Most Singapore
owners trust their vets. However, it is always good practice to show
the guinea pig the fur mites seen under
a microscope. In this guinea pig, the couple was glad to see the
real mites moving under the microscope. I have sketched some of them
as in the image (right). I got the guinea pig clipped short and
bathed to get rid of all the fur mites. The home nest must also be
decontaminated. No complaints after that. It is good practice to
illustrate the mites in the medical record too. Chirodiscoides
caviae fur mites seldom do damage to the guinea pig and they appear
as black spots in the hair. Some do cause itchiness. Some Singapore
cats do have a different type of fur mites. I seldom see them on
Singapore dogs and puppies.
Nowadays, there are microscopes attached to a monitor and these are
more convenient and impressive. But this equipment will cause more
money. Maintenance costs of gadgets and damages to equipment
are sometimes overlooked but these costs affect the bottom line.
I cannot understand why some employees and associate vets or staff
seem to break the surgical equipment. I had to replace my dental
machine and an electro-surgical handle. My new Shoreline stainless
steel operating table from the US costing around $7,000 gets many
scratches and stains on its surface. Littman's stethoscopes become
malfunctioned. Ophthalmoscopes lose their lens cover. A digital
clock to monitor anaesthetic times was broken recently.
It is good to have many gadgets to impress the owners, but at the
end of the month, the Surgery needs to cover its overheads which
keep rising owing to government policies and inflation. For example,
every medical, surgical item and vaccine to be imported into
Singapore needs a permit from the government. Each permit to import
may cost $1,000 and the costs get passed down to the vets or
consumers or not get imported at all. In the end, only a few
companies will carry the stock, knocking off the smaller
entrepreneurs who can't afford to pay for the import fees. So, costs
keep rising every year as the bureaucrats think of more ways to
impose and increase regulatory fees.
Unfortunately, most vet schools don't teach students the economics
of practice and so when they graduate, the new employee vets order
various drugs, sutures and stocks duplicating what are present in
the practice and not being aware that a practice has to survive the
harsh climate of competition and high salaries and overheads.
Toa
Payoh Vets