25. High quality puppies and work

Written for a boy who wants to be a vet.


Quality is a lot of hard work, team work and knowledge.

It was the 3rd day of Chinese New Year, a Wednesday which was a working day. My assistant James did not come to work. I text messaged my manager Mark at 7 a.m. He had had told James to start work on Wednesday. James had taken advantage by coming back from Malaysia on Wednesday night when he should be present in the morning. Mark did not respond to my text messages.

There was an emergency Caesarean section at 8 a.m. Although the water bag had burst one hour ago and there was no greenish vaginal discharge, it was best not to delay. Any delay might kill the Miniature Schnauzer puppies.

Just a few days ago, another breeder had delayed seeking veterinary help. The delay caused 1 Salt & Pepper and 5 beautiful white Miniature Schnauzer puppies to die (see picture). The dam passed away on the operating table.



Now, this breeder had wanted an elective Caesarean around 12 hours ago, but I asked her to go to another veterinarian. She did not go for the Caesarean but phoned me the next day at 7 a.m.

Wednesday was the 3rd day of the Chinese New Year and many factories are still closed. But it was not a public holiday. James should be back to work. Mark should be contactable by phone. But he re-directed office phone calls to his mobile phone. On reaching his mobile phone, he had a voice mail asking callers to leave him a text message. He did not respond promptly.

Now, there was a problem because Mark and James were absent. I have such a small business unit and there are people problems. I thought of Mrs Formicelli running a global business.

How to solve my problem? Time was of the essence. We could not wait. She could go to another practice or veterinary hospital if she wanted. She decided to learn. To help in the monitoring of the anaesthesia. Just to make sure that the dam was breathing the gas normally.

"In the middle of the night, it is common for the breeder and the veterinarian of small practices to work together in Caesarean sections even in the United Kingdom or the U.S.A," I said.

Small practices provide breeders inexpensive veterinary fees and a veterinarian they know. The advantages of the use of veterinary hospital would be the sufficient manpower but breeders would not want to pay higher fees nor have a choice of veterinarians.

The breeder agreed to participate. I made sure by asking, "Would you faint at the sight and smell of red tissues and placentas?" She said no.

We started. The dam breathed regularly as the anaesthetic bag inflated and deflated rhythmically. 2 big pups were stuck in the birth canal. I took them out. One had yellow meconium (faeces) smeared all over its backside.

It was the same situation as another pup in a Caesarean I had done for this breeder just yesterday morning. When meconium is present, it indicated that the puppy was stressed and Caesarean would be recommended. Pups normally do not poop inside the mother.

Now, the operation was going smoothly. So good. Suddenly, the dam wriggled her head. A gargling sound as if she wanted to vomit. Another similar sound. The breeder looked at the dam, not knowing what to make out of this abnormal behaviour. She did not say anything as she did not know what was happening.

It was likely that the dam was going to vomit. Food and stomach juices would be vomited out and might go into the lungs. There was no standard operating procedures in the text books. Books cannot explain everything or give answers to unexpected emergencies.

There was no time to waste.

"Put the dam's head sideways by untying the strings on her paws," I shouted as I stopped my surgery. I could not help the breeder. Time was of the essence. She put the dog's head that faced skywards to the sideways position.

"Take out the breathing (endotracheal) tube now," I said. She did not know where to place the tube after taking it out.

"Put it on the table," I said. But she dropped it on the floor. We had to focus on the dam.

"Put on a gas mask to continue general anaesthsia," I said. The dam slanted sideways and it would be difficult to operate. However, she was rather stocky and did not slant all way to the side. Her back paws were still tied to the table. Only the front paws were untied.

So many things can happen in anaesthesia. A lack of focus would kill the dam and the pups.

All ended well. The pups were ripe. They cried when I cut the umbilical cord. The black and silver pups were identified by their black ears. The salt and pepper pups had whitish grey hairs in their ears. Would this way of identification of the more valuable black and whites be fool-proof? The breeder said yes.

This breeder produced high quality Miniature Schnauzers in 2007. To the inexperienced Miniature Schnauzer people, the pups are just black ones. But they are real high quality stuff.


Now, how did she do it?

She used top quality breeding parents.

But the whole production process was hard work. and knowing when the dam needed a Caesarean section (close observation and spending time with the dam) and finding a veterinarian who knew about Caesarean deliveries when necessary are equally important.

Otherwise, nothing would be produced. This breeder had 3 years of experience of breeding just Miniature Schnauzers. I remember her start-up partner very well.

Her partner had this niche idea of just marketing high quality Miniature Schnauzers. He was a foreigner. A new pet shop specialising in the sale of Miniature Schnauzers. A first in Singapore. People thought he was a wacko and his pet shop would close down soon.

Like so many of the 200 pet shops in Singapore. Every year, many would start up and many would close. Nowadays, the pet food suppliers refused to give credit to the new shops. When they close, money could not be recovered! Most Singaporeans go for "cheap and good" puppies.

Well, the pet shop operation is in its 3rd year. Only high quality Miniature Schnauzers or nothing are sold nowadays.

Nowadays, I do not source the Miniature Schnauzers for this pet shop although, at the start, I got many for the founder.

I knew that a start up had to survive its high overheads. Breeding top quality Miniature Schnauzers in sufficient numbers take some years. The founder was not keen on accepting some of the puppies.

"You could sell them at lower prices," I advised. "High quality means high prices. And not many Singaporeans can afford them or want to pay for high quality. In any case, you do not have the numbers of puppies to maintain your overheads. Just selling 3 or 4 high quality Miniature Schnauzers can bankrupt you in no time. When you are established, you could focus on only high quality Miniature Schnauzers.

"When prospects come to the pet shop and see you just have the same 3 or 4 Miniature Schnauzers, they don't come anymore or recommend their friends. In a puppy selling business, you need to have sufficient numbers to attract viewers.

The founder accepted my advices of getting outside sources of Miniature Schnauzers. The other breeders knew that he wanted only Schnauzers and raised their selling prices whenever they had better quality ones. Or even low quality ones.

After the name is established, the pet shop does not accept any outside Miniatures Schnauzers. The breeders in general did not have the high quality. So there was no point sourcing from them.

As far as profitability of this pet shop business, I have no comment as I don't know. High quality is a business strategy in a competitive world. If a person can ensure high quality, he or she will usually get the better quality customers. If this high quality is consistent and maintained over the years, money just flows in.

Unfortunately, there will be manpower problems as the operations become bigger and globalised. The founder must be very interested in the overall operations or find a good motivated team to do it.

What has this to do with a boy who wants to be a vet? You always must ensure that you produce high quality work to your professors. Know what is required of you. And what you can do to produce high quality reports.

One example is digital photography. Get on to it. Produce high quality pictures to support your written report for your professors to differentiate you from your classmates who probably do the minimum.

You need more than a good camera to produce high quality pictures. You will need to read up widely and know the techniques of digital photography. To be hands on. It will take lots of hard work and time.

For example, this report is quite boring without a picture. However, a poor quality picture is also not interesting for the reader who loves to read such articles. It takes me many years to get the pictures interesting. Even then, out of 17 pictures I took of the dam and her 5 puppies, only this one was of sufficient quality that could be used.



In assessing my 17 pictures, I was thinking of a Miniature Beret Maker who could not produce a perfect Miniature Beret. Producing a high quality picture may or may not be equivalent to producing a high quality beret.

But both productions had similar problems. I know very little of the Miniature Beret maker's difficulties in producing a high quality beret. But to produce a high quality picture, I share with you what you would need to do:

1. Extensive technical knowledge of digital photography. Read widely every thing but in particular digital photography magazines and books. Attend course. Consult other photographers. In my case, it was reading widely all the hundreds of photo magazines and books from the various branches of the National Library.

2. Hands-on experience. Take a lot of pictures. The Beret Maker must make a lot of berets, but it is much more expensive if he has not much technical knowledge. He is experimenting on the company's money. Many things go wrong during production. In taking pictures, the positioning of the puppies and the dam affected my quality. Puppies nearly fell off the table, not co-operating. I had the good morning lighting at 9 a.m. The sun could be hidden by the clouds, so I had to be fast. A picture without this good sunlight would be dull unlike the one you see here. There are many factors but hands-on experience is very important.

3. Software. Digital photography is much cheaper than in previous years where I spent lots of money developing negatives. Now, it is much cheaper with software. Still you need to know how to use the software to get the picture. It takes at least 20 minutes to produce this picture you see.

4. Report writing. You need to research to be able to produce decent high quality reports for your professor. Content is important. Presentation with high quality pictures make your report worth reading as the professor has so many mediocre reports to read and probably is very weary.

This report also takes 1.5 hours to write. It takes you 1 minute to read. Start thinking high quality and make sure you pass your examinations in this first year. Otherwise, you will be kicked out during the 2nd year when deserving but unfortunate Biomedical undergraduates with excellent first year grades replace you.

24. Biting the hand that feeds you.

"Do you want to put him to sleep?" I asked the gentleman. "Giving a biting dog to other people may not be good-hearted."

But the owner did not want him to be put to sleep despite the fact that his right hand fingers had been bitten at least twice.

"Biting the hand that feeds him," I said. "He may be a risk to other people."



"Maybe, the Jack Russell is angry because I bought the poodle puppy," the man said.

No excuses now. His wife wanted him to get rid of the young male Jack Russell.

See is believing - Corgi has "parvovirus"

This report is written for Kitty and Bernice, 4th year, Murdoch University. Best wishes for your future career as a veterinarian.


Friday January 12, 2007


"No stools," Kitty withdrew the dry white cotton swab from the anus. This slim 4th year Murdoch University undergraduate was seeing veterinary practice for one week.

The Corgi had smelly diarrhoea 2 days after purchase from the pet shop.

"Put the cotton swab deeper into the rectum," I said. She cautiously inserted the cotton swab a bit further into the rectum. The cotton swab was a bit yellowish brown. I wanted her to practise, as that was the purpose of her seeing practice. Could she be afraid that the rectum be perforated by the cotton swab? I put the swab 2 cm into the rectum. The dark yellowish greenish brown swab was taken to be used for the parvoviral faecal test.



The teenaged owner was worried about the Corgi's health and the veterinary costs of treatment. He had phoned me as to whether he should seek treatment for his puppy with diarrhoea? I said I could not decide for him. If the puppy dies, the vet gets the blame. A complaint might be lodged with the veterinary authority and unnecessary explanations would be needed. It is best not to say anything to callers who want phone diagnosis.

Kitty had also taken a stool sample for microscopic examination. "Do you need a few drops of water to loosen the stools?" she said. I told her that I would do the microscopic examination and she would do the parvoviral test with my veterinary assistant Mark, in order not to increase waiting time.

After the test was done, Mark came to the consultation room "Parvovirus positive. 2 purplish red lines."

"Wait for me to check," I was given the Corgi the fluid therapy to prevent dehydration. However, the boy had heard him and must be fully stressed.

The parvovirus is a deadly disease and would kill the puppy. However, this puppy was imported from Australia and had 2 vaccinations. He was older, at 3 months and better protected than 2 months old.

The foul smelly stools are not always a sign of parvoviral infection although many veterinary assistants make instant diagnosis based on the smell. My nose detected that the smell in the consultation room air was not like the typical bloody and decomposing smell of parvovirus. Microscopic examination of the stools did not reveal any blood or worms.

Parvoviral infection was unlikely at this time. But the parvoviral test must be done to aid in the diagnosis of the cause of fever and acute gastroenteritis.

After treatment, I read the test kit slide. Only one deep purple line. There was not even a faint second line in the slide.

"But there were 2 lines," Mark said. I hope Kitty learnt a lesson no veterinary book or lecturer would be able to teach her. Seeing is believing. Repeat the parvoviral test if necessary.

(In the evening, Anna said that the Corgi passed solid stools. The owner had phoned several times. In all cases, no veterinary staff should talk to the owner about the condition of the dog. Singapore is becoming a litigious society. Avoid any misunderstanding by only letting the owner speak to the veterinarian.

22. Cyanosis at the first cut during Caesarean - Chihuahua. Plan B.

This article is written for a boy who will be embarking on a long journey to be a vet.

Intubation --- inserting an endotracheal tube into the chihuahua is the recommended as safest way of delivering anaesthestic gas and oxygen. There is a control of the amount of gas and oxygen compared to a gas mask. During heart failure emergency, oxygen can be delivered quickly through the endotracheal tube.

This is the theory. The 3-year-old Chihuahua came in for an elective Caesarean as she stopped labour contractions despite oxytocin injection being given. It had been 6 hours since 3 pups were born.

The dog was intubated with a 6.0 endotracheal tube. Gas anaethestic at 2% was the normal recommended dosage for "dogs". The tube fitted tightly in the windpipe. The dog was in general anaesthesia.

I felt for the puppies. There were located near the umbilicus. I incised the skin incision. Blood oozed out in dark blue almost black. I looked at her tongue. It was purplish blue. She was breathing.

Veterinary assistant Anna was not saying anything although she was monitoring the anesthesia. She should be warning me, but she had not the experience after graduation. All new veterinary graduates will be in the same shoes.

After all, the dog was breathing and this was the start of the Caesarean.

The surgeon must be aware of the overall condition. Not just focus on surgery. Ideally the surgeon should just do surgery. But in big practices and veterinary schools, this is the practice. Obviously prices of Caesarean would be much higher with more overheads.

In small practices, the veterinarian must be knowledgeable. What to do to prevent death during and after Caesarean.

To gain knowledge, spend time reading and reading. Best is to spend time with a mentor. Most of the time spent seeing practice in general is non productive if you just are not much interested.

In this case, the solution is to disconnect the endotracheal tube from supplying more gas. Quickly. Let the dog breathe in normal air for a minute. Still, the tongue was purplish.

Now, I don't want to dog to wake up. So, there must be a balance of not too much gas or too little. I re-connected the tube to the gas after a minute or two.

The tongue was still purplish. Less deep purple in tone. The gas was reduced to 1 %.

What to do?

Wait. Something is not right. It is hard to tell. This dog had been given oxytocin by the breeder sometime ago. Was it the oxytocin anaesthetic reaction? In many of my normal without-oxytocin Caesareans, no such surprises.

"Maybe the endotracheal tube is too big?" Anna suggested. It was good that she offered suggestions. She is a Filipino veterinary graduate recently graduated.

I was surprised she said that. If the tube was too large in diameter, it would not have got into the trachea (windpipe) and the dog would not now be under general anaesthesia.



I did not think so. As I was a national servicemen, I remember my Plan B. Plan A was not doing smoothly. What is Plan B?

21. 2 cases of puppy survival - Timing is everything

Helen M Stevens' Embroidered Animals

The MasterClass Embroidery Series

Helen M Stevens' Embroidered Animals
A David and Charles Book
First published in the UK in 2005
Text and designs copyright C Helen M Stevens 2005
Photograph and layout copyright C David & Charles 2005

Distributed in North America by F+W Publications, Inc...

Helen M Stevens has asserted her right to be identified as author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

All rights reserved.

CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter One - Fur and Whiskers
Chapter Two - Tooth and Claw
Chapter Three - Met by Moonlight
Chapter Four - Best Friends
Chapter Five - Weird and Wonderful

Materials
Basic Techniques
Stitch Variations
Suppliers
Acknowledgements
Index
Stitches And Techniques

Toilet Training - headings

1. Common practices - let loose in apartment



2. Singapore Practices -
2.1 paper 100% in small cage or room.
2.2 Puppy training aids + Newspapers
2.3 Puppy training pads
2.4 Puppy crate with door and pee tray.
2.5 Pee tray.
2.6 Play pen
2.7 Play pen + Aluminium tray
2.8 Pee pan + floor grille
2.9 Cushion + bed

3. Communications, lack of

3.1 Basic information from puppy seller.
3.2 Different environments - unable to train.
3.3 Whining and barking on first night.
3.4 Young children or aged parents.
3.5 Inconsistent training commands.
3.6 Barking to go to toilet at 3 am.
3.7 Sleeping with the puppy.
3.8 negative reinforcement, shouting, beating.

4. Best time to train - 2-4 months old.


4. Common behaviours
4.1 Nipping at back of legs, hands. Jack Russells.
4.2 Barking back
4.3 Whining
4.4 Food guarding.
4.5 Mounting
4.6 Eating stools
4.7 Flatus
4.8 Swollen stomach

5. Support network or resources in Singapore
5.1 No accredited list
5.2 Word of mouth or internet. Not able to handle the numerous cases.
5.3 Puppy seller's sources

18. Progesterone testing

Poorly timed matings are the main cause of missed litters.

1. Vaginal smears. Cornification of squamous cells.
2. Digital exam of the vaginal vault. Test for ring strictures and other problems.
Examine over 2000 bitches, feel when vagina is ready for the dog. The vault feel slightly calloused, very tiny ridges on the mucosa. Vaginal contractions with proper stimulation.
3. Experienced male stud dog.
4. Progesterone tests makes determining ovulation easy. Bulldog. 90% cases can't breed naturally and require C-sections, use progesterone timing to deterimine the date of ovulation, A.I and C-section 63 days from date of ovulation.More live, healthy Bulldog pups.
Do not accept a bitch to breed to stud without the progesterone test in some big dogs like Bearded Collies and GSD.