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Tips for the new asiahomes realtor

Is Money Everything? 

"Doc, he's thirty years old," Mr McCarmack, a tall and lean riding instructor of over forty years of age, very fit and energetic horseman who left home to work in Singapore said. "His resistance may not be as good as a young horse." 

I had told him that the stable manager had not requested treatment of the club horse after a consultation by phone. He diagnosed maggot wounds in the prepuce and penis of the horse. I asked him to use warm water and wash the wounds and if there were problems, I would check on the horse, tranquilise it and take out the maggots from the penis. 

Sometime ago, there was a horse suffering from maggot wounds in the penis. It needed tranquilisers and a 2-hour job in extraction of the maggots. This cost more as more time is spent on treatment.

The poor stable hand would be the one to blame.  There is always a need for scapegoat in the horse stables whenever there are maggot wounds.

Phone consultations are free although they can lead to an incorrect diagnosis. 

"His preputial sheath is so large, he must be in pain," Mr McCarmack wrinkled his forehead and wiped off the sweat of a 45-minute morning trot of his horse. How big is big? Mr McCarmack clasped both his hands up against the glaring 11 am equatorial sunlight and said, "Much much bigger than this."

That would be serious. I told the Scotsman that I had not seen the bay gelding as the stable manager had not asked me to.  The manager was into severe cost cutting, like all Singapore corporations in the worst recession after the Enron share scandal and the September 11 terrorist attack on the twin towers of New York. 

That included my veterinary fees. He was doing an excellent job trying to see how much any service provider like the veterinarian was able to be bled.  

I had just told him I had to leave as a freelance veterinarian as I could not slash my professional fees any further without compromising the quality and standard of treatment of the beautiful athletes. 

He was good at stable management and had an average of one club horse sick per month. It was not as if I treat a thousand horses a month. There were no economies of scale to slash fees and horse drugs are expensive.

Mr McCarmack could not say more as he was not the paymaster. "Would you be kind enough to check out Flying Wheel, please?" he asked me. 

The stablehand had washed the prepuce. There was a large irregular shaped wound of 4 cm in diameter at the opening of the prepuce (foreskin). He had used Negasunt powder to prevent more flies attacking the wound.  There were no maggots he said and I believed him. The stable hands love horses and are honest about their medical conditions.  

How did the prepuce swell so big? There would be one out of hundred horses with a swollen prepuce but it would be normal and not hundred times larger and bleeding. The gelding must be biting the itchy wound too.

Should I ask the stable manager for permission to treat this horse? Is money everything? 

The poor horse was suffering from inflammation and slight pain as I examined the raw wound.  I gave it the antibiotic and anti-inflammatory injection. "I feel so relieved now that the horse had been treated," Mr McCormack told me as he was about to cycle home. Singapore is so expensive that many expatriates and most locals cannot afford a car and Mr McCormack must have made some sacrifices coming here to work. "Be careful," I said to him as Singapore does not have safe roads for cyclists. 

Three days later when I visited the stable to treat another horse, a young Finnish rider informed me that Flying Wheel had a large prepuce. He was also concerned. I told him that the gelding had been treated and that the swelling had dropped by ten percent. 

With so many horse lovers and many attentive stable hands to be his eyes, it was no wonder that the riding club had so few cases for the veterinarian and that the stable manager was able to decrease veterinary expenses which were actually an insignificant expense cost of maintaining a riding club.

Most likely an insect sting by biting flies at the prepuce, causing swelling and itchiness.	Swelling & blood streaks seen at preputial opening. A big wound was seen. There was NO blood passed in the urine.
Normal prepuce of horse	Swelling reduced after anti-inflammatory & antibioitic injections

Sometimes, insects or biting flies may cause irritation at the preputial opening and the horse feels itchy. It bites the prepuce leading to wounds and swelling. Maggots may grow if flies manage to deposit eggs on the wounds. The stablehand is often blamed for not doing a good job!   It is important that you include the equine prepuce in your daily washing and cleaning. In such cases, there will be no blood being passed in the urine.

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