Ref: 45856. The mother and son brought the 4-year-old female spayed Spitz for the annual vaccination. The dog was overweight at 18.2 kg. Her Body Condition Score 7/9.
"My Spitz just loves to eat this food," the son said. "The company is HSA certified. I feed her 40g 2x per day. Now she is overweight!". "It is best to do the health screening by a blood test," I advised. "The last was done last year."
BLOOD TEST FINDINGS
Total cholesterol 8.20 mmol/L (3-6.6)
Triglycerides 1.19 mmol/L (0.33 - 3.27)
The mother was advised to feed a therapeutic diet called Hill's R/D. "Give 10% of total amount of food (pork + rice) per day during the first week, then increase to 15% and so on for the following weeks. Your dog will get used to the new food and will not reject it. Most owners feed 100% of R/D and give up when the dog rejects it, hence failing to reduce the weight."
Within 2 months, the Spitz had reduced weight.
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Ref 50424. A 14-year-old male neutered Golden Retriever on the same day. The eye skin area was bald due to eye rubbing on the floor. Bad breath. However, the ears were clean as the owner had maintained them regularly.
The owner was worried as the dog kept sneezing and had coughing for 2 days. Possibly a kennel cough as the dog was not vaccinated. Her total cholesterol results are shown for comparison to the Spitz above.
BLOOD TEST FINDINGS
Total cholesterol 5.40 mmol/L (3-6.6)
Triglycerides 0.98 mmol/L (0.33 - 3.27)
The young lady loved this dwarf hamster very much. She discovered a lump of 8 mm x 6 mm on the lower body on the left side of the belly.
"Last time, you said it is risky to anaesthesize the old hamster," she was very worried about the anaesthetic death.
"Anaesthesia is always risky and it is more risky now that the hamster is much older," I told her that the life span of the dwarf hamster is around 2.5 to 3 years.
"I am surprised that your hamster did not bite off the stitches," I met the young lady owner who to get the stitches removed today. "He can't bite them off," she said. Fortunately, she had come early as I noticed a big 3-mm pimple on the upper eyelid of the left eye. "This pimple will grow bigger as it is a bacterial infection and the hamster rubs it daily," I advised lancing and drainage. There was still the big worry of anaesthetic death. She gave consent. The hamster fell asleep within 30 seconds of smelling anaesthetic gas given at 5%. This hamster is very old, but he can still climb 3-levels up to his feeding area. "His weight is now 40 g compared to 43 g when I operated to remove his tumour 15 days ago."
"He passes a lot of big-sized stools and drinks more," the lady could not explain why there is weight loss. "Can he break sunflower seeds?" I asked. "No," he can't. So she will have to crush the sunflower seeds and feed him some daily to let him gain weight.
The lady showed a video of the hamster inside a white hamster bowl throwing out the seeds. "Use a flat plate for his seeds instead of a deep bowl, as some seeds may poke his eyelids causing pimples."
The hamster took some minutes to wake up from just 30 seconds of gas anaesthesia. Younger ones wake up within a second. So the vet must be vigilant during anaesthesia. A dead hamster is not good for his reputation.
Flashback to 15 days ago, the image did show a very small pimple on the upper eyelid
Compare to May 23, 2018
All ended well. The young lady and her boyfriend are relieved and happy.
Bigger sized stools unlike those from other dwarf hamsters
Stitches are still present 15 days post op
Right eye looks OK but there is some rubbing
Scent gland is cleared. Stitches removed.
The hamster is aged but active. He is equivalent to 90 years old in human age
May 7, 2018
Eating less. Owner wanted an X-ray to check for eggs. No eggs.
Aug 2017. 2 years old. Less appetite. X-rays show no eggs
Inappetance or eating less can be a sign of illness or egg impaction in female red-eared sliders. In this case, there are no eggs. Antibiotics for the next 7 days are prescribed.
This Myanmar accountant in Singapore has an excellent volunteer who oversees building of a building in this primary school in a village. He would source for the cheapest timber and material for the building. Other contractors dislike him.
In 2011, I met him and went with him to the village. He told me he had liver cancer. He passed away later and there was no honest volunteer to help this accountant. He offered scholarships instead.
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.
