I Can Swallow Whatever I Want 3 : The Durian Season.

Hi folks, it's durian season again. A lot of you must be avid durian lover. Same as this dog here. He just loooove durian. He's an English Cocker Spaniel and lives with a durian crazy family. But, unfortunately it wasn't a pretty experience the last time he swallowed a durian with its seed, that's without the owner's knowledge . It happened last week. The clinical signs? Vomit, vomit and vomit whatever he took in. Otherwise, the dog looked healthy.

We did an ultrasound scanning to diagnose the problem. And, sure enough the durian seed was there, inside the small intestine.

So, we decided to carry out surgery to take out the durian seed. Mind you that we do not perform surgery in every durian swallowing case. In some cases, the dog actually vomitted out the seed after several days.

This was the small intestine where the seed got stucked in.

We put so called "stay sutures" at both ends of the intestine where the seed was for easier manipulation during surgery. The instestine was later cut to release the seed.

The seed was removed and later the intestine was sutured back by using absorbable suture. The intestine is full of actively dividing cells. It will heal very fast in fact in just 2 to 3 days time. Usually, we will use fast absorbing sutures to close the wound.

And, finally the durian seed was removed. It was about 4.5cm in length.

By the way, readers are welcome to make any comments or maybe share your cases. Thanks.

I Can Swallow Whatever I Want 2

Hi folks! It's swallowing act again. But this time, it's a stapler wire!

This time, it's really hard to find such a tiny object in such a long intestine! We had to thoroughly search the entire intestine (small & large) to finally managed to find it.

Taking the stapler wire out was not a problem at all. Most of the time wasted was due to the search.













There's another case where a poodle swallowed a .....ehem.....condom which I didn't got the chance to take any photos because unluckily I forgot to bring my camera on that special day. Apparently, the owner did not throw the condom "properly" after use and the dog, I guess found it on the floor. Hmmm....I wonder what flavour it was that tempting the dog to swallow it.


I'll post more interesting swallowing act next time. Do come back for more. Thanks.

By the way, please throw used condom properly in case you have a garbage eater in your house, hihi.

I Can Swallow Whatever I Want!

My oh my! If you think that only magicians can perform knife swallowing tricks, wait until you see this. It's rather amazing what dogs can do with their curiosity. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a "Neeeeeedle swallowing Pekingese"!

A pekingese was brought to us by a lovely couple a few weeks back. The lady owner did not actually see the dog swallowed the needle precisely. She got to know about it when one of her needles went missing after she left it on the sofa. As you can see from the x-rays above and below, the needle was right inside the stomach. And, it all happened 2 days before her wedding day!

We have no choice but to operate on the dog to remove the needle failing which might cause more harm to the dog. We were very concern about the needle going through the stomach wall and causing more injuries to other internal organs such as the liver and kidney. If it does "travels", then, it might be harder for us to find it. We have to do it and do it quickly.

The surgery was quite straight forward. We were surprised to find out that a thread was attached to the needle.

The needle was about 4cm long! Hmmm... how did a dog with a small mouth swallowed such a long needle, with a thread somemore?

Bad bad doggy!

The Year of the Tiger

I wish everyone a wonderful & prosperous year of the Tiger. Sorry for not being able to post new stuff here for so long. In the new year, I'll try my best to post up interesting stuff for you. Thanks.

Veneral Tumor in Dogs?

One interesting nature about dogs is that unlike human, they do not simply mate to serve their "needs". The female only allows the male to breed twice a year during heats. And, because of this, they rarely get diseases transmitted through copulation. One exception is the Transmissible Venereal Tumor or TVT. The word venereal itself described the mode of transmission of this disease, but in actual case, the disease can be transmitted through contact as some dogs might have the tumor growing on the nose (transmitted when they lick the tumor affected parts).

TVT was first described by Russian vet M.A. Novinsky (1841–1914) in 1876 when he successfully demonstrated that the tumor could be transmitted from one dog to another by infecting them with the tumor cells. In fact, it is very easy to be transmitted.

In our practice, we have successfully treated dogs (male & female) with TVT. Chemotherapy is very effective against TVT. Some people might use radiation or surgery but chances are the tumor will grows back again.

Very easy to spot the tumor which grows outward from the vagina. Most of the time, the owner will first complaint of bleeding from the hind. I have taken photos from the male dog's but forgot where did I saved them. Anyway, in males, the tumor will grow on the penis and the inner part of the prepuce. You have to actually pull the prepuce back to reveal the cauliflower like tumor in the inner penis. Normally, there will be blood dripping from the prepucial opening and owner may misunderstood this as blood in the urine.

The treatment is very simple, safe and effective if done correctly. Any chemotherapy drug is very dangerous and must be handled by trained veterinarian. In fact, some of them can cause your skin to slough if in contact with your skin. The photo above showed the same dog after the first chemotherapy. The tumor started to shrink just after one treatment but it's not enough to initiate only one treatment. It has to be a series of treatment depending on what drugs to be used.

There you have it! Complete recovery of the dog from the tumor after the third chemotherapy. Actually, this dog was given four chemotherapy session in order to complete the series of chemotherapy treatment designed for her.

In the male dogs, the tumor almost always occurs in the inner part of the penis. It can easily be seen once you pull the prepuce back until the end of the penis. The structure is something like a cauliflower usually with some bleeding. The most obvious sign to look for in a male dog with TVT is dripping of blood from the preputial opening.

A Cat With A Heart, Indeed!

Have you seen a cat with its heart outside the body?!! Well, tada..... here it is. First time in the blogsphere. You can't find this anywhere else, exclusively here only. What's the chance of getting a heart shape on your skin? I can't even imagine the probability.