Singapore has
reached a gracious level where hamsters are
treated kindly by young people. The aging
baby-boomers in Singapore generally view them as
cheap pets and when they fall ill, good luck to
them. After all, veterinary fees for treatment can
buy a few new ones. But the children who are now
growing up view hamsters as family members and
sometimes, this lead to conflicts in the family
since the parents ignore treatment.
Yesterday was a bright sunny Sunday. I was
surprised to see the fat hamster again as I had
operated some 2 months ago. My intern Tanya placed
him in a bowl onto the weighing scale. The reading
was 88 g. "Has he put on weight?" the couple in
their 30s, asked me. To me, the hamster had looked
less fat. So I had him weighed again as I noted
that Tanya had put the weighing scale on a slope
of the consultation table. The veterinary
consultation table has a grove at the edge to
drain off any urine or liquid, unlike the ordinary
flat writing desk.
After placing the hamster on the flat part, the
weighing scale read 76 g. "He has lost 5 g," I
said. "But your dwarf hamster should eat less and
weigh around 50-60 g." The tall man who is an IT
professional said, "Whenever Hammie's cup is
empty, my wife tops up with the Japanese hamster
food. Hammie will just eat. He sleeps the whole
day, but makes a lot of noise exercising in his
wheel at night. Sometimes we have to put him in
the kitchen as he is so noisy."
"Hamsters are nocturnal creatures," I explained.
"They are active at night. You may have to oil the
noisy exercise wheel. Your hamster should eat
less. Reduce the amount of his feed bowl by 50%."
This time, the wife had conscientiously examined
the hamster by feeling his body for warts and had
discovered two hidden under the lush grey coat
which was 5 mm long. One wart was 2mm x 2mm
on his right side behind the rib cage and the
other was 1 mm x 1 mm above his tail on his
backside. They would not be spotted if the
wife had not examined them.
I gave Zoletil anaesthesia and excised them with a
pair of scissors. "Why not use the wart removal
freezing method?" Tanya asked me. "There is no
need to do it," I said. "The warts are very
small." Tanya had not seen freezing of warts
being done. The applicator to apply the freezing
chemical is already 8 mm in thickness and it would
freeze too large an area. Electro-surgery used
previously was not necessary as the warts were
very small. It was good to note that the other 4
warts (pictured here) did not recur.
IT people
had more knowledge of useful software than the
ordinary people and I asked the husband whether
there is a software to help his wife in her hobby
of cross-stitching. The wife is a home-maker and
has done cross-stitching for friends, giving them
as Christmas cards. Some friends order them just
as some Singaporeans order home-made cakes. "Why
will Singaporeans want to buy cross-stitching
cards, half the size of A4 paper, for $20.00 from
your wife?" I asked the husband as I know the
majority of Singaporeans are penny pinching by
nature. There is a business opportunity in
cross-stitched Christmas Cards if the husband
knows how to do it and if the wife can produce the
high quality embroidery.
"How long does it take to produce one if your wife
works full time at 8 hours per day?" I asked. "3
days," the wife estimated. "My eyes can focus
after a while. And my fingers get painful."
To take 24 hours to generate a $20 sale may not be
worth the trouble for the wife's labour.
So, this handicraft can never be commercially
successful unless the work is done by poor
villagers. "Why do your friends want to buy the
cross-stitched Christmas cards?" I asked the
Indonesian couple again. "They can just send
e-cards which can even talk or buy one card from
the shop." The husband said, " Well, they send it
to their bosses or put inside the hampers." This
certainly make sense. If the boss receives a
hand-made cross-stitched card, he will remember
the employee as the card is not easy to make. "Is
there a software to produce original patterns for
embroidery? For example, portraits or even your
hamster exercising on the wheel with the words,
'Eat less, exercise more'?". He does have the
software which digitalises the picture. Well, his
wife is still cross-stitching his landscape photo
for the past one year and is still doing it.
There are many small business opportunities in
handicrafts as you can see from this couple. "How
about using your software to making cross-stitch
patterns of famous people like Mr Lee Kuan Yew,
get the work stitched by your wife," I asked.
"Then you market them to tourists at the
Integrated Resorts? Tourists like to buy a piece
of the place they visit."
"No, no, we can't do it," the husband laughed as
his booming voice filled the small consultation
room. "Why?" I asked. "It is too sensitive. Maybe
Sentosa's Universal Studios will sell well."
Brain-storming is important in getting business
ideas. "How about the Merlion in Sentosa?" I
asked. "Nobody likes it," the husband said. "When
they take photos, they can only take the paws."
The Merlion in Sentosa is a gigantic tall
structure of 3 stories high.
The Indonesian couple told me that Jakarta has a
business man who had several small branches for
cross-stitching and other products. Apparently,
the wife finds that the quality of cross-stitching
work produced by the staff in this Jakarta
business was not up to standard and so she could
not buy them for sale in Singapore, as suggested
by me. "They could be doing the cross-stitches not
out of passion or they could be doing too many," I
speculated. Even in a hobby such cross-stitching,
there is the matter of quality control and
excellence too.
TOA
PAYOH VETS
