A vet is allergic to horses
and chickens
Dr Sing Kong Yuen, BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS
13 September, 2010 |
 toapayohvets.com
Be Kind To Pets
Veterinary Education
Project 2010-0129 |
Saturday Sep 11, 2010,
Singapore
I was surprised to meet an ex-colleague near Centrepoint
Shopping Centre yesterday afternoon. He was graduating while I had just entered
the first year. That
was in 1969. After graduation in 1974 and National Service
full-time, I was assigned to the Veterinary Diagnostic
Laboratory at Kampong Java Road while he was in the Vaccine
Production Unit. Now, the whole area is the Kandang Kerbau
Hospital. As a new vet, I knew nothing about poultry and swine
virology and I learnt much from him.
The striking memory of him was that he was always scratching
his hands and neck daily and many times. Then he would scratch
his back. He was allergic to horses as his nose would be runny
when he was near horses as an undergraduate. How about other
animals? Well, I remembered more vividly the one day when we went to the
poultry farm to collect blood from vaccinated and unvaccinated
chickens. The
chicken blood would be tested for antibodies called HI
(haem-agglutination) titers.
The presence of HI titers and clinical signs of egg production
drop and poor egg quality in non-vaccinated chickens indicated
that this farm had this EDS (Egg Drop Syndrome). Actually this
disease was present for the past few years in Europe but the
Singapore veterinary authorities (known as Primary Production
Department) wanted to confirm its presence in Singapore's
chickens before permitting import.
Obviously a vaccine trial would take a long time and clever
poultry farmers could not wait that long as they needed to
sustain their business and be competitive with eggs and
chickens imported from Malaysia.
However, this particular farm was law-abiding and agreed to a
vaccine trial . So we did the test with half of the few hundreds
of layers in the poultry house not vaccinated and the only
half vaccinated with the commercial EDS vaccine. Breeders and
layers were imported from Europe and the USA at that time and
so would have the similar EDS 76 disease.
The vaccine trial confirmed the efficacy of the vaccine which
was then approved for import into Singapore. This
evidence-based veterinary medicine had cost the farmers much
losses as EDS' 76 was a well known disease for the past 5
years in Europe. Yet the authorities had this ruling requiring
the confirmation of the presence of this "new" disease in
Singapore before permitting import of the vaccine which had
been found to be effective and efficacious. I think the trial
was done around 1980 and brought veterinary medicine and
virology alive to a young vet. I was 30 years old then.
Time had flown by. But I met him. He had
once thanked me for saving his life some years ago. How did I do it? It was a
fine morning at a chicken farm in Jalan Lekar and I was a
greenhorn in poultry virology and vaccine trials. Glasgow
University did not lecture much about poultry in those days
and in any cases, real poultry diseases like Marek's Diseases,
Newcastle Disease, Infectious Bronchitis were best seen in
real farms.
My senior vet inserted the needles into the chicken's wings
and collected the blood in the blood collection tubes. The
farmer's young daughter held the chicken while I assisted him
by recording. We needed many chicken blood to get
statistically significant results. I noticed that this vet
started to have runny noses. After some time, he had
difficulty breathing and his back hunched. He persevered in
collecting blood. His eyes teared and reddened. He wiped off
his runny nose. This was a shock to a young vet like me.
I had never encountered such a situation but I knew he was
allergic to the chicken feathers and atmosphere as he was OK
when he drove me to the farm. I had no car and he drove. "Stop
blood collection, stop blood collection" I said to my senior.
"Let's go back to the Vet Lab!". He had forgotten to bring his
nebuliser on that day he told me later and thanked me for
saving his life.
On this Saturday September 11, 2010, the sunshine was bright,
the skies were blue. I am glad to see him much alive and very
well. "I hear you have retired," he said. "No, no," I replied.
"Dr Vanessa Lin had joined my practice on Sep 3 this year and we work
together." I said. I am 60 years old and am not retiring
from practice. However it would be good for my clients to have
vets available when they walk in. Veterinary practice is
tiring if one has a heavy caseload and will no longer be fun.
As for me, the caseload is ideal and it is fun doing cases.
My senior was no more scratching while he talked to me. His
hands were no longer itchy and the skin looked normal. I have
another friend whom I known for at least 20 years and he was
scratching his hands all the time. This friend took drugs and
was OK for some time. Then the skin flakes and swellings would
come. The drugs were costly and he was poor. So I asked his
advice to help this poor man.
 "There is no cure for psoriasis. I don't have
psoriasis," he corrected me. "It was dry skin and the reason I
scratched a lot was because I did not apply sufficient amount
of
the
aqueous cream BP during my younger day."
The following is the
excellent knowledge he imparted to me and which I hope
will be of use to vets who suffer from dry skin in the whole
body and wanted to know how others resolved or controlled
their problems.
1. Aqueous cream BP must be applied to all the affected area
daily, without fail. There are many types of aqueous cream
which is a mixture of oil, water, emulsifier + a little
preservative. If the person is allergic to preservative, then
use ones without preservative.
2. Avoid aqueous cream with fragrance or preservative if
possible.
3. In countries with low relative humidity, apply the cream
more than 3 times. In Singapore, one time may be sufficient.
4. Sweat out at the club so that the skin pores open. A sauna
bath perhaps?
5. Sources: Pharmacy. The cheapest source is a pharmacy in Johor Bahru at
Jenski in Taman Sentosa. A big jar costs $18.00 in Malaysia.
If you use large amounts, Singapore's pharmacies are
out-priced.
6. Alternative. The safest is Vaseline which is
petroleum jelly. But it is sticky in Singapore.
Conclusion: The aqueous cream is for "dry skin". That
includes "dandruff" in the scalp which appears every 2 to 3
days despite anti-dandruff shampoos.
I know the water massage spa machine used daily as a 10-minute
bath might be an easier solution for this vet. The heat of the
water opens the skin pores and the water currents massage the
whole body removing all dead skin scales and stimulating the
blood circulation. Do it every day for 10-15 minutes 6
days a week. This home spa de-stress at the same time. No
aqueous cream application. No anti-dandruff shampoos. No
Vaseline. No steroids in mild cases. The person must not be
stressed too much.
I did not mention this to him as he seems to be doing OK with
his aqueous cream routine and I don't have evidence-based
medicine to convince him to give it a trial! I also don't want
him to think I am trying to sell him a home spa machine and I
am not into this business anyway. People are comfortable with
what's working and usually are inert and do not want to try
something new. So I was circumspect.
I record this meeting for a young veterinary undergraduate
whom I know is allergic to horses and is care-free about
asthmatic attacks by not carrying any preventive nebuliser. You may
suffer from dry skin itchiness as part of the syndrome later
in life if you don't bother when you are young to control your
asthma.
Always carry a nebuliser all the time if you want to
live past 60 years of age as your immune system reacts
violently and fatally to allergens in the atmosphere over the
years. They may cause the skin to dry and scale extensively in time to come. As I am not a
dermatologist, I don't have evidence-based cases in people.
However, sometimes it is common sense
to prevent diseases by reducing stresses so as to live a healthy life to old age. |
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