Praying Mantis

I caught a praying mantis last night on a leaf of one of the very few plants I have in my garden. Not knowing much about this unique species of insects, I feared it would consume the little sunflower seedlings I had painstakingly planted in my garden and which I had cared for for about a month now.

I put it together with a few wet leaves into a little carrier bag punched with a few tiny holes overnight and this morning, freed it into one of the secondary jungles in Shah Alam. I stopped my car by the side of the road, right in front of a police road block and surprised the many policemen there when I walked out with the carrier bag.

"Apa tu?!" (What is that?!) They exclaimed.

"Oh, mentadak mentadu" (praying mantis), I explained.

"Boleh goreng, makan..." (you could fry it and eat it), they replied.

Fry and eat a praying mantis?! Unthinkable!


With my curiosity quite aroused, I later researched this very interesting insect from the internet. Some rather astonishing facts I learnt about praying mantids are as follows:

1. The word mantis derives from the Greek word which means prophet or fortune teller and they were in fact named for their typical prayer-like stance.

2. They are able to turn their heads 180 degrees for excellent vision and hearing.

3. Their antennae are used for smell.

4. Being a carnivorous insect, the mantis feeds primarily on other insects. However, it is not uncommon for larger mantids to consume small reptiles and even small mammals or birds!


5. To capture their prey, mantids use their camouflage to blend in with their surroundings and wait for their prey to be within striking distance. They then use their raptorial front legs to quickly snatch the victim and devour it alive!

6. Praying mantids will also prey on each other, usually during the nymph stage and during mating!

7. When threatened, praying mantids stand tall and spread their forelegs with their wings fanning out wide and mouths open. The fanning of the wings is used to make the mantis seem larger and to scare the opponent, with some species having bright colors and patterns on their hind wings and inner surfaces of their front legs for this purpose. If the harassment persists, the mantis will then strike with their forelegs and attempt to pinch or bite.

8. Since praying mantids feed during the day, they do a considerable amount of flying by night. The night, however, is when bats feed, using ultrasonic sound waves to pinpoint their prey. The frequency of these sound waves indicates the location and distance of the bat's prey. According to Yager and May, praying mantids are able to hear these ultrasonic sounds and when the frequency begins to increase rapidly, indicating an approaching bat, mantids will stop flying horizontally and begin a direct, high speed nose dive towards the safety of the ground. Often this descent will be preceded by an aerial loop or spin. Other times, the entire descent will consist of a downward spiral.

No wonder Wong Long of Shaolin was inspired to create the Praying Mantis Kungfu! While studying his books on Buddhism in a meadow near the temple, he witnessed two insects engaged in a deadly duel - a praying mantis attacking a cicada. Within moments the praying mantis had killed the cicada. Holding it in its strong front legs, it began to devour the cicada.


Wong was intrigued by the fierce attributes of the praying mantis. He was impressed by the way it had moved in and out and used its front legs to trap and draw in its prey. He saw in the fierce insect's predatory ability, a way to improve his own combat adeptness. Wong used a small stick and played with the praying mantis, observing how it used its skill as a predator to escape harm. It was these very observations that initiated the founding of this powerful martial arts form.


Soon, the Praying Mantis Kungfu was taught as a higher level of kungfu to all the monks of the Shaolin Temple, and it went on to aid the Shaolin monks in their quest in opposing the Manchurian takeover of China.

Blue-Eyed White

A client once brought in a white coated cat with blue eyes, complaining that she couldn't get her new pet to come to her when she called, even after frequently making various noises in attempts to attract its attention. Staring perceptively at the textbook blue-eyed white combination on the playful, lively creature on the examination table, I asked her a few more questions, and managed to establish that her cat didn't come to the door to meet her when she came home like most cats do, but continued to sleep on contentedly.

Because I had no means to perform the Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response (BAER) hearing test, I resorted to conducting my own, self-designed "vacuum cleaner" test. I cautioned the surprised owner as I plugged in a vacuum cleaner and switched it on to 'low', all ready in case the cat should fly off in fright at the sudden noise the machine created...but instead, as I anticipated, it looked curiously at the hoover and started to play with the intake nozzle!

Yes, blue-eyed cats with white fur are commonly deaf! Dominant white, denoted by the gene symbol 'W', is the colour associated with deafness in cats. Dominant white masks all other colours and cats may have blue, orange or odd eyes. Those with blue eyes have a high chance of deafness. Odd-eyed cats with only one blue eye have a high chance of unilateral deafness on the blue-eyed side. Those with orange eyes are far less likely to be deaf. Some dominant white kittens are born with smudges of coloured fur on top of their heads where the colour is incompletely masked by the gene. This smudge of colour usually disappears by adulthood, but kittens with colour smudges are more likely to have normal hearing.

The tapetum lucidum, which literally means 'bright carpet' in Latin, is a layer between the retina and choroid of the cat's eye that reflects light back to the retina, causing the eyes to glow at night when struck by light. It is made up of several layers of flattened cells covered by a zone of doubly refractive crystals. It serves to increase the quantity of light caught by the retina, granting excellent night vision to nocturnal animals such as cats. The tapetum is generated from the same stem cells as melanocytes. The blue eyes in a piebald or epistatic white cat indicates a lack of tapetum. Deafness is caused by the absence of a cell layer in the inner ear that originates from the same stem cells as the tapetum.

However, it is important to note that not all blue-eyed whites are deaf, as there are several different genes causing the same physical attributes, so it all depends on the cat's genotype and not its phenotype. Blue-eyedness and whiteness can both be caused by different genes. In odd-eyed white cats, the ear on the blue-eyed side may be deaf, but the one on the orange-eyed side usually has normal hearing.

In some animals, the blue-eyed white trait is sex-linked, which means it is carried on the X chromosome. It is also found in males more often than in females. However, in cats, the gene for white is carried on an autosome, which is a chromosome other than the X or Y sex chromosomes. The trait occurs equally in both male and female cats. Blue-eyed white is not sex-linked in cats.

"What should I do?!" asked the anxious owner, now obviously upset. "Nothing!" I replied, "A cat deals with its deafness very well and compensates for the lack of hearing with its other senses. So well, in fact, that it is almost impossible to distinguish a deaf cat from cats with normal hearing. Naturally you can't command your deaf cat by yelling, but do even hearing cats obey all the time?"

I however advised her not to breed her cat, as this trait could potentially be passed down to her kittens. Deafness can cause problems when a mother cat cannot hear her kittens crying and may neglect them. Deaf kittens cannot hear their mother calling to them and may get lost. Deafness may also affect free-roaming cats because they cannot hear danger approaching. Apart from these disadvantages, I see nothing much that is glaringly lacking in a deaf cat.



Deaf cats are more people-loving cats than those who can hear. However, these cats may have louder voices, presumably because they can't hear how loudly they meow!

Alien Teeth!

While they were playing in the garden recently, a friend's kids dug up and found what they thought were the jaws of alien creatures from outer space!

Have a careful look at these pictures...

Nasty looking, aren't they? What do you think they are?!

I was baffled. I discussed these pictures with my veterinarian coursemates, colleagues, friends and even lecturers from my university. Nobody could even guess. Initially, I thought they must have been part of an abandoned toy or a replica of some dinosaur model. But the parents of these kids assured me that they were real...and not made of plastic or some synthetic material. To me, this bone and teeth structure resembled nothing mammalian, avian, amphibian or even reptilian. That left me to think of those creatures that live under the sea.

These very pictures were then forwarded to marine biologists and experts in tropical and marine life of Asia and much in-depth discussions ensued. They passed through the hands of fish researchers from Australia and Hawaii, right into those of marine experts from the Smithsonian Institute of the National Museum of Natural History located in Washington DC.

Finally, a research fishery biologist named Dr. Walter R. Courtenay, Jr. (Ph.D.) and his colleagues from the USGS Florida Integrated Science Center in Gainesville managed to identify the bony structure...as the lower jaw of a parrotfish! This inner, enameloid jaw contained pharyngeal teeth that functioned to grasp, tear, grind or comb, depending on prey type, but were mostly used to crunch corals to feed on the algae. These are not the teeth you usually see on the outer jaw but are found on a second jaw hidden inside its throat.

So thanks to our team of experts and specialists, the mystery is solved...no alien teeth! Any fishhead curry lover would have been able to tell! The parrotfish head was probably consumed by a neighbour for dinner and tossed into the garden afterwards, only to be found by the kids a few weeks later. The poor bunch of young forensic detectives must have been quite disappointed on what would have been a most enigmatic and momentous archaeological discovery!

But don't forget to look inside the throat of a parrotfish the next time you happen to eat fishhead curry...to discover these mystical alien teeth!

Milk For The Kitty

I have often been asked by new owners of cats and kittens, "Must I feed it milk everyday?"

This is one of those cat questions that confuse not only new cat owners but also the general public at large.

Kittens need to drink their mother's milk while they are nursing. Milk produced by the queen at the beginning of her lactation contains colostrum or what some vets call "first milk." Colostrum is an important source of maternal antibodies that provide a passive resistance towards infectious diseases, until the kitten's immune system is fully developed and functioning. When the kittens suckle, they absorb these antibodies through the gut, a process which is only possible during the first 16 hours of life. Colostrum is also very nutritious, full of the fat and protein that kittens need to support rapid growth and weight gain, especially during the vital early stages of life.

Apart from that, I wonder why and how cats ever became so closely associated with milk, just as mice are supposedly linked to cheese. In fact, scientists have found that mice don't really like cheese very much at all and would prefer foods with higher sugar content such as chocolate! As part of a wider study into animals and food, they found that a mouse's diet is primarily made up of grains and fruit, and that it would generally reject something as strong in smell and rich in taste as cheese.

Milk for the kitty? Perhaps it has been subliminally disseminated into our minds from infancy by Enid Blyton's various accounts of "serving a saucer of warm milk to the cold and wet puss to make it feel better, while it curls itself up to dry on a woolly rug by the fireplace."

Don't get me wrong. Cats and kittens can drink cow's milk occasionally, but they do not need to drink it. A cat can easily live its whole life without ever having cow's milk. Most feral or wild cats never have cow's milk anyway. Ever seen a stray cat milking a cow or drinking out of its udder?!

Kittens, of course, are able to produce ample quantities of an enzyme called lactase, which is necessary to help them digest lactose, a sugar present in their mother's milk. However, similar to humans, many kittens eventually develop lactose intolerance upon weaning or at about 3 months of age. They therefore cannot digest cow's milk properly thence, as their bodies stop producing this enzyme. As undigested lactose passes through the intestinal tract, it draws water along with it. In addition to that, the undigested sugars are fermented by bacteria present in the colon and volatile fatty acids are produced. This almost always results in diarrhoea and gastroenteritis.

If your cat or kitten comes down with diarrhoea as a result of drinking cow's milk, stop giving it milk and it should pass. Some 'milkoholic' cat owners who have lactose-intolerant cats still insist on occasionally giving their cats lactose-free milk, which can be purchased from most pet stores and veterinary clinics. If your cat digests milk without a problem, then you are safe to give it the occasional milk treat.

However, it is important to note that cow's milk should never be given as the primary or basal food source for any cat or kitten since it lacks many essential nutrients required to keep your feline companion healthy. If a cat consumes a nutritionally complete and balanced commercial diet, it will not require any of the nutrients found in milk and therefore, there is no need or reason to give it milk.

Can Chickens Swim?

The theory that chickens can swim will probably stir up a debate when discussed amongst any group of intelligent human beings. Some will say that it is absolutely unbelieveable to think a chicken can swim and others will argue why not?

Some of the arguments I have heard people use to dispel this theory are as follows:

1. They don't have webbed feet.
2. They don't have waterproof feathers.
3. They are too heavy and will sink.
4. They lack the ability to right themselves in a water environment.

It would be a formidable question to attempt, simply because it wouldn't be easy to find answers to. Chickens are naturally averse to any huge expanse of water such as lakes, rivers, ponds and the ocean. A chicken would never attempt to swim on its own, and when dropped into any form of deep water, would exit the water with a mere flapping of its wings. Hence, it would be quite arduous and prohibitive to put this theory to the test.

Then the time came when I had the very opportunity to put this theory to the test. That was when I was working as the resident veterinarian of a poultry farm. So decided to find out once and for all if chickens could indeed swim. One fine sunny afternoon, I tucked a 5 week-old chicken under my arm and I climbed up to the water tank situated above the poultry house. I then deftly placed it into the water. I then quickly covered the lid of the tank but left a space of about half a centimetre and peeped through the gap to see what would happen next.

The much awaited outcome? *drum roll please* The chicken swam round and round the tank happily! No signs of distress, anxiety or struggling throughout the whole half hour as I stood there observing it closely. It remained afloat, buoyant as a duck!

Yes, chickens can swim very well, just as horses, cats and rats can too! Yes, so the folklore of the Pied Piper of Hamelin was both fictitious and delusory! The only species that probably needs to be taught how to swim would be humans. We would otherwise drown quite naturally. How's that for superiority in the animal kingdom and what we consider the most intelligent animal species on this planet?!

Could Not Keep It Up!

The early years in clinical studies draws my memory back to a time when my female lecturer-cum-clinician excitedly called my entire class of eager third year students to the large animal surgery room. Sitting quietly at her feet was a handsome German stud...an Alsatian as some may call the breed. My lecturer, who taught us small animal reproduction, was considered a specialist on the subject. She had recently taught us artificial insemination (AI) for pet animals at length but only in theory, and was eager to inaugurate the practical, hands-on side of the course. She was now intent on teaching us how to perform canine digital manipulation. That is of course, the polite veterinary term for masturbating a male dog to collect its semen for AI.

Spermatozoa can also be collected from dogs using electroejaculation and pharmacological methods. However, the most common method of semen collection in the dog is still via digital manipulation, or what some vets may call digital stimulation. Under ideal conditions, this procedure is performed in the presence of a bitch in heat. However, there happened to be none available that morning, so we had to carry on in good faith. After all, our lecturer was young and atractive...which we thought would be a good substitute for the stud!

Canine digital manipulation is a rather straightforward procedure and not as tricky as it sounds. Initially, the dog's penis is vigorously massaged through the prepuce at the level of the bulbus glandis, which is the caudal-most aspect of the prepuce. This is continued until a partial erection develops, where there is initial engorgement of the bulbus glandis. The prepuce is then quickly retracted past the bulbus glandis and firm constant pressure is applied to the penis behind the bulbus glandis by squeezing the penis between the index finger and the thumb. Pelvic thrusting may occur following application of pressure behind the bulbus glandis during the development of a "full" erection. Ejaculation, which follows shortly after, is composed of three fractions of ejaculate: first (sperm-poor), second (sperm-rich) and third (prostatic fluid).

After quite a lengthy speech on the procedure she was about to engage, my lecturer began massaging our Shepherd boy. She rubbed and she rubbed as she knelt beside it, one hand grasped firmly around the length of its penis while the other held a collection tube. As the small crowd gathered around these two action heroes, I could hear sniggers and whispers from my cheeky male coursemates at the back as to how experienced she seemed for a young, single female. It took her quite some time, but she eventually got him aroused and rock-hard. But she needed the ejaculate...and it hadn't come! Soon, the stroking action was wearing her out slowly but surely, and she was switching hands due to aches and cramps in both arms due to muscle fatigue. We admired her ambidexterity at the moment as this had never been described in any of the textbooks we had read on digital manipulation!

As we continued to wait impatiently for the orgasm to occur, our enthusiasm started to die down slowly, and along with it went the virility of the dog. We literally saw its reproductive tool shrink in her vigorously undulating hand. Whether it was due to crowd pressure, inability to perform in public with the many pairs of eyes fixated on it, or because it had simply lost interest, we could only guess. She motioned for it to continue standing, calling out its name every now and then as she continued to massage its doghood, but to no avail. She just could not resurrect its limp member! We stayed with lecturer and dog throughout the entire length of an hour-long period in what soon became an awkward circumstance for both demonstrator as well as students. Watching in silence, no one dared to even make a single sound or remark.

The demonstration on canine digital manipulation did not come to its intended end that fateful day...and our lecturer tried to offer a few reasons as to why the dog had failed to produce semen for us, but the highlight of our day was the look on our young lecturer's face - crimson with humiliation and completely frustrated...simply priceless!

The Veterinarian Oath

The very first few words that escaped from my lips upon graduating as a vet happened to be a lifetime promise and a pledge to God and to all of mankind which sealed my new responsibilities and fate in my career and life.

Even though they were recited off a parched piece of paper hidden in the palm of my right hand, the solemnity and obduracy of the moment was overwhelming, as we declared and dedicated our lives to be good and ethical veterinarians.

As the representative of my entire class of graduating vets, in the quiescence of the cavernous hall despite it being flooded with proud and excited parents, before we had the chance to toss our mortarboards high up into the air as we shouted out victoriously and in triumph, I could hear the echoes of the microphone before my lips and the resounding voices of the awkward bunch of my coursemates and friends gathered behind me, as I led them through this solemn promise:

"Being admitted to the profession of veterinary medicine,
I solemnly swear to use my scientific knowledge and skills
for the benefit of society
through the protection of animal health,
the relief of animal suffering,
the conservation of livestock resources,
the promotion of public health
and the advancement of medical knowledge.

I will practice my profession conscientiously, with dignity
and in keeping with the principles of veterinary medical ethics.

I accept as a lifelong obligation the continual improvement
of my professional knowledge and competence."

In the modern rat race of a commercialised world, I silently wonder to myself how many of us vets actually continue to hold fast to the very oath we made so many years past. The harsh reality of a material world sinks in fast coupled with a dire lack of time and over the years of hardship, we lose ourselves to greed and complacency, which rob us of the valour, the devotion and the steadfast fealty to our code of veterinary conduct and ethics. We lose the simple joys in helping animals that we once discovered when we were impassioned and enthusiastic veterinary students.

I sometimes look back at the days when we were together as students in class, so eager to make a difference to this world as a vet. Those were times when we found so much fulfillment in applying our knowledge and skills to simply helping a poor, helpless lifeform placed into our hands. I draw myself back to the memories of squatting beside our patients after 3-hour-long surgeries, stroking and massaging them, turning them over now and again, calling out their names gently, nursing them back to consciousness as they paddled and struggled to overcome the fading effects of anaesthesia. It didn't matter so much to us back then if we were the last ones in the wards, or if the sun had set many hours ago, or if we hadn't had any dinner and our stomachs were rumbling from hunger. We were part of this struggling animal's healing process, its one last feeble attempt at life and its fighting desire to be well again, and that mattered most of all. If there was even the slightest chance we could make a difference, we would not hesitate to go all the way.

Do we remember what it was like? Have our attitutes changed ever since? Have we all forgotten what it was all about? I hope not. I pray not. And I think not. The Veterinarian Oath reminds us time and again of our calling and of our passion.

It's A Vet's Life!

Having spent 6 gruelling years in university studying to be a vet, I've just realised that it has also been 6 long years since I graduated as a vet. There have been many precious and memorable moments, most of which I simply cannot recall upon desire to do so. One of my biggest regrets since graduation is not documenting these magical memories and unique encounters with the different animals I have come into contact with!

I've realised that the private life of a veterinarian can be quite interesting to many, and having been urged countless times by my closer friends, I've decided to create this blog to share with you bits and pieces of my life and what it is like living the life of an animal doctor. I will never be as famous as James Herriot, but I sincerely hope and believe that some of you may still enjoy what you will read from my humble postings here.

For me, it has been a childhood dream and destiny's end to be a vet. I've loved animals from infancy, having my fair share of pet dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, mice, chickens, ducks and tropical fish. My closest friends are my patients, the very animals I tend to. My gift to this world is in bringing better health to animals, and bringing sick animals back to health. However, this blog was not set up with intentions of extending free consultation and services to clients; I will not rob your local vet of his hard day's work. It was set up to generate kindness, understanding, patience, tolerance and love towards animals, which I find very lacking in many humans and pet owners alike. It was created to share the simple joys of interacting with the very creatures created by the Creator Himself.

As Mahatma Gandhi himself said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." What a wise man to have such thoughts, for what progressive civilisation and great peoples of the earth do not love the very animals it shares its existence with?

Animals are a gift from God to mankind - for food, companionship, protection and toil. In the book of Genesis, God gave man the authority and dominion over the fish of the sea, over birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. Let us then recognise the value of our relationship to these creatures we share our world with.

"All things bright and beautiful
All creatures great and small
All things wise and wonderful
The Lord God made them all"