122401Singapore scenes, animals and lifestyle e-cards from Asiahomes Internet

0127Singapore racehorse with swollen hind limb, pet health and welfare educational for animal lovers, excerpts from The Glamorous Vets, Singapore, sponsored by AsiaHomes Internet.

The filly has an elephant leg.

"The bloody vet who had treated the horse on Sunday was incompetent. You have got to come today as the horse is in great pain and the left hind leg is very smelly! My horse could not stand properly and the hoof if the left hind limb was pointed at right angles to the ground all the time." Mr Choo shouted into his mobile phone.

Four days ago, the racehorse won a race. The stable hand had said the horse did not return back to the stable lame after racing. On the next day, a Sunday morning, the left hind limb was swollen. One injection IV was given by the first vet. On Tuesday morning, the first vet gave 2 tins of antibiotic powder to the stable hand with instructions to give twice two and a half teaspoonful of powder in the feed twice a day.

Now, it was Wednesday. I was busy with other operations. The horse had been treated and swollen fetlock joints would be common after racing. But smelly legs are uncommon.

A smelly leg might be a case of gangrene. It was definitely serious and needed prompt attention and the owner would wait for me in the evening.

Mr Choo could not wait till Thursday. The filly had an "elephant leg". I gave two injections at 9 p.m to reduce the swelling and to kill any bacteria present in the leg tissues.

The owner was told to check the horse the next day as she might need another injection. The horse should be put out to the paddock so that she could exercise but she should not be forced to walk or taken to a distant paddock.

On Thursday morning, the stable hand was surprised that the horse could walk when put to the pasture as he was distressed that the horse was suffering. He had washed off the two skin wounds at the hock and fetlock area as these had become infected badly. These two areas were the "smelly" areas.

That day, the owner phoned at 4 p.m to say that the horse's swollen leg was reduced considerably. The leg had become less swollen by at least fifty percentage. Everybody was happy. "You should not bad mouth the first vet," I said to Mr Choo who now happier. "You could be sued for slander." Mr Choo always spoke his mind and had never encountered any slander suits, so he still went about complaining about people he did not like.

On Friday, at 1 p.m, I gave the filly another two injections to reduce the swelling further and to prevent bacterial infections inside the swollen tissues.

On Saturday at 1 p.m, I reviewed the case. She was eating like a horse. The leg did not bother her. The stable hand had applied medication to the wounds at the cannon skin area, probably due to the horse biting to relieve herself of the pain.

She had a habit of wanting to bite other horses passing by and to kick the stable wall many times. Could the kicking cause this large swelling of the left hind limb? Or was it due to racing? Only the horse would know.

"Why were you not allowed into the stables?" I asked Mr Choo, a man who had the habit of speaking swear words in the Hokkien dialect in almost every sentence he uttered. Swearing was part of his background which included T-shirts, shorts and slippers during his visit to the racing club.

Mr Choo said, "I was not allowed into the premises to see my horse for the next six months, as the Stipendiary Stewards disqualified me after the Subordinate Courts found me guilty of illegal betting. The Stipe said that I was guilty of misconduct and read to me the charge that I was acting in a manner which is or may be prejudicial to the integrity, proper conduct or good reputation of horse racing."

"What did the Subordinate Court judge do to you?" I asked.

Mr Choo said without hesitation. "I had pleaded guilty in the Subordinate Courts to betting with a bookmaker at a betting centre. I was fined $3,000. My lawyer said that the Betting Act would have given me a maximum penalty of a $5,000 fine, or six months' jail or both."

Once Mr Choo was punished at the Court, he received another punishment from the Club. It did not seem fair. Singapore did not have legal bookmakers unlike the situation in Australia and Britain. I guessed Mr Choo must have gone with the illegal ones as they offered credit terms and better returns on betting. Would he appeal? He did not comment.

The six-month ban meant that the racehorse owner would be barred from entering the racing club and its affiliated clubs during the suspension period. He had to ask his friend to check out the horse for him. Fortunately, he did not abandon his horse.

All veterinarians are under the spotlight of cursing if they don't effect a cure. The owner was telling anyone who would listen that the first vet for not doing a good job. I doubted any vet could do anything to stop the massive bleeding after a serious traumatic injury to the upper part of the leg. The bleeding was high up above the hock and could not be controlled.

The bleeding would have caused the leg to become swollen to the maximum limit as the skin got stretched. The belief that the horse should be walked more to reduce the swelling would aggravate the injury. The filly could not stand the pain and the irritation of this swelling and must have nibbled at the skin to relieve herself of the pain.

No injection would stop the bleeding in the first day. The skin limited the bleeding but then, the whole hind leg became grossly swollen, like an elephant's leg.

Unfortunately, it would be hard to explain the biology of haemorrhage but this must be done to educate the owner. The owner wanted to see that his horse was not suffering and I was at the right time to produce the results - a racehorse able to lead a normal life which includes walking twice a day.

Anti-inflammatory and anti-pain injections brought overnight relief
to the racehorse which was able to walk after a night's rest.
The racehorse cannot tolerate large swollen limbs and
had probably tried to
bite two areas in an effort to relieve the pain.