420. "How much you will pay me?" the 10-year-old boy asked the vet

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

The parents had brought in a white Miniature Schnauzer for vaccination. The puppy had one or two coughs. So, after a long explanation of why he should not be vaccinated, the puppy vaccination was deferred for 2 weeks.

"How much you will pay me?" the 10-year-old boy asked me when his mother suggested that he worked at the Surgery to gain more experience of handling animals. I told the mother he could be a doctor as he was not afraid of blood and insects unlike most city boys of Singapore.

He was the rare type of boy in highly urbanised Singapore not to be afraid of insects and animals in his garden. He could even catch them and destroy them. "If not brought up properly," I said to the parents, "he would grow up to be a wildlife endangered animal species smuggler---for the big money to be made."

He would catch iguana by the tail in the wink of an eye. Scorpions and millipedes would not escape his sharp eyes. Grasshoppers destroying his mother's plants were (I shuddered to describe) sent to heaven.

"How do you catch cobras?" I asked him.

"Just go behind them, grip their neck behind their heads," he said confidently.

"He sold frogs to his classmates," the mother said.

"I am surprised that there are buyers," the young boy replied. He sure had his entrepreneurial streak.

"Why don't you write a report like 'Animals in my backyard' or "10 iguanas in Singapore" for me to publish?" I asked him how much he wanted as fees.

"$100," he replied. "I will sue you for infringement of copyrights if you publish without my permission."

The parents were a bit embarassed.

"But if I paid you for the article, you could not sue me," I said.

He has a younger sister who is not afraid of animals in the garden too. So, no more mentoring of this boy because he expected to be paid to learn. It is such a pity as he could be mentored to be a great veterinarian or doctor. Now, I assessed that he would want to make big money and for that he had to be a business man.

"I like to smell the dollar notes," he said to me when I asked why he needed to make money and was he not getting money from his parents?

"In this case, you ought to be a financial analyst or stock/option/bond trader" I advised. "There is no big bucks in medicine or veterinary medicine generally." This was a boy I could talk for hours on "Unusual and wild animals he encountered in Singapore." It is a pity the parents did not get him to write and photographed the animals for all animal lovers in the world.

419. FOOD & WATER. Water bottle for puppies?

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

In Singapore, pet shop operators usually recommend that the water bottle ith a metal spout be used to provide fresh water to the puppies. Bowls of water sometimes get tipped over or become dirty.

Some animal activists are against the idea of the puppy having to get water from a water bottle. Pet guinea pigs drink from the water bottle usually.

HOW MUCH SHOULD THE PUPPY EAT?

Much depends on the breed. Pet shop operators recommend two feedings a day. Seems to have no adverse effect on most breeds. Finicky eaters will eat little or wait for new food or home-cooked food, knowing that the owners will give in.

Chihuahua, mini-maltese, yorkshire terrier and the Pomeranian will need 3 times a day. Make sure they really eat as they develop low blood sugar fits or become inactive if they have not eaten the whole day.

418. CAT SURGERY - Do not let the cat out of the bag.

FOR CAT LOVERS. 4 pictures of cat surgery at:
http://www.toapayohvets.com/surgery/20061010Malodorous_Cat.htm




Personal Experiences - Cat Surgery - The Malodorous Cat  
Last updated: 11 Oct 2006.
Don't let the cat out of the "bag"--- I mean "apartment.
Dr Sing Kong Yuen, BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS


The cat flattened her ears as I touched a 4-cm swelling to the right side of her tail. She hissed "ss...ss..ss" as I continued to examine the sore backside.

A man with a 3-rubied ear stud on his right ear and a long beard in his forties had browsed the world wide web, keyed in "veterinary Singapore" and here he was.

He was extremely busy as he was organising a meeting for the International Olympic Committee that had met in Singapore.

The Committee would vote for the city to host the 2012 Olympic Games. Paris was the favourite and London was second. Singapore was the meeting place for the Committee.
 "An abscess, probably due to a cat bite or scratch," I said. "I will tranquilise it and drain the abscess."

"There was this neighbourhood tom cat who came up to my 2nd floor apartment," Mr Wong said. "He must have attacked my mother's cat. The cat was just outside the apartment waiting for my mother to return from work."

Tom cats do seek out and destroy their enemies to assert control over their territories. Some people do the same thing too.
I injected the 5-year-old spayed cat with a tranquiliser. Then I gave her some anaesthetic gas through a face mask. This would be the safest method.

She showed her claws.
Tranquilisers don't knock out a cat. Just sedate it.

Finally she was anaesthesized. It took a few minutes to drain the pus from the swelling.

A malodorous smell would make the most seasoned veterinarian and veterinary nurse puke. Some sort of flesh rotting bacteria were multiplying inside the swelling.

The next day, Mr Wong came back. A blackish discharge oozed from the backside wound.

Whitish and soft skin edges. The cat would lick the wound obsessively.
This time, I gave the cat a general anaesthetic injection into its back muscle.

I seldom used this method as an injection is irreversible if the cat had reactions. The cat may die unlike gas anaesthetic which can be given in small amounts first.

Mr Wong was into the surgery room. The ceiling extractor fan could not remove the malodorous smell promptly.

Mr Wong stepped further away from the operating table and stood nearer the surgery door.

The smell of the decay of rotting flesh was so much unpleasant. Nurse Ann and I had insensitive noses. We were conditioned to malodour over the last 30 years.

"Do you want to wait at the waiting area?" I suggested. I did not know whether he would faint as his work with beautiful music and movies would be a world of much more pleasant smells than a veterinary surgery.

What sort of bacteria was so virulent as to cause tissue decay? The cat has an elastic skin and a bite from the tom cat had injected bacteria into the skin below.

Being elastic, the wound closed. The bacteria multiplied. The cat's defence white blood cells could not cope with the invasion. Cells die and a putrid odour wafted in the surgery room.
The wound was flushed and cleaned. It needed antibiotics and then another surgery to close the hole. The owner did not want the cat back yet.
as a table-tennis ball diameter.
His mother missed the cat but would not be able to clean the wound or give antibiotics. Nurse Ann gave antibiotics by mixing with the cat food.

Over the next 6 days, the wound was licked clean by the cat. All dead edges of skin were licked away all the dead skin creating a hole is as big
It is always a challenge to close up a big skin hole. I hate this type of surgery as failure would mean the cat would suffer from a much bigger hole.

Not as simple as you would think. It took more than one hour. Now, the mother wanted the cat home.

"If the stitches break down, the hole would be 5 times bigger in area and there would be no second chance at stitching. At home, the cat would be walking about and rubbing its stitches against some walls. You have been informed of the risk."

Veterinary costs are most important for the owner. I understand what the mother was thinking. She is from the baby-boomer generation where thrift is important.
It was not easy to earn money. She worked hard to earn a living to bring up a filial son.

And here, just a bite wound from a tom cat would cost money.

Mr Wong said, "How to get rid of this tom cat?"
 
"Well, you can contact the government's Veterinary Department," I mumbled, without volunteering him the phone number.

"Another tom cat will take over the territory."

He fingered his beard. Nodded his head. I was wondering why his mother let the cat out of the apartment in the first place but it was not my business to ask. Many older Singaporeans would feed but no keep the stray cat at home. Sometimes, the cat just wanted to go out daily.

The veterinary expenses were high although this was just a cat bite wound. The musician and writer owner understood that this was not a simple consultation.

Mr Wong visited the cat in the evening. He saw the stitches, the long incisions of skin I had to pinch skin from further down the leg to seal just a 20-cm hole.

I had to get skin from every where just to close the gap. The right side of the anus had only 0.5 cm of skin left and I needed to make sure that the anal area be stitched up.

I remembered this uncommon surgery. A dark green blob of anal oil oozed out when I undermined the anal area to get the skin loosened to stitch to the other skin flap.

I cursed: Damn it, anal gland oil contaminating the wound. Would there be infection now?
I swabbed away the oil. I should have squeezed out the anal gland oil before surgery. But I had never thought of it.

"3 or 4 days later," he said. "I will bring the cat home."

"No," I said. "The skin wounds take at least 10 days to heal. 14 days preferred.

"There would be no second chance if the stitches break down, " I advised. "The cat would have a gigantic backside wound!"

"Let me pay the outstanding fees now," he said. "Otherwise the total amount payable on discharge will give me a heart attack!"

Mr Wong gave Nurse Ann the Nets Card to debit the fees.

The surgery and anaesthesia was $250. It took over an hour just to stitch up a "small" wound in the backside. Preparation for surgery took another half an hour.

The man with the beard and left ear ring loves his mother without a doubt.

Otherwise he would have just asked the humane shelter to take away this cat and saved him money. After all, she was just a stray cat!

From this experience, all cats should be kept at home for their own safety.

It is still a cat-bite-cat jungle in Singapore. Not only from tom cats. But from the 2-legged ones.

Singapore cats seem to be becoming an endangered species, in my observation.

As they trusted people who feed them, they would be easily trapped.

Stray cats are becoming extinct in modern Singapore in 2006. The few wise ones would not venture out during daytime as they observed the danger. Who the cat catchers were, I do not know. I have never seen them in action but I was told by cat lovers that they use nets on long poles to nap the stray cats.

I hope the man with the beard and ear rings would be able to see his mother's cat for the next few years. I advised him not to let the cat out of the bag...

I mean not to let the cat out of the apartment.

It is a real cat napping jungle outside his apartment.

Never let the stray cat room if you want to feed him. Keep him at home.


FOR CAT LOVERS. 4 pictures of cat surgery at:
http://www.toapayohvets.com/surgery/20061010Malodorous_Cat.htm
It is much safer for him. The cat catchers are everywhere!

417. Two weeks to paper-train if confined

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

The fair woman in her forties said, "Paper trained in 2 weeks."

"How you do it?" I wanted to confirm the 2-week success remark I had heard from the pet shop operator and a breeder.

"Just do not let the puppy out of the playpen for 2 weeks."

"Who advised you?" I asked.

"A pet shop operator at Thomson Road. I bought the puppy from the pet shop," she said. This was a different pet shop operator.

Mark R, another dog trainer just told me today that 2 weeks would be the minimum time.

416. Why the puppy pees in front/behind the door?

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

During my research, many puppy owners say "The puppy would pee in front of the bedroom door or behind the main door. Doing this on purpose."

Well, I did not think much about their observations.

In my surgery, my assistant Anna had a 3-month-old Chihuahua puppy for the last one month. I asked her to let the puppy be out at the reception area instead of being crated at the back room.

"Naughty boy, naughty, naughty," Annie would say as she mopped up the puppy pee found in the reception and waiting area. The puppy could run out of the reception area to the waiting area. The door to the back room would be closed.

I noted that the puppy peed just outside the door a few times. He did pee elsewhere but outside the door was a common area. Why?

I thought about what the other owners said about "peeing behind the door." It dawned on me that the puppy was trying to go to its crate or toilet area. Since the entrance was closed, the puppy had no choice but to pee on the floor tiles behind or in front of the closed door! Bedroom doors are closed to prevent the puppy from eliminating in the bedroom. So, the puppy could not wait and pees near the bedroom door or behind the front door. The strong smell of its urine make it want to pee there most of the time.

415. Conflicting veterinary advices - bladder stone

"It is best that you do not advocate surgery," I advised my ex-nurse. "Your boss might infer that you are drumming up business for me. He is a really nice gentle giant and would not say so."

This 3-year-old femal eminiature Schnauzer had been passing blood in the urine for some months. Jenny had felt a hard "stone" in the bladder. This woman with over 20 years of dog experience instantly diagnosed bladder stone.





She scheduled a surgery after getting quotations from me and probably elsewhere. She is one of those rare employees who cares about the need to minimise expenses for her boss.

I suggested X-ray of the bladder to confirm it. It could be a bladder tumour. The dog belonged to her boss.

Since I do not have the X-ray machine, I asked her to get it done at another practice.

The other vet recommended a home-based diet to get the bladder stone "dissolved." So, I did not hear from Jenny for some time.

Now, the bladder stone was as big as a quail egg. Hard as a rock. "Like a figure of 8" Jenny said when she palpated the bladder. "How could such large stones dissolve when home-cooked food is fed?" Another month had passed. Reddish blood, bright and red stained the backside of the Miniature Schnauzer every day.



Jenny's boss accepted this advice. But the female dog kept passing blood in the urine. Jenny decided finally to operate. So, I told her that she had a conflict of interest in the sense that she was my ex-nurse and now the other vet had given a separate opinion to the owner who was her boss.

"How in the world can such a large bladder stone disappear?" Jenny was sceptical. "The dog is still passing blood in the urine everyday."

The conflicting veterinary advices had postponed the operation by more than one month. What to do? The dog kept passing blood in the urine. It was not a normal situation.



Ultimately, it is up to the owner or the care-giver to decide. If this was my dog, I would opt for surgery. An infected bladder over time would lead to infections of the kidneys or death. That would not be good for this dog.

414. The abused puppy is operated.

Part I - Blog case No. 412.
http://puppytoilettraining.blogspot.com/2006/10/412-best-place-in-world-for-injured.html

Mrs Baker's puppy came for surgery to cover up the exposed muscles of the affected legs. There was no pus or smell as the puppy had been on daily antibiotics. The wounds were bright red.

"The swabs are is stuck to the wound," Mrs Bakers observed after using the scissors to snip off the protective bandage. "We used saline to wet the swabs before removing it." Actually, all I needed to do was to pull off the swabs and the puppy would not feel any pain. Saline water to wet and loosen the swabs were unnecessary.

I asked Mrs Baker to wait outside as it was all too painful for her. The swabs came off easily. Yellowish pus on the swabs showed that infection would be setting in soon.

"There is bleeding," the domestic worker pointed out to a bright red spot of blood on the examination table.

"Bleeding is due to the friction with the exposed muscles," I explained. "It is important to use the skin to cover the leg muscles, otherwise the puppy will lick the flesh till it gets septic."

But this operation is one I hate to do. The skin is tight. It is a challenging surgery and takes a long time as there are no spare skin available over the exposed elbow. And lesser skin over the hock (ankle) of the hind leg.

If the operation to cover the wound is successful, it could be very satisfying to the owner. Mrs Baker could see that there was no surrounding skin to cover the wounds.

"What a bad case of puppy abuse," she remembered the newspaper reporting about this serial cat killer who enjoyed abusing cats in the neighbourhood. "Are there such cruel people in Singapore?"

I said the puppy probably had a car accident. The lower side of the car had sliced off the skin of his front and back legs.

"How could this be?" Mrs Baker asked.

"The puppy could be hit by the side of the car. As she turned, the other leg could cut too. One back leg joint was extremely swollen."

Of course, it was my pure speculation. Mrs Baker did not think so. Surgery to cover the big exposed elbow and leg muscles would be necessary. After antibiotics of 7 days, the puppy was operated upon.






It took over 2 hours to repair the wound. If there was no infection, the operation would be successful. 90% of the muscles would be covered up. Mrs Baker brought the puppy home to nurse her.

413. Success in 9/10 cases, the pet shop operator asserted

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore


"You have a stingy boss," the pet shop operator said to James, my receptionist when I advised James to eat a small slice of the mooncake, 1/8th of a piece of the small mooncake instead of the whole cake. It was the small type of around 4 cm in diameter, full of the orange egg yoke. It could be eaten all at one time. To me, this mooncake was mostly egg yolk than cake.

In eating a slice, James should be able to assess whether the mooncake was of good quality. That was how I sample moon cakes from various manufacturers. If the small slice was no good, then, don't eat any as the cakes can be quite fattening.

We were at the shop to vaccinate 4 puppies. The pet shop girl offered us the mooncakes---presents from customers. October 7, 2006 was the day after the Moon Cake Festival and no more moon cakes would be on sale.

Howver, a customer was present. A lady and her Singapore Management University psychology undergraduate daughter were browsing. It was no good for my reputation. Yet it was Mr T's personality to make such provocative remarks. Maybe he was paying his pet shop girl more than the market rate.

"Mrs Chua, the mooncake offered is not mine, so how can I be a stingy boss by asking James to eat a small piece?" I sought the customer's opinion. She nodded her head. For the sake of the puppy toilet training research, I soldiered on.



I asked Mr T to take a picture of the puppy in his shop for my puppy toilet training book.

"You want to become a professor?" he laughed. "Still writing this book for the past 3 years!"

"It is a difficult book to write," I said. "Some research is incomplete." Mr T was the temperamental type, so it was not a straightforward matter of asking him how he advised on toilet training after he sold his puppies. Confine in the playpen or crate, the pet shop operators selling the puppies would say. But Mr T was one of those progressive pet shop operators with hands on experience in breeding and selling puppies for more than 10 years.

So, you would expect that he would not give free advices so easily. And he did not do so for the past 3 years I had known him and took all his jokes and provocative remarks without getting angry.

So, today, I did not expect him to do so. I took some pictures.

"The secret of success is to put the puppy inside the playpen or crate for 2 weeks," Mr T said. "9/10 of my cases were toilet-trained."

"Incredible!" I shook my head. "Most puppy owners have a hard time toilet training and take more than 2 weeks. The reason being that they let the puppy free."

"Suffer for 2 weeks," Mr T said. "Enjoy a life-time with a clean dog that does not mess up and make an apartment smelly."

"No taking out of the confined area," Mr T continued. "Remove the stools from the wire flooring promptly. The puppy would then be attracted to the urine and poop smell. You can use the crate and wire flooring set. Get the puppy to use this set as a toilet by spraying the commercial urine spray onto the pee pan which is covered with newspapers. The the puppy would be attracted to use this set as a toilet area."

"As for the playpen with newspapers, remove the soiled newspapers promptly. Shred the newspapers to provide the flooring in the playpen so that the puppy would not step all over the stools. Reduce the paper area so that the puppy just eliminates on the newspapers."

That was an unexpected excellent advice from Mr T after 3 years of business with him.

Actually he had terminated the business relationship for the past few months as an aggressive layman who operates a veterinary clinic had been successful in securing his business.

It was like meeting an old friend again. Business had been much better. I asked Mr T what he wanted to do in life? Any new ideas or expansion? His uncle had opened a very beautiful puppy shop.

The pet shop girl had taken some time off from her busy grooming to ask me, "Why don't you ask me what I want in life?"

"What do you want in life?"

"A very rich man to marry. Over 80 years old. One foot in the grave. So that I do not have to work anymore and care for my baby daughter full time."

"Really? This is what you want?"

She nodded.

"You will not give conditions like sleeping in separate beds?"

The pet shop girl was silent.

Mr T wrinkled his nose, "He has somebody in mind for you!"

We all wish we do not have to work for money. To do something we enjoy doing. Not for all the money in the world. Where do I find such a very rich old man for the pet shop girl?