We welcome this news for our pawkids in Singapore as we do feel that there is a need to improve vet practices.  We have ourselves encountered a few unfortunate vet incidents.  In fact, just recently, we experienced a vet, at a hospital, who was very impatient with our questions even though she barely spent 5 minutes in total on our case; and the answer is NO if you are wondering if the hospital at that time was dealing with a lot of patients or emergencies all round! This and our past experiences as well as unfortunate stories of other pawrents have gotten us thinking about what we can do to help push for higher standards in the vet industry.  Whilst the authorities’ initiatives will be important to ensure there is a stronger regulatory framework and enforcement in place, the impact will be subject to long investigation timeline and limited by cases that are reported. Perhaps, a more community driven, more accessible and faster solution can complement regulatory enforcements.

Here’s what we think….

Our doggos are our kids and our dearest friends so we expect no less of vets and vet industry for our pawkids than medical doctors and medical industry for human.   

We understand that a distinctive challenge of keeping vets and vet industry accountable is that, unlike our children and friends who can tell us about their experiences with the doctors and health workers treating them, our doggos can’t.  Our doggos depend on us and the vets entirely, to do the right thing for them.  And as pawrents, we want to trust our vets for their professional knowledge and practice.

We also believe most vets want to do good for our doggos and are subject to occasional human errors too; just like medical doctors.  We don’t want to over-penalise a good vet over a one time mistake, and neither do we want to let irresponsible vets continue with their malpractices.  We also want to continuously acknowledge good responsible vets and let them thrive so more doggos get better healthcare.  Whilst we value the consumer type of reviews we see on e-commerce sites, we want to go beyond the initial consumer experience to seek out the quality of the vet practice.

How do we do that?  We believe a data driven approach will help to distinguish good vets against bad ones.  We need to be able to aggregate data about specific vet practices, share that, and let pawrents decide if it is a vet they would trust their doggos with.  For instance, wouldn’t it be helpful if we know the number of doggos with post treatment complications, by a particular vet? Or wouldn't it be helpful if we can compare the prices of consultation, procedures and prescriptions?  Over time, we can objectively look at the track record of vets and make informed decisions about whether we would let this vet treat our pawkids.   

Do you know of a solution that helps pawrents record their pets’ medical history and aggregates the data to inform the pawrent community?  If you have ideas, feedback, and suggestions on how we can better drive up the quality of vet practices, we would like to hear from you. Do contact us here! 

In the meantime, do keep records of your pets medical history: vet consultations, vet names, diagnosis, course of action, recovery progress, prescriptions, invoices, service experience, etc. with date and time.  Share your stories of vet encounters on social media or with your community of doggo pawrents. You can also email us at pawfavorservices@gmail.com and we will share it on our blog; just like we have shared our own bad vet experiences in our blog about Ah Bee’s tragic death that led to Dr Donna’s petition for regulation of vet practices.

Are DNA tests accurate? Here's a good video that explains Dog DNA tests and their accuracy by geneticist Alex Dainis who sent her dog's DNA to 3 DNA test companies (You can skip the sponsor video from 6th sec to 1min 28sec). 

We have not done a DNA test on our doggo but wonder why would one want to do so ... and here’s 3 good and popular reasons we found…

1. Know your mongrel’s breed

Have you wondered which breeds your mongrel is a mix of?  Would you be better at understanding your mongrel’s behaviour and training it if you know which breeds’ traits it has?  Would you also be more prepared in preventing genetic diseases that your mongrel may be more predisposed with? If your answers to these questions are "YES", then it would be exciting to run a DNA tests on your doggo!  

2. Know if your doggo is the right breed you bought

Are you having doubts about your doggo’s breed?  Is your doggo demonstrating unexpected traits or having health problems that are not usual for your doggo’s breed?  Are other pawrents who bought their doggos from the same pet shop or breeder having similar doubts and concerns?  This DNA test may answer your doubts. And if more of the pawrents of doggos bought from the same shop apply this test, we can have more data about whether this is a shop we should trust.  Whilst there is discussion about the complete accuracy of these tests, pure breed identification can be further supported by evaluation of the physical features of the dog.  

3. Know your doggo's potential health issues

Would you like to take preventive measures to minimise your doggo’s risk of genetic health issues that are common amongst its breed? DNA tests can give you actionable insights to take care of your doggo's health risk. A word of caution: do not take drastic measures, based on a DNA test, to pre-treat your doggos for a genetic health issue that it is not diagnosed with. Such test results may not be 100% accurate; and your doggo may not even fall victim to these potential health issues. Veterinarians have warned of the accuracy of DNA tests and called for more regulation over this industry. 

If you are keen to run a DNA test for your doggo, we have curated some DNA test kits with good reviews for your convenience. If you like some 3rd party reviews, this article provides more details about each brand of DNA test kits. To learn more about DNA tests kits and the issues relating to them, please refer to some of the content below. 

Reference Video Content:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sNsjbzhFjE

Woman Outraged After DNA Test Reveals $1,750 Dog Isn't the Breed She Wanted

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QePQY3qp8qk

Reference Articles:

Pet genomics medicine runs wild

Lisa Moses, Steve Niemi and Elinor Karlsson

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05771-0

DNA testing kits for dogs are super popular. But the testing has some veterinarians pushing standards

Joey Garrison USA TODAY

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/08/dog-dna-testing-test-kits-popular-but-veterinarians-warn-risks/3065059002/

What we can — and can’t — learn from our pets’ DNA

Bethany Brookshire

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/what-we-can-learn-our-pets-dna-genetic-testing

Dog DNA Testing Market Grows As Vendors Target Consumers, Breeders, Vets

Sep 27, 2017 | Julia Karow

https://www.genomeweb.com/microarrays-multiplexing/dog-dna-testing-market-grows-vendors-target-consumers-breeders-vets#

Rated on Rotten Tomatoes with Tomatometer score of 92% and Audience Score of 95%, Rotten Tomatoes’ Critics Consensus described the film as an endearing and exciting underdog story that benefits greatly from its stars (canine and human alike), Togo is a timeless tale, well-told.

Muffin and family absolutely loved watching Togo. We want more doggos and pawrents to watch it, be inspired by a doggo and celebrate Togo's heroic achievement.  

Very Very Important Notice : Make sure you and your pawrents have lots of human grade snacks ready for a woofy movie night!  

And if movie is not your thing...we have found the book version for you too! ...snacks not included!

If you haven't heard the story of a 6 year old boy's explanation of why dogs have a shorter life, then this sharing of the post is for you! 

We do not know if it is a true story or an urban legend. But we find the learnings captured at the end of the story to be very apt and inspiring.  Let's do more for our doggo friends, por favor!

This story has gone viral and it goes like this...

"Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn’t do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker‘s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker’s death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.

Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, ”I know why.”

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I’d never heard a more comforting explanation. It has changed the way I try and live.

He said, “People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life — like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?” The six-year-old continued,

”Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

Remember, if a dog was the teacher you would learn things like:

• When your loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
• Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
• Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure Ecstasy.
• Take naps.
• Stretch before rising.
• Run, romp, and play daily.
• Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
• Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
• On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.
• On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
• When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
• Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
• Be faithful.
• Never pretend to be something you’re not.
• If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
• When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.

That’s the secret of happiness that we can learn from a good dog.

Credit: unknown originator of the story

Here's Dr Donna's blog about her dog Ah Bee...

Here's updates on the petition.  You will also find comments and stories shared by other pawrents.  Dr Donna has also shared stories submitted to her by other pawrents, including our Muffin's case.

On this same note, we would like to share our own bad experiences with vets who attended to our first dog Cheeky(bought in Argentina) and current dog Muffin(bought in Singapore)... 

Back in Argentina in 2003/4, we boarded our first dog Cheeky with a Vet and realised that he was left alone and locked up in the clinic at night. Subsequently, we also discovered that the vet administered expired vaccine for him. There was no avenue for recourse.  

17 years later, our second dog Muffin had a cataract operation in a Singapore vet hospital in 2020.  There was redness in his eyes for a period of time but the vet told us he was recovering well during the follow-ups.  In late 2021, we noticed Muffin's same eye was droopy and cloudy.  The vet happened to be on leave and we consulted an eye specialist referred by our local vet clinic.  Muffin was diagnosed with glaucoma and became blind in that eye. We only realised then that the ophthalmologist that did the cataract operation on him is not a specialist.  Whilst there were no resident eye specialist in Singapore in 2020 (yes that's the state of animal healthcare we have), we had an option of a visiting eye specialist from Australia.  If we had known, we could have made a more informed decision about whether we should wait for the visiting eye specialist or went ahead with the vet who is not a specialist. Moreover, the non-specialist charged similar fees as the visiting specialist!  It's been some time since the cataract operation, and we will never know if the glaucoma was caused by the cataract operation. 

Another experience we have with Muffin was when he dislocated his hip. We wasted a lot of time at the same hospital as there was no orthopaedic surgeon in-house and the external surgeon we were referred to was only available the next day.  After we were told that the close reduction treatment option must be done within a certain number of hours of the dislocation event, we left him at the hospital for further evaluation to ensure the procedure is suitable. However, we couldn't reach the hospital until after the required hours have lapsed!  In the meantime, we searched for other options and found a vet that offered orthopaedic surgery and was available.   We brought muffin to the vet in the evening and had to consult the vet over the phone due to Covid restrictions.  Whilst we booked the surgery, we had our reservations because the clinic was chaotic.  The next day, we brought Muffin to the orthopaedic surgeon referred by the hospital. We eventually had the FHO done by this surgeon, who was very clear with his explanation and whose clinic was professionally managed, with very knowledgeable staff at the front desk. In fact, we also understood later that he is the only specialist in Singapore and his fees were similar to the other vet who is not.  Again, our earlier experience with the vet hospital and other vet clinic tells us that vet services are expensive and not up to the mark.

For a list of vet specialists in Singapore, please refer to Singapore Veterinary Association website.

We hope that by sharing these experiences alongside Ah Bee's experience, we raise the awareness amongst pawrents that we should also be more vigilant and not trust the vets fully.  When necessary, go for a second opinion.  More so, in the case of doggos, as they can't tell us how they are feeling. 

P/S : Since we are on vet related issues, we have come across pawrents who tell us their vet recommended them a certain brand of kibble. We believe in human grade food so we can't quite understand why vets would "recommend" a certain brand of kibble, unless the vet sells it.  True enough in those cases, the vet sells that brand of kibble. Hence there is a potential conflict of interest.  We suggest that pawrents seek a second opinion and read up more about serving human grade meals to your doggo instead.