| 1218Singapore
Spitz mouth ulcer, duck bone penetration and joints, pet health and welfare
educational for animal lovers, excerpts from The Glamorous Vets,
Singapore, sponsored by AsiaHomes Internet.
Last Updated: 30 December, 2001 The Spitz has hot lips.  "I have got Hot Lips with me," said Groomer Ken.
For younger readers, "Hot Lips" was the name given to a nurse by her
colleagues in the M.A.S.H television series depicting the life of the American medical
unit in the South Korean war period.By "hot lips", I imagine women with big prominent lips. Lips that forces your attention. Dogs don't have lips. Or do they? How can dogs get hot lips, you would ask? So I wondered too as Groomer Ken transported the ten-year-old slim and trim Spitz into the Surgery together with its owner. I focused my eyes on the lips, naturally. The Spitz did have a bigger right-sided lip. "Does he bite?" I asked the Owner. "No," he said. I gently lifted up the swollen lip. There was a big area of dark brown and yellow necrotic ulcer below, around 2 cm in diameter and quite deep. 
"Some foreign body must have penetrated into this buccal mucous membrane causing a
traumatic ulcer," I said. "You may as well speak Greek," Mr Soong, the Owner said. "I don't know what you are talking about." "Your factory worker might have fed the Spitz chicken bones" I asked. "The bone pieces may have pierced into his inside of the mouth and cause a big hole, called mouth ulcer. This ulcer may contain fragments of the bone and is now infected by germs." "Yes," Mr Soong said with equanimity. "The dog loves duck bones best and has been eating bones for the past ten years without any problem." He did not admit to giving bones to his dog and neither was the question pursued further. "I will need to put the dog under tranquiliser in order to check and remove any bone pieces," I said. Mr Soong gave consent. The tranquilised Spitz twitched its muzzle, showing off warning signs of its intention to bite as I lifted its lip to check the ulcer. Most likely, I would have been bitten if I had not used the tranquiliser. The ulcer needed to be scraped to remove the rotting tissues and the bone pieces. It would be painful. The dog was not happy. Therefore, I put it under gas anaesthesia, using a bigger face mask. It was free of pain under the gas anaesthesia. The ulcer was debrided, clearing all dead tissues and any foreign bodies inside it. I was surprised that the factory owner had decided to send the old dog for treatment. Most factory dogs are fed as they wander around the industrial park but are left to fend for themselves when they are sick. Occasionally a kind person or a group of factory workers will send it for veterinary treatment. Pet transportation and veterinary fees cost money. "Somebody offered $300 for this dog but I will not sell it," said Mr Soong. I could not believe it. $300 for a ten-year-old dog? "It is a very gentle dog," said Mr Soong. "It is a very alert guard dog." The Spitz may not have a face that launch a thousand ships but it certainly has lots of love from the factory owner. |