vets video of an ear surgery to resolve this problem effectively, but he did not tell me at the time of consultation.
The only solution is to do ear surgery called Lateral Ear Canal Resection so that the floppy ear of this 10-year-old poodle can get ventilation and drainage. The dog was operated today at 1pm and went home at 6pm as the owner missed his dog if he was hosptialised for nursing.
Surprisingly, there was a horizontal ear canal tumour about 5mm x 10mm inside the horizontal canal. That accounted for the obstructed ventilation and drainage. A rare case as most ear tumours are in the vertical ear canal. "This is the first case I had seen," I told the owner who did not want histology to determine the cancer status of the tumour.
Below is the two videos of the case study.
Follow up on Mar 9, 2019
The owner has no complaints after the surgery
The lady owner rushed rhe dog to Vet 1 some 9 days ago as the dog could not pass urine at all. Not a drop. Vet 1 "scanned" the dog and said there was no urinary stones. Yet she could not pass the urinary catheter into the bladder. The dog objected and wanted to bite her. The dog pulled out the catheter. For around 3 days, Vet 1 tried catheterisation which cost around $300 including sedation. She also asked the owner to go to the Veterinary Specialists which meant high medical expenses.
The owner remembered me as I had treated her dog for stroke some 10 years ago and contacted me. She brought the dog over for a second opinion as Vet 1 wanted to neuter the dog on suspicion of prostate enlargement or disease causing dysuria. She also gave a Tardak injection for prostate enlargement. But the owner declined neutering. She wanted her dog to be able to pee normally.
Dr Daniel performed a urethrostomy and removed the sole urethral stone. X-rays post surgery revealed no other stones in the bladder, kidneys or urinary tract. So, it was only one stone. .
Owner wanted the dog to be discharged since he can pee normally for the past 6 days of hospitalisation. I will not advise it as the urethral opening may close up if the owner does not do a good nursing job.
The dog bites the nurses, hence the e-collar and the need for 2 nurses to clean his urethral wound daily for the past 6 days. Today he is wanted home.
X-rays after surgery to remove one urethral stone show no urinary stones
Urethrostomy surgery
The urethral stone is lodged inside the perineal urethra, obstructing urine flow. So the dog had great difficulty urinating. This perineal urethra is opened up. The stone is taken out. The dog can now pass urine freely. X-rays were not done by Vet 1. Vet 1 said there was no stone after "scanning." Yet the urinary catheter could not pass into the bladder, meaning that there would be a stone stopping the passage of the catheter.
At Toa Payoh Vets, the urinary catheter was similarly stopped at the perineal urethra from entering the bladder. Urethostomy (opening up the urethra) enabled Dr Daniel to extract the stone, permitting free urine flow. The urethra was left open for the dog to pee from this location. No more difficulty in urination since surgery for the past 6 days before going home.
The owner had a pair of male, not neutered poodles. One mounts this one daily, causing truncal alopecia (hair loss in sides of flanks), hence causing traumatic injury to the hairs, according to this owner.
