Going on a Testicle Hunt

Today was a very busy day. Early in the day, a "Weagle" came in to be neutered. He was a Weagle because he was a cross between a Welsh Terrier and a Beagle. The problem with neutering him was that only one testicle had descended. Once Doc removed that one the regular way, and closed that incision, we had to go looking for the other one through a new incision in the Weagle's abdomen. Doc fished around and found a vas deferens, were no vas deferens should be, and lo and behold, a small immature testicle was attached. The Weagle was put in a cage to recover, looking like he had been castrated and spayed all at once. Poor Weagle.

Then a bucking bronco came in to have his nails trimmed. He was actually a Great Dane, but one of the techs had to sit on him on the floor like a bucking bronco in order to allow Dr. R to trim his nails. We tried it first with the enormous dog standing, but he had to much leverage, and escaped his size XXXXL muzzle. He was absolutely terrified of having his nails clipped, and had the muscle to make this sentiment known. Let it be known that one of the greatest tricks you can ever teach a dog is to allow a vet to handle him- nail trims, checking teeth, cleaning ears, touching all over, and getting poked with needles. Of course you can never train a dog to appreciate an injury being handled, no dog likes that, but to train a dog to allow normal examinations and handling and grooming is more awe-inspiring than the greatest agility runner. After all, dogs LIKE to run. They HATE their feet being handled. In the case of a dog as big as this monster, it would have been prudent to train him when he was a smaller furball than he is now.

An Austrailian Cattle Dog came in for a checkup, and he was not only friendly, he had the softest fur ever! He was a very cool dog. Check out the breed profile at http://www.cattledog.com/

I took one dog out of his cage so we could clean the poop off his butt. He crawled into the clean towel box and curled up because he didn't like being out and about. It was so cute. We cleaned off his butt and he was all set.

We also neutered the world's cutest chocolate lab puppy. I took him for a walk in the morning, and he was jumping all over me. FYI- it is impossible to walk two bouncy puppies at once. It will only result in entanglement.

We got to do some x-rays as well, on a Shetland Sheepdog with a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament.) The Doc showed me where the dog's bone had built up around the joint in an attempt to stabilize the knee, but it was resulting in limited mobility for the dog.

The most different thing of the day was a cat with a blocked urethra, who couldn't pee. Feline Urinary Tract Disease causes crystals to build up in the bladder, which result in painful blockages. To treat it, we anesthetized the cat with the just one sedative shot and the Doc squeezed it's urethra like a zit. He let me feel the crystal paste. Then he squeezed a bunch more out- like a HUGE zit, and then pee started to flow out. It was a relief to look at, and there was a LOT of pee. This is what my first cat, 'Frankie' had. The vet said that it can become a chronic condition that it can be difficult to improve the animal's quality of life. When the cat was coming out of his sedation, he was meowing and trying to escape his cage, and acting really drunk. It was odd.