Asiahomes Internet educational stories for pet lovers, sponsored by  AsiaHomes Internet  

The Rottweiler suffers in silence

Mr Chan's rottweiler was not so active for the past month and had been lying down most of the time. He would just lie down on his right side the whole day as if he had a stroke and was paralysed. Yet he could get up and walk if he was pushed to do so.

He was old and fat and had some liver malfunction and high cholesterol level according to blood tests taken. 

What was the cause of his recumbency? Being aged and hence less active. Or was the reason more obvious?

He had a large growth below his foot and he must have felt the pain. He tried to get rid of this growth by he would lick continuously to get rid of the pain. The ulcer in the growth was extensive, around one cm in diameter and raw. It must be painful. If only dogs could talk.

Mr Chan decided to get the 3 cm x 3 cm lump removed at his house. I had told him earlier that the lump could be removed by surgery instead of using anti-fly powder. It was inexpensive to use the powder, but it was not effective?  

I was not too keen to do a surgery on a dangerous dog in a house. Thick neck, big jaws to tear a vet apart.  At the surgery, it was so much easier, but Mr Chan wanted a house call.
 
"Can't you use local anaesthetic on his foot and remove his lump?" Mr Chan asked when I explained that his dog might die under the tranquiliser.  Heart failure could happen and that was the end of his beloved pet.

In the horse, vets do use local anaethestic for some foot problem. The act of pricking the skin of the foot would cause the dog to bite as it would be painful till the local anaesthetic took effect.

I preferred the tranquiliser given into the muscle.  "Can my dog take it?" Mr Chan asked. "I don't want him to die after the injection."

I could not guarantee that there would be no adverse reaction or death. Fat dogs are not good anaesthetic risks. He had liver malfunction and that enhanced the risks.  

Should the dog be left alone to suffer for the rest of his natural life? If he does not walk much, his blood circulation would be slow and he would get clots in his blood vessels. 

I could not recommend any decision. The probability of dying from the tranquiliser is not high but it is not low.

"Mr Chan, it would cost you two hundred dollars as a package" I said.

Mr Chan balked. Two hundred dollars sounded a lot for an operation. But this included a house call, tranquiliser and medication and exposure to a dangerous dog. However, he could afford the fees but would he consider this expenditure worthwhile for his guard dog?  

I said: "I prefer to operate in the operating room where the dog would be put on an operating table and given gas anaesthesia. In your house, I would have to squat down to operate and there would be dusts from the breezes contaminating the wound. In any case, I charge two hundred and fifty dollars for such an operation at the surgery and for your case, the fee included the house call."

In this recession caused by the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) coronavirus and the Iraqi war, prospective customers press for the lowest cost of health care without realising that there would be a compromise in the standards of care if the costs offered were way below the market rate.

"You could shop around for quotations," I advised Mr Chan. He had decided that I should operate. I went to his house on this hot sunny afternoon.  The Rottweiler looked menacing and it was like walking into a wolf's den. However, he would just lie on his right side and slurp the water from the wet tiles. As if he was paralysed. What kind of guard dog was he? He should be retired to pasture if he was a horse.

The tranquiliser was sufficient to knock him out but he knew what was going on.   The ulcerated area had extended much more since the last time I saw him for his swollen right fore limb. On the surface, it looked inoperable. However, there was a very short stalk and I used the curved blades of the surgical scissors to clip off the lump at the junction with the normal skin.

Simple surgery. Fast and neat. If only all surgeries were like this. Red blood flowed profusely from the wound.

Would the dog die from haemorrhage? There was no space to stitch the incision of around 0.8 cm. I applied antibiotic powder and bandaged the foot to stop the bleeding. The bandage would be removed in 7 days. 

Mr Chan was satisfied when he saw the piece of white tissue. 
"By the way," he said. "There is a small lump above the foot. Please cut it off. It used to be a large lump."

Fortunately, the Rottweiler was still tranquiliser. It was easy to snip off the lump and bandage up the area too.

"I would like you to see my cat," Mr Chan said. "It had a lip tumour and the vet said not to expose it to the sunlight. However, there's nothing on its lip now."

It would be a quick look, I guessed. We trooped down to the basement of the house. The cat was nowhere to be found. Mr Chan's maid spied it hiding under some chair and took it out. Before I could say "Hello," it sprinted off, up the stairs and probably ran out of the house.

Mr Chan was unhappy as this was his favourite cat, but what could we do. The cat sensed that the animal doctor was going to inject it, I guessed and fled. I hoped it had run up to the third storey and not be lost. 

It is hard to make house calls to treat animals as they are so unpredictable in behaviour but house calls do foster a closer relationship between the veterinarian and his clientele.        
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