360. Man proposes, God disposes. The old mutt stopped breathing under anaesthesia

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Man proposes, God disposes.


"This 12-year-old dog must be operated as he keeps licking the skin tumour in front of his male organ," the father said. "My daughter would like to see him lead a normal life."

The daughter was in her early twenties. A quiet be-spectacled lady. Not a word from her when we met in the consultation room.

"She wants to be around for the dog during surgery," the father said.

"It is not possible because I don't operate immediately," I said. "But she can take the dog home on the same day."

I had advised surgery only after 10 - 20 days of antibiotics but the father did not turn up. He must be a busy working person. On a second appointment, the dog had fever and the surgery was postponed. So another course of antibiotics. Now the dog was on the operating table on a Thursday afternoon. I could not schedule surgery on a week end as that would be very busy. Surgeries are best done on week days as there is much less pressure of waiting pet owners.



This mutt was very thin. I had not seen him biting, but the owner muzzled him for the picture pre-op. He was not an ideal anaesthetic agent. "My daughter is against euthanasia," the father said as I told him that the dog had a few other skin tumours and might have internal tumours too.

"He is eating and well," the father said. The young adult daughter had not wanted to get rid of an old friend just because he had several skin tumours and it would cost money to operate and remove them.

But would he survive the general anaesthetic? I disliked such operations and would have preferred that he let other veterinarians take the case. Sometimes, it is not a matter of losing revenue, but a matter of heart breaks and anger facing anaesthetic deaths of high risk patients. The father knew the risks. The antibiotics should have got rid of the bacterial infection.

But how about the ability of this dog to take anaesthesia. Why was he so thin? Has he some internal problems? Of course, blood tests and X-rays could be done. But the owner usually wants the least cost veterinary fees. It is understandable as the cost of living in Singapore increases every year despite what the politicians and economists say.

"The dog stopped breathing," Nurse Ann who was monitoring the anaesthesia said. His turn had turned moderately cyanotic. His chest movements had stopped. After all the precautions of medication and postponements, he was now at death's door.

I understood and remember the English idiom of my primary five school days - "Man proposes, God disposes".

Would this be the end? It is very stressful to the vet when the dog dies under general anaesthesia. Owners can be understanding but the family members can never forgive and forget.

"Stop anaesthestic and give pure oxygen," I compressed the dog's narrow chest with my hand regularly to watch signs of return to breathing. No signs. Compress the chest 5 times, wait and repeat.

A flicker of breath was seen as the rebreathing bag expanded. It took around 10 minutes to get the dog to breathe regularly. The big reddish skin lump in front of his prepuce was removed. It looked like a haemangioma. The other bigger lump on his sternal chest area was not removed as I did not want to prolong anaesthetic time and be stressed by a second event of likely death.

The young girl was waiting for her best friend who had just escaped death on the operating table. The dog went home soon after surgery. It would have been so much safer if he had been operated a few years ago when the lump just appeared and he was stronger and younger.