|
Toa Payoh Vets Clinical
Research
Making veterinary surgery alive
to a veterinary student studying in Australia
using real case studies and pictures |
|
Milk production is
not an
indicator of imminent birth?
Dr Sing Kong Yuen,
BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS
First written: Nov 18, 2009. |
Most little girls don't talk much
to the vet. What is there to talk
about? But this little slim girl
with porcelain fair complexion of
a Caucasian and black eyes in an
attractive oval-shaped fair was
only 4 years old. She would
chatter to me forever as I
vaccinated her puppy.
"I can't stop her talking," Mum
said. "You are fortunate to have
such a daughter as 99% of the
children are not so advanced in
their social behaviour!" I
congratulated the apparently
stress-out and hectic Singapore
Chinese parents.
"How many teeth do you have?" I
asked the little girl. She thought
but could not answer as she had
correctly told me she was four
years old. "She can count up to 20
in English but not to that number
in Mandarin," the mother
intervened.
"How many teeth do you have?" I
teased the little girl again to
see how she would respond. "Many
teeth," she put her right hand on
her forehead as if she was
thinking hard as to how to reply
to this stranger. That was
excellent answer. I mean,
adults will also not know the
answer and you can't expect her to
count her teeth deep inside the
mouth.
"Our children grow up so fast," I
said to the lucky parents of a
child who has mentally developed
well beyond her age. A child
prodigy whose talents the parents
had not discovered. "When children
are 20 years old, they don't talk
much to the parents. As
parents, we hope we have had
brought them up well even if they
don't talk to us much."
One aspect of training which I
think is important is teaching the
child to be frugal and save up for
a rainy day. Honest money is hard
earned but how many of the
children in Singapore knows this.
Take Singapore undergraduates in
Perth for example. How many of
them will sacrifice their spare
time to earn some money being a
waiter or give tuition? To work
their way through university? To
be able to relate well to
prospective clients who want
tuition for their children.
Do Caucasian parents in Australia
bother to get tutors for their
children in the first place? I was
under the impression that they
don't want to stress their
children. "Be Happy, Don't Worry,"
is an Australian saying that
seemed to have ingrained into my
mind. After all, unemployed gets
welfare and could surf all day at
Bondi Beach and Australia is
endowed with minerals.
So, it was a surprise to me to
know that a Singaporean
undergraduate was giving tuition
to a Caucasian family during my
visit to Perth's Murdoch
University in October 2009. I got
to meet this family as the father
of the boy being tutored wanted a
vet to
 check
on his pregnant Golden Retriever.
He came over to where I stayed
with the tuition teacher to invite
me to see his dog. It was the same
dog I had photographed at the park
yesterday! This white Golden
Retriever had spotted me at the
same time as I zoomed my lens to
take a picture of dogs socialising
in the park in Australia. This was
a good picture as the evening sun
was present and the timing was
just right as the Miniature
Schnauzer came over to befriend
the two Golden Retrievers while
the two lady owners had a brief
chat.
The female dog was obviously
pregnant as she had a big swollen
belly. I checked the dog as she
laid down on the floor. I pressed
the dog's nipple to check whether
milk had been produced. This was
her 2nd pregnancy. Copious
production of white milk oozed out
from her nipples. "With so much
milk, birth should be in the next
2 days," I thought. I checked for
vaginal discharge but there was
none.
"When was the mating seen?" I
asked. Its date was marked with a
"X" on the calendar on the wall of
this beautiful house with a
swimming pool and big floor tiles.
Most Australians would carpet the
floors but this gentleman used
large cream-coloured floor tiles
of 3 feet x 3 feet. "Floor tiles
are practical and easy to clean
when one has big dogs," the man
said to me when I expressed
surprise that carpet was not used
for the living and dining area.
"Based on the date of observed
mating in your calendar, the dog
is 56 days pregnant," I said.
"Pups should be due soon," I based
on milk production as a sign of
imminent birth. But I was
mistaken. The pups were not born
till another 7-10 days later.
"Can the male do it?" I asked. The
male Golden Retriever was only 1
year old. He was slim and trim and
was waiting nearby, being wary of
a stranger examining his mate.
Large breeds are said to mature
slower than small breeds and to be
fully grown at 1.5 years of age.
Some dog book authors even state
that large breeds are not sexually
mature till they are 1.5 years
old!
"Yes, he can do it!" the
Australian man smiled while his
wife poured me a cup of tea. "We
saw him doing it."
It is part of the pleasure of
travel to know a bit of the locals
and their culture but it is not
possible in tourist travel
packages.
While the tuition teacher worked,
I had a good chat with the
Australian man who had a beautiful
photograph of Kimberley mines.
"I had visited Singapore some 10
 years
back," I remembered the man saying
that it was his honeymoon. "My
tour guide pointed to the
University and told us it has the
highest suicide rate." I was
surprised to hear this.
I did not ask what he thought of
this 23-year-old Singaporean
undergraduate who earned some
money presumed to defray his
living expenses as I knew he had
no need to work at all. I had The
Australian man said of him as I
said my farewell, "XXX is a good
boy." That parting comment was
brief but testified much about
this young adult tuition teacher's
upbringing and maturity. His
mum was a lucky parent. She would
have been proud of him if I had
told her about this compliment.
Love Is A Butterfly |
|
 Toa Payoh Vets
Clinical
Research |
|
|
Copyright ©
Asiahomes Internet
All rights reserved. Revised: November 23, 2009
Toa
Payoh Vets
| |
