455. 1) She pees blood anywhere after coming back from the boarding kennel. 2) The USSR.

Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore

Monday Jul 2, 2007

Post-boarding infection in the bladder or a stone in the bladder or both?
A couple in their early thirties brought their one-year-old female Miniature Schnauzer that had passed blood in the urine by riding a scooter to the veterinary surgery on this sunny afternoon.

"The Schnauzer just squatted and took a long time to urinate," the wife said. "She had been boarded 2 weeks ago with her daughter and came home with this problem."

This case reminded me of Lynda's spayed Miniature Schnauzer who had a recurrent problem of passing blood in the urine during the fundraising for NANAS at a school in Jun 2007. Lynda's female dog was older, spayed and more plump. I did an examination at the school but could not feel any stone in the bladder.

This dog had a normal temperature of 38.1C and passed reddish urine in a large amount on the surgery floor. I could feel a hard lump of around 2 cm in diameter in her bladder.

"You feed dry dog food and your dog seldom drink water?" I asked the couple.

"Dry food is cleaner as her whiskers get dirtied by canned food," the wife said. "We have 3 dogs, so we don't know how much water this female drank. However, she did not have trouble passing urine before boarding."

"Could her daughter in the same kennel injure her during boarding?" I asked.

"No, she is bigger and usually jumps on her daughter" the wife said.

Two weeks of blood in the urine. Dysuria --- difficulty in passing urine. A mass in the bladder.

"I am quite sure she has a bladder stone. You will need an X-ray to confirm." I said. "In the meantime, antibiotics for 18 days and if the blood in the urine comes back, you will have to spend money for surgery."

As the couple did not say much about X-raying, I did not persist. The dog was put inside a red carrier bag. The wife clipped the dog's collar to the inside of the bag and held the dog close to her as she pillon rode.

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The USSR

This was one rare moment I could find out how primary school students are motivated to read under the Singapore education system in 2007. Was there any new ideas under the teach less, learn more project?

"How do primary school teachers motivate the child to read?" I asked the couple who teaches English, Science and Physical Education in different neighbourhood primary school. I wanted to know if there is any new ideas applicable to toilet training the puppy besides the stars and sweets for motivating primary 1-4 students to perform well.

"There is the USSR system," the husband with tatooed forearms said. "Uninterrupted Silent Sustained Reading" during the assembly time at 7 a.m. The child brings out a book to read for around 30 minutes."

"Is this a new concept to promote reading?" I asked. I never had this USSR in the 1960s as a primary school student.

"No," the husband said. "I had this during my time." I guessed it was during the 1970s.

"How effective is the USSR? Do you mean there is a wide variety of books for the primary school student to read every morning?" I doubted neighbourhood schools have such a large number of books.

"Some children read their text books silently," the husband said, "Reading is not a priority for the lower income group in neighbourhood schools."

This is such a sad situation for poorer children. Reading improves vocabulary for the children. A strong vocabulary leads to a better performance of mathematics problem-solving situations in primary six or later. There is no national concerted effort to promote effective and fun reading for the young ones.