veterinary - This Little Light

December 17, 2021December 17, 2021

Christmas Puppy!! Or not?

**Cute Pomeranian, no issues, just a cute picture**

I was recently floored when I learned something new. I mean, I get that they say you learn something new everyday, but some are more disturbing than others. I admit to be pretty naïve about most things. I don’t like sad or scary movies because they affect me for weeks to months, I’ve only been with one man (Biblically) my whole life, I didn’t start drinking until I was of legal age, and was scared by our D.A.R.E. program as a child and am convinced that if I try drugs in any fashion, I will immediately become addicted and sucked into a vortex of waking up in my own vomit and prostitution. So, it’s no surprise that I was the only one in the treatment area at my clinic who was even remotely surprised by this, but I was and felt the need to discuss this with you all.

**Life used to just be Birthday cakes and kittens..**

We had a puppy in our clinic who was sick. He was a VERY cute puppy, a “morkie” or a Maltese X Yorkie … a “designer breed” if you’re fancy and optimistic, a “mixed breed” or “mutt” if you’re honest. (I’ll get to this later, don’t get too mad yet) These owners obtained this adorable mutt from Puppy City for a whopping $2500! I mean, I get supply and demand, but sheesh! Aaaaaannnnnddd this puppy came with the dreaded and deadly disease, Parvovirus. (Others from that same shop have come with Giardia or coccidia – both parasites that are difficult to treat and typically come from a dirty living situation – ie – the breeder) This is where it gets me; the owners did not have the money to properly treat the puppy because they didn’t even have the money to purchase the puppy in the first place. Puppy City will FINANCE people to buy a puppy they already can’t afford.

**Daphne – Standard Poodle puppy purchased from an incredibly careful breeder – parents prescreened for hip, elbow, Addison’s disease (common in Poodles), etc.**

I get it, Veterinary care is expensive and, even for responsible owners, can get out of the budget. I mean, honestly, if I found out my 10 year-old large breed dog had bad cancer, I’m not going to be the one who drops thousands of dollars to give him/her an extra 4-18 months – I have three kids to raise and have to set my priorities. And I get it when a cat or dog finds you and sticks with you as a stray and you do your best, but just cannot afford that cruciate tear (ACL in humans) surgery ($5000-8000) and have to keep your dog on pain meds the rest of his life instead. What I DON’T understand is PURCHASING an animal when you don’t have the money in the first place. This goes for dogs, cats, cows, horses, etc, but also for exotics. Little tip for all you who suddenly can’t live without a sugar glider: find a vet that will treat your species of choice BEFORE having one shipped to you from Bangladesh – or where ever your exotic desire comes from – the closest *knowledgeable* vet may be 3-4 hours away and cost $300 just for the exam – it takes a special specialist to know what they’re doing for these guys.

People who accidentally get pregnant and have to live on government programs to help keep their little one alive and healthy are one thing – crap (errr, blessings) happens – but willingly going to purchase or even “rescue” an animal without the funds to take care of it (and there are no government programs to help) is downright irresponsible and frankly, not rescuing, just relocating. What typically happens in the scenario, is instead of owning up their irresponsibility, these owners will turn on the vet and use something called emotional blackmail to try to get what they want.

**Dan, the clinic cat working on emotional blackmail – if I loved him, I would feed him my sandwich**

“What?? It’s going to be around $1000 to treat my puppy for parvo – a perfectly preventable disease with a simple vaccine series that I refused/forgot to get or tried to give myself from the feed store?? You monster, YOU are killing my puppy!! YOU are to blame for my irresponsibility!!” “So, I refused to get my female spayed because I read something on the internet, and now she has a giant sack of pus taking up her abdomen and rotting from the inside, and it’s going to cost $1500 or she’ll die??? You money hungry B**** even though it would have only been $250 to spay her on a regular appointment and not in the middle of the night when you have to call in extra staff in overtime, take up your time with your family, and when the dog is crashing and needs all sorts of extras to keep her stable during a PERFECTLY preventable disease” “Yes, I bought an English Bulldog for $5000 having no idea that they suffer almost every and any disease under the sun and will cost at least $1000/year to keep up with, especially when I don’t heed your advice and come back every 6 months with all the problems out of control again”

**Merlin – lots of care through his life – He was worth it though. RIP**

Any who, whether you adopt or shop, just make sure you are doing it responsibly. I’ve had several owners bring in a puppy they purchased and told me that after seeing the conditions at the breeder when they picked them up, they felt more like they were rescuing them. Unfortunately, if you are giving the breeder money, you are supporting their breeding program, only to breed more puppies and get more money. If you are truly concerned about the condition, call Animal Control. Don’t support their function. There are REALLY good breeders out there who actually care about the quality of the dogs they are producing, not just the color or size, or just because they have a boy dog and a girl dog and want to make money. There are breeders who actually have their breeding stock checked for common diseases like OFA certification to make sure they have genetically good hips and elbows, heart tests, full genetic screens to make sure your dog will live as long as possible. They also only breed the dogs that have the best personalities for the purpose they are bred for. Personality is very heritable and if you go to pick up a puppy and the mom or dad it barking it’s head off on the end of a leash and you can’t touch it, or cowering in the corner with “whale eyes” walk away, you don’t want that disaster. These wonderful breeders will charge more than what you can find in the “for sale” section of the paper, but they are SO much more worth it, and 3-4x less than the “designer” breeds – which *tend to have ZERO testing or care taken. *I’m sure there are very careful breeders of Doodles, but I haven’t met them.

**Mastiff with a FANTASTIC personality**

Last note: animals are for life. If you get a dog/cat, you’ll need to understand that every time you move you will need to find a pet-friendly place. If you decide you need a tortoise or African Grey parrot – you’ll need to leave them in your will to someone as they may outlive you.

December 4, 2021December 4, 2021

How do you get through the hard days?

Yesterday, I had a hard day. I had an emergency animal come in on death’s door from possible trauma, thought I could save him, but after an hour of fluids, meds to bring down brain swelling, warming bair huggers, oxygen, and all the meds to keep his heart going when he stopped breathing on his own, we had to finally throw in the towel. Calling and giving the owner that news was heart wrenching to say the least. Later that day, another patient came in for what I thought would be a pretty simple, but long term treatment plan for a young animal with chronic issues. The owner, understandably, after having pours thousands of dollars into a very young animal without ending the suffering, was already ready to throw in the towel. I knew it was the right answer, but it just felt like I was murdering this beautiful baby soul. I know what my job is and the practicality and humanity of stopping the fight, but it was still, literally, gut wrenching to push that pink fluid into that sweet, loving animal’s vein, even while those eyes trusted me not to hurt her, I stopped her heart.

**Hugging the most huggable kitty you could ever ask for – Popcorn**

I’m the worst when it comes to looking on the bright side – when it comes to myself. I’m fantastic at trying to get others to see the light in things and keeping humor interjected in almost every situation to keep others out of the black hole that is my mentality sometimes. I’m cynical, I’m doubtful, I lose faith in the existence of God on a regular basis, I lose faith in people (just read the news, like, ever), I lose faith in myself and wonder if anyone who really knows me actually loves me, I have bad days, bad weeks, etc. (If I haven’t posted in a while, I’m probably in a dark place) How have I even survived this long? Well, medication, therapy, and trying to think of things in a MUCH broader view.

Stay away from the news! Any news about the nation or world. You can’t change any of it, you literally just read it and get paranoid, angry, sad, or otherwise negatively emotional. I used to (and still slip into it every now and then) go looking for news that would make me says “OMG! I can’t believe that!” or look for something to talk with someone else about “did you see where.. ” or “can you believe what *** did??”. It’s addicting – somehow reading something that makes you feel an emotion – there has to be a hormone similar to dopamine that is released when you read stuff like that. I still find myself falling into rabbit holes, but if I can stay away from the news, I can typically control my emotions better because, guess what! —> see next point

**How my brain feels when I’m deep in a news dig – no kids were harmed in the making of this photo – I had a rather large bruise though.**

The people around you and in your community are generally good people. We may all have very different opinions about subjects and topics, but for the most part, most of the people around you are courteous, polite, and trying to do the best that they can. Remember, all the crazies that make you crazy on the internet or social media are the loud ones. The majority of people who are normal, reasonably balanced human beings are not out there touting far one-sided crap. I truly believe that there are enough (probably plenty) of intelligent, wise, level-headed humans in this country who could actually take the issues (social and economic) and come to a reasonable conclusion. If you talk to a *rational* person about politics, you may find that y’all can agree on a lot when solutions are trying to be found. But the whole “my team says this, so you’re stupid” thing will never work. We all have more in common and can agree on WAY more than the news, social media, or your crazy polar friends will let on.

**We may have different opinions than you, but we’re good people**

At the end of the day, most everything will be the same. Horrible clients? A dog that tried to die on the table? A horribly complicated case that had you dragging your eyeballs over the gravel while jumping through fiery hoops? When I get home, my kids will be energetic, they will be safe, my dog will greet me like she hasn’t seen me in a year, my cats will greet me like they literally saw me two seconds ago, and after the kids go to bed, I will sit down and have a cup of cheese balls and maybe a glass of wine sitting on my couch watching the next episode on Netflix with Tony. That is pretty much a constant and when I’m stuck smack dab in the middle of the weeds wishing whatever horribly stressful event to be over with, I will stop, go into my mind and imagine sipping that glass of wine thinking about how all of those stressors are behind me. When I can picture myself being done with the stress, I can calm down and muggle through it.

**Sometimes decompressing includes alcohol**

Exercise is always good – you can’t worry about piddly little things when you’re gasping for air!

Find a friend or therapist. Believe it or not, voicing your concerns and even crazy paranoias can release them. Sometimes you just need someone to listen (not necessarily give advice – guys) and tell you you’re not crazy (unless you are – then they may call the police =D) and sympathize with you. Sometimes, even though it’s super hard, actually talking about your issues with the person who is bothering you (esp if family or close friends) clears the air and you both find out you were worried about completely different things.

**Snuggling with friends. Unlike Toad, you should make sure the cuddling is consensual – Delphi (background kitty) wants nothing to do with this, but she’s not willing to give up her spot.**

Try seeing the positives in whatever situation you’re in. Horrible client, but super cute dog? Focus on the fluffy fur. Can’t figure out a case and have never seen anything like this to even know where to start? Try to think “even though this is super painful and stressful and I want to crawl in a corner, after it’s all said and done, I will have learned something new and can apply it next time” – hard times lead to broader knowledge.

Stressful days suck, sometimes they pile up for a bad week or month, but if you can stay strong and keep yourself as an example to others, then the general atmosphere of your workplace, home, community will have a brighter outlook. And when you make others brighter, you will feel brighter and will have a more solid ground to keep yourself going. Everything will pass, eventually. As my favorite quote says “Do your best and leave the rest, for it will all come right one day or night” – Black Beauty, Anna Sewell.

November 19, 2021November 19, 2021

Vet Medicine: the greatest career on Earth

So, you read about all my whining and complaining in the last blog. Being a vet is TOUGH. Understanding that you can treat an animal without having the exact diagnosis and without choosing the same treatment as any other vet (there will never be full consensus on treatments for any disease, ever) takes a long time of feeling like a failure, staying up nights worrying that you didn’t treat something right, wondering if you should have gone with the high dose, short therapy or the lower dose long therapy. Are you causing antibiotic resistance? If you don’t send an antibiotic home, will the owners hate you? Will you get a bad review because, even though you spent hours researching and worrying, the animal didn’t get better, or another vet threw you under the bus? So, why even try? Why enter this field?

Because it’s FREAKING AMAZING!! That’s why!

Reasons it’s FA (freaking amazing): The animals, obviously. Granted, you LOVE animals, but must accept that they hate you. You must just understand that you’re doing it for your love for them, and not to win their love (though I handily try with multiple treats and a slow approach). It’s much like being a mom or a religious leader. You care for and are responsible for others, but they might not like what you have to say or do. Occasionally you get the adorable puppy/kitten, but sometimes you have to deal with the jack-wad pet. If you are companion animal, most of your patients will be middle to older aged animals with skin, ear, endocrine issues. If you are large animal, most will be reproductive, preventative health, and emergency. Most of the animals are happy with you anyway, especially if you keep pushing the treats.

The SCIENCE – if you love science and seeing things work like you read about, you will love vet med. It doesn’t always work out, but when it does, it feels MAGICAL – and it works out most of the time. You get a rush of dopamine (this is not proven, just theorized) when you hear back from a patient you’d been working on and hear that they’re SO much better! Even when it’s just an older dog with probable arthritis and the owner didn’t think it was pain but was willing to do a trial of pain meds. They call back and go on and on about how much like a puppy their old Bella has become. It makes my insides smile.

You can FIX things! Sometimes this feeling is amazing! Female intact dog walks in, sick as, well, a dog, you find it’s a pyometra (uterus is huge and full of pus). The dog looks like death, but with a 30 minute surgery (spay), the dog is back to almost 100% overnight! Laceration repair can be tedious, but is like creating a work of art. Indoor/outdoor cat comes in with a swelling and a fever – cat bite abscess – super rewarding to drain the abscess and the cat is back to normal by the next day. There’s nothing like the feeling “hey, your animal has this problem, but don’t worry, I’ll fix it!” The feeling only gets super frustrating when the owner chooses not to treat for one reason or another (finances, chronic issues that require multiple rechecks, long-term medication). Then, this leaves you totally frustrated – “but I can fix it…”

Learning all the time. You may think this sounds tedious and awful, but it’s not. Again, learning something new that you can immediately apply to a case, whether it’s researching for a current case and finding an actual answer or going to continuing education conferences and learning a new fabulous (and low cost) new treatment regimen, actually gives you a rush. As a vet you are (or should be) CONSTANTLY learning, researching, RE-learning and it’s actually fun. There are always new things to learn and ways to check your pride and try a different methods and while you’ll find yourself frustrated in the moment, and may take awhile to institute the change, you’ll be elated when it all falls into place. Because – science.

The clients! (okay, there are some sour lemons, but with the current demand for vets and long waiting list to get an appointment, we have the luxury to “rehome” clients who are naughty) Are you a people pleaser? Do you get a physical giddy sensation when you make someone happy? Vet med *can be* for YOU! For the most part, clients are extremely polite, understanding, and grateful for what you do. I think it helped my client communication skills to be a large animal vet for awhile. When you’re stuck standing over a newly gelded colt, waiting for him to get up, you learn how to chat with people and not feel awkward. Depending on the client’s attitude toward me (the more positive, they more they get), I will go to all sorts of lengths to make sure they and their animal are getting free samples, internet sources, brochures, under the table treatments (slip in a free nail trim), etc. If a client is cold and dismissive, they will get what they ask for and that is it.

Then there’s the not so obvious perks to being a vet; Comradery – Everyone in the vet world is stressed and many take it out with a twisted sense of humor. When you find the right clinic, it’s like getting together with your friends every day – joking, griping together, getting excited over gross things, inappropriate humor. Everyone working in your field (or at least the vast majority) love animals and share the common goal to help people and their animals. I’m sure there are others, but how many other work places do you have where everyone in the company has the same interest? Want to talk about your cat’s cute way she chirps to you? So does your co-worker!

**Rescues will be a commonality in your field. This pup was born with no bones in her forelegs and now belongs to a co-worker**

Something for everyone. You like working with your hands? Large animal is perfect for you, prefer indoors with more meticulous skill? Surgery is for you! Like both? Do both!! Don’t like working with your hands? Medicine. Pathology. Teaching. Like people? General or referral practice. Don’t like people? Pathology, lab animal medicine. Want to practice medicine everyday, great! Don’t? Government work! Like people, but only your kind, and not general public? Become a drug representative, traveling to clinics telling them about all the new products coming out! Want to work all day everyday, and be on call – don’t worry, there’s plenty for you! Only want to work 3 days a week? Pick up relief shifts! Night owl? Work emergency overnight shifts. ***These examples are all highly generalized, and I’m 100% sure vets working in all of these fields will have something to say, but my point is there’s a job out there for anyone with a Veterinary degree, don’t just envision working at a clinic***

January 15, 2021

Curbside Chaos – working in a new environment: COVID-19

January 14, 2021

Goodbye to Merlin (Merman, Schmermles, Myrtle, Schmermilator) and I love you

**Merlin on a short hike at Island Park in Mount Pleasant, MI**

I never in my life thought about owning a Saint Bernard. They just weren’t on my radar, just like Michigan was never there for me to live.

**Getting to be an old man in Virginia**

One day, while working at my first job in South Carolina, a local dairy farmer brought in a new born puppy. She owned a dairy and had a very small Saint Bernard breeding kennel on the side. Her bitch had just whelped and had killed all but two of the puppies and had mangled one of those puppies’ back legs. At first, it appeared as just a puncture on the out side of the hind leg. We cleaned it and sent home antibiotics.

The next day, the farmer brought the puppy back in. The leg wound was now bigger, draining pus, and the foot was stiff and cold. We gave the puppy a guarded to poor prognosis with infection set in and a dead leg in a newborn, frail baby. The farmer, with all of her responsibilities as a dairy woman, did not have the time to dedicate to this sickly puppy. She decided it would be best for him to euthanize as he was not getting better.

I looked down at this beautiful, perfect except for a mangled rear leg, and could not picture myself sticking his tiny heart with a needle and then tossing him in the freezer where we kept dead animals. Now, at this point, I was just exiting my first trimester of my very first pregnancy (with India). We had just moved to this town, not 5 months ago, we were renting, and already had 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 horses. I was absolutely not in the right place to even think about taking on a new dog, let alone one that would need intensive care for 5 weeks and would grow to over 100lb. I talked it over with my best friend working there with me, Kim, and she encouraged me to take on this (currently) 1lb project.

I talked to the farmer about surrendering him and letting us try to amputate the leg and save him. She was in tears. She was a tough woman, running a dairy farm, but she had a fantastic heart. She was so upset that she was going to put him to sleep, but was thankful that we would at least give him a chance. I had him signed over and was now the owner of a very sickly infant St. Bernard. What had I done? What was Tony going to say when I came home? I knew he would understand. He knows who he married, but he would likely shake his head a little.

I brought him home, honestly under the impression that even if he survived to, and then through surgery, that he would likely die sometime after from infection, or fading puppy syndrome. I had 0-0.5 hope of his survival (#naturalpessimist), but I had to try.

The next day, we were to do the surgery. I had to meet my boss at a dairy to continue to learn how to efficiently palpate cattle for pregnancy. I went over and over the surgery in my head. Finally, we were done palpating cows and I would drive to the clinic to cut on this three day old puppy. We put him under with just some valium and then masked with gas. There were three people gathered around this 1 lb patient. Kim, our assistant, the other Dr. at the clinic running/monitoring anesthesia, and me, carving on what felt like a chicken wing from KFC. I dissected down to the femur, at some point severing the femoral artery that was so small, it never bled. I used a heavy pair of surgical scissors called Mayo scissors to score a shallow cut around the bone, like a glass cutter, then the bone broke easily in half.

**8 weeks and type of bottle we had used to feed him, but this particular bottle was for a baby goat**

I, then filed the end of the bone so it wouldn’t be rough on the muscles, closed the muscles around the tip of the bone, and finally, closed the skin over the muscle. Whew! We were done! We took him off of gas, and put him on oxygen only and waited for him to wake up. And we waited. And waited. He wasn’t waking up. That’s it, I knew this was stupid, but at least we tried, right? Then, the doctor helping me got some injectable dextrose and just put a couple of drops in his mouth. He woke up! Thankfully, she was able to keep her calm and remembered that neonatal patients will get hypoglycemic under anesthesia.

We took the puppy home, now named “Doomed puppy” because of my pessimism and superstition all rolled into one. We had to bottle feed him. The little bottle that came with the formula had a nipple that was way too small for his mouth. We ended up having to get a soda bottle and put the smallest goat nipple we could find on it. We also had to stimulate him to pee and poop until he was a certain age. He slept in a cardboard box on a heating pad in our bathroom for the first few days of his life and came with me everyday to work. We had to set alarms to get up every few hours to feed him.

One weekend we were travelling back to Georgia to announce my pregnancy to the families. We would take our dogs with us when we travelled and had the two big dogs in the backseat with the box of puppy in the back as well. He was about 2lbs at this point. Along the way, we stopped at Subway to get dinner but didn’t want to leave the puppy in the car alone with the two dog aggressive dogs, so I picked him up and placed him in an inside pocket in my coat and carried him inside. The workers there never knew I had a Saint Bernard in my coat pocket.

Eventually, we settled on a name “Merlin” and he continued to live in our bathroom, he particularly loved the bath tub. Every night, when it was bed time, he would just shuffle into the bathroom and lop himself into the bathtub to sleep. Having only had three legs his whole life, we always just figured that he would have no trouble learning to walk with three legs. Just like four-legged dogs who get an amputation later in life seem to do just fine, and to “not miss a step,” we thought that he would have even less trouble learning the ways. We were wrong.

Having basically been born with just the three legs and having never learned to walk properly, he would just scramble. He would pull his body along with his front legs and kind of paddle with his one hind leg. Thanks to the advice from my friend, Kim, we sought a Veterinary specialist in rehabilitation in Columbia, SC. She was able to make some chiropractic adjustments, and fit him for a cart for us to borrow. He hated that cart. We would harness him up and he would freak out and run around the room, getting caught on furniture and knocking over everything. We were finally able to harness him up and take him on walks in the neighborhood. It took a lot of practice, and he grew quickly and eventually had to return the cart, but by then, he had learned better how to get up on that back leg.

**1 year – India also pictured at 9 months**

He eventually got along on that back leg like it was nothing. We couldn’t take him on long hikes and I could only take him on a 1 mile “warm up walk” before my run so that he got to feel like he was part of the pack too, but he also loved to play tug-of-war – which is typically not recommended for pets because it can make them think everything is a game when you’re trying to take things from them – but this was his main method of exercising, and I could just tell him to drop it and it was over.

He loved vegetables, fruit, tissues, and baby socks. He would wait in the kitchen while I cooked, waiting eagerly for kale stems, carrot ends, strawberry leaves; would follow the kids around or sit next to me while strings of drool hung at his lips if we dared to eat an apple around him. He EXPECTED the core. He would run outside and help the horses eat watermelon rinds or try to find the scattered sweet potato skins I had just thrown out for the deer. If you left a paper towel or tissue within reach, he would stalk it because he knew he would get into trouble for eating it and the moment we weren’t paying attention, he would suck that thing down like it was a piece of cotton candy. Even when the kids were babies and we were in a complete state of chaos, if we forgot to close the baby wipes when we were done, you would catch him sucking each one down as it pulled up the next – like his own tissue Pez dispenser. His love of baby/kids socks got him in trouble too. We would constantly have to go out and buy more to make up for his dietary needs. Our kids were so trained not to leave their socks on the floor downstairs that if we went and visited another person’s house, our kids would come up to us and ask us where they could safely put their socks. Between the tissue diet and socks he consumed, once spring rolled around and we mowed the lawn for the first time the mower would spray our yard with confetti of tissue pieces and colorful sock remnants.

As Merlin got older, he would go through phases where he couldn’t walk as well anymore. Most of the time, he responded to pain medication, time, or a chiropractor adjustment. I took an x-ray of his hips to see the horror that I was afraid of. His only hind leg he had was suffering from horrible hip dysplasia. I knew, even though we were very diligent about keeping his weight down, at 120lb, it was still only a matter of time before he completely tore his cruciate ligaments in his only knee and then it would be done. He was definitely MY dog. Tony would tell me that if I wasn’t home, Merlin would just lay in the corner of the dining room all day, not moving even to go outside. He did NOT appreciate the kids and as he got older, he only became more cranky with them, especially when they got crazy silly.

**The circled joint is supposed to be a ball and socket joint – you see no ball or socket**

This past fall, he started having trouble walking again. We knew, at almost 9 years old, anytime could be his last. He was no longer getting up on his back leg anymore and would just scramble along the wooden floors. We would assist him outside and, at first, he would get up on the leg to go to the bathroom. We had him on three different pain medications, joint supplements he had been on his whole life plus a few more, got him some fancy Dr. Buzby’s toe grips, a Help ’em up harness, but still he dragged that stump around. Eventually, he stopped eating as much and the stump became raw and bloody. We had smears of bloody trails across our floors where he had needed to be with me. I altered his harness to pad the stump, but it wouldn’t stay where it needed to. I brought home an “After surgery wear” from work and altered that to pad his stump. That seemed to work better.

I had been avoiding it. I was in denial. When he would use every last bit of energy in his painful body to get to where ever I was in the house, I just knew he depended on me, how could I let him down? But finally, I stayed outside to watch him go to the bathroom, because now he was soaking his after-surgery wear every time he peed. To my horror, and with tears running down my face, I saw him drag himself to a spot and just sit and pee all over himself. Then, he dragged himself to another spot and pooped while sitting, only swinging his rear away to keep the poop from sticking to him. I knew it was time.

The final day, he was so excited to get to go in the car with us, as that was a rare occurrence for him. We were feeding him Milkbones like he was starving and he just thought that was the best. My mother even met us at the clinic and brought him a porkchop wrapped in a paper towel. He chomped that down too, paper towel and all. He was just having the best day! Of course, it took me and Tony to get him out of the car and into the clinic to our euthanasia room. He required a sling to hold his hind end up. But he just dragged us in, found the few people working after-hours, his tail just flagging like the happiest pup. We finally got him to the euth room and he stumbled and collapsed on the floor. Tired, from all his happiness. I gave him the sedation, then cuddled his giant bear head in my lap as the final injection was given. He was only 3 days old when I decided it wasn’t his time to go to the freezer and even though I had given him 3,200 more days of pure love, it still felt like I had abandoned him as we gently lowered his body, finally, into the freezer.

**My last picture with my Mer-man – he looks so tired**

Bye buddy.

August 2, 2020

Let’s hear it for the clients!

So, I’ve written about some of the more annoying things clients can do or ask of us. To be fair, the majority of our clients are considerate and polite. It’s like always having something funny and typically negative to say about your spouse or kids when you’re telling stories in public – if I spent all of your attentive time talking about how sweet my husband can be or how squishy my kids’ cheeks are, you would quickly grow bored and may have to hold back your gag reflex. So, I decided I’d write about the good guys (and gals) who keep me in this profession – and will try to keep it entertaining.

**A frequent flyer, this patient is everyone’s favorite and she knows it! Her owners are pretty cool too!**

Mr. Dean:

When I was working at my first job in South Carolina, it was my first time being a small animal vet and there was a huge learning curve. When I first met Mr. Dean, he was an imposing character. Older man, gruff, zero time for formalities or politeness. Not that he was rude, but he surely didn’t take the time for making you feel better about yourself. He was a hunter and had his pack of beagles. One of his beagles he brought to me wasn’t “doin’ too good” and we ended up diagnosing with kidney failure.

Mr. Dean was a very concerned owner. He would come to the office and just talk to me about his dog and his condition often and let me know how he was doing. I told him over and over about the basics of kidney failure and that a low protein diet was important to help his dog’s kidneys, but he continued to tell me how he makes him hand rolled meatballs every night for dinner and he “knows it’s not right, but he just loves them”. Then, he finally got to where his dog would eat biscuits. So, every morning, Mr. Dean and his wife would get up and make biscuits from scratch just to feed to their ailing dog.

**This is a picture of Norman – the beagle that wandered into our yard – he has since run away after his neuter**

Eventually, his dog got to the point where it was time to make “the decision” and Mr. Dean asked me to come to the house to euthanize his beloved beagle. This gruff, hardened man softened greatly at this point. It was hard to see, but we had been working so closely with his dog that I knew it was time to say goodbye. After his favorite beagle had passed, he gave me a tour of his property and his “hunting kennels”. These were not your typical hunting dog kennels – they were immaculately clean, the dogs were all allowed into the house at some point during the day. This gruff old man who spends his time hunting rabbits and turkey, even had a couple of turkeys that he had taken in as pets. I don’t know much else about him, but if I died and came back as a beagle, I would certainly want to come back as one of his.

There was one guy that I met after helping him deal with his ailing old boxer and then, eventually, euthanizing. In the next few weeks, we were all so happy to see him come in with a new little bulldog type puppy. That little puppy was just a little hopping ray of sunshine! He made us happy, but most importantly, he made his mourning owner happy. Everything was as usual through puppy vaccines, neuter, and into his first year of life. And then, it happened. The owner rushed this young dog into see us because he had been seizing and would not stop. We worked on him for what felt like forever, giving anti-seizure medicine, placing an IV, running blood, had him on monitoring, but we could not get him to stop seizing. I called my boss as I was still a new graduate and asked what else we could do. He told me to try giving tiny amounts of the euthanasia solution (which is just a concentrated anti-seizure medication) until the seizure stopped.

**Not the bulldog in the story, just super cute**

This was the point where I had to make the decision of whether to allow this dog to continue to seizure or give him euthanasia solution to SEE IF IT WOULD work. This was in the middle of nowhere with no access to emergency veterinary care, I was alone, I was still wet behind the ears, and everyone was looking to me to fix it. I went outside the building and started crying. This was all too much for me. Then I thought of one of the girls working there as an assistant and how I had heard her talk about how weak girls can be in situations of stress. So, I stopped crying and went back into the building and started titrating euthanasia solution (pentobarbital) until the sweetest little bulldog stopped seizing.

It took him almost 12 hours to come back to consciousness, but when he did, he wasn’t the same happy, go lucky sweet puppy. He was angry, charging the cage, growling, snapping. I talked to the owner and said that this can sometimes happen with the post-ictal phase where the brain is recovering and that we would just need to give him more time. He did not recover. Finally, the owner came in to see him to see if the dog would recognize him. He didn’t. Just like with us, he charged the opening of the cage, trying to bite this sweet man who was dealt too many unfair hands. Then the owner made the heart wrenching decision to euthanize. We could not even reach into the cage to get to the injection port in his IV line. We had to just stab the needle through the plastic line and give it that way.

Broken hearts are a commonality in this profession. That owner didn’t deserve that. He was a great owner, always wonderful to us, and was even gracious after the fact, knowing that we had done everything we could.

There have been farm clients that understand that we are hot, tired, likely deprived of calories. I had one client who brought me out a freshly made smoothie in a glass after I had worked on her horse’s lacerations. Numerous clients who have brought out water, soda, coffee, some even offered beer or wine. I had one client invite me in for lunch after working on his horses. I met his family, felt 100% too grungy to be in this nice of a house and around this much money, but it was so nice to feel welcome, especially when being called out for an emergency. Small animal clients who bring us buckets of coffee and doughnuts, buy us pizza, or a sandwich spread, cookies, baked goods for Christmas, even a card sent just saying thank you.

I had one client in Michigan, who, upon hearing that I was leaving, brought in a present of a bottle of wine made from their grapes in their garden (not a vineyard), displayed on a wooden wine bottle holder the owner made from wood from their own trees. The wine bottle was decorated with a picture of the horse that I had helped them with. I still have that bottle on my kitchen counter and am afraid to mess it up by opening it.

There have been so many good clients, it’s hard to tell a full story about each of them. There was the client who was comforting ME while I was euthanizing HER horse. She was very worried about me and having to do the procedure. There was one who gave me a beautiful drawing of their dog I had worked on. There are all of those who have their animal caught and restrained for us when we get there, or let us know ahead of time that their dog or cat has been known to bite – instead of waiting until we have finished listening to their heart and then suddenly have to dodge the teeth coming at our face only to have the owner say “yeah, I thought he might do that” – and ALL the ones that understand that we are slammed with sick patients and don’t grumble at us when we fly into their exam rooms, hair disheveled, 15 minutes late.

Then, there are all the clients who just make our job easier and, dare I say, worth while by the simple act of *drum roll!!!!* following our suggestions. It’s that easy. Sometimes, when I see a client coming in for a recheck, I get excited that they are actually coming back! And then, when I find out they’ve been giving the medications as I said (though I understand some animals are difficult to medicate – but at least they gave it “the old college try”) and using the products I told them would help the most – talk about a heart fluttering moment! I’m not even talking about spending all the money on all the available diagnostics and treatments, just giving a medication every 8 hours like I said, or applying ear medication once EVERY day, or decreasing the number of treats and food given and getting their dog to lose weight.

Some clients have really grown into our lives and become our friends that we think of on a daily basis, even if we moved far far away – Mr. Dean, I still “peench ” them dogs real hard before I give an injection, and you’re right, it seems to help.

Some clients feel the need to connect with us with gifts, which is awesome!

But, as medical professionals, we mostly only get to revisit the cases that are not improving despite the hours of research and brainstorming we have been giving to that animal; who have the call backs from clients complaining or upset; who pour hours of emotional weight onto people; consoling them or talking them through difficult decisions, knowing bad news and preparing to tell the owner who is waiting so hopefully in the room for something “easy” to fix, telling them bad news and just watching as the shock hits them followed by the collapse of their shoulders and welling of tears. ALL DAY. EVERY DAY.

So, being a polite, considerate owner when things are okay for you and your pet, or taking advice on treatment for your animal, or letting us know when something got better (even if we totally expected it to) is all it takes to be a good client in our eyes. Unfortunately, sometimes, we have to put up walls of armor through humor, usually dark humor, so I apologize to those who were offended by my last post, but at the end of the day, we’re all just softies who can’t watch movies where animals get hurt, and who break down crying when we watch a Subaru commercial, but sometimes have to use sarcasm as a way to make it through the day.

July 27, 2020July 27, 2020

What’s coming into the clinic?

I’ve decided to compile a collection of expected diagnosis based solely on judging a book by its cover. Basically, what we, as vets see coming in and go ahead and make large assumptions (normally we assume the worst or most obnoxious). So, here are some presentations and the expected problem.

Basset hound/Cocker spaniels: Ears. Always ears. Even if they’re just coming in for a rabies vaccine only and refuse to pay an exam fee, they will want you to check out their ears…. and a nail trim.

Red/white/blue pit bull: skin – allergies and or mange. Dilute colors = skin issues – also nail trim.

Labrador (any age, any color) not eating/vomiting – foreign body – ate toy, golf balls, raw hides, rocks, dry wall, socks, underwear, etc.

Any female dog over the age of 1 year and not spayed – WILL ALWAYS BE PYOMETRA until proven otherwise – and owner will give you a guilt trip about the expense of the emergency surgery “So you’re just going to let my dog die then?!?” even though you told them from the beginning to get the dog spayed “No, sir, I did not tell you to NOT spay your dog” (avoid a $800-$4000 emergency bill)

Puppy (any breed) under 1 year of age presenting with diarrhea, inappetence, and/or vomiting: Parvo until proven otherwise.

English bulldog: this one is wide open but can include some or all of the following: skin issues – (allergies, hair loss, ear infections, skin infections), respiratory failure due to nonexistent nostrils, too long of a soft palate, heart failure, or obesity. Inability to use hind end due to hemivertebrae, spinal bifida, obesity. Eye issues due to entropion (eyelid curling inward causing eyelashes to scrape the eye), cherry eye (gland of third eyelid popping out), dry eye (eye is dry.. and covered in thick green mucus and crust). Infection of skin around butt hole due to tail corkscrewing around and stabbing them in their own butt, also obesity. C-section: they literally cannot have puppies naturally due to large heads, small pelvis, and, well, often obesity (most also have to be artificially inseminated due to their poor conformation). *** hint – if you want an english bulldog, go ahead and save for $1500-2500 PER year in vet bills.

Old chihuahua/toy poodle – coughing – heart failure – will want nail trim – dog will turn blue trying to bite us

Young chihuahua/toy poodle – broken leg from getting sneezed on

Great Dane – vomiting/retching/bloated – GDV or twisted stomach bloated. Get to the emergency clinic NOW – the stomach is likely dying as you drive.

Cat (outdoor) swollen leg/lump/lethargic – cat bite abscess – sometimes caused by just a friendly cat fight gone wrong, but much more often by a neighborhood Tom – they will try to breed anything with a cat shape – male, female, spayed, neutered, it doesn’t matter and the fights that ensue end up with someone getting a serious bite wound. Cats have a particularly nasty bacteria in their mouth similar to the bacteria in a komodo dragon’s mouth and the bite wound will fester and cause fever, lethargy, limping until it breaks open and drains. Antibiotics are very helpful.

Male cat – vocalizing in the litterbox/posturing to urinate, but nothing or very little coming out – blocked urethra – right now emergency! Don’t wait until morning. The urine backs up to the kidneys and causes serious, sometimes irreparable damage.

Same thing goes for castrated, male goats – looks like stretching, urine dribbling, loud vocalization, sometimes looks like constipated – it’s not constipated – get to vet immediately! Some studies have shown that if you wait to castrate until 6 months of age and avoid feeding grain altogether, you can avoid this fatal issue.

Older Dachshund/chihuahua/other tiny breed dogs: “trench mouth” – the teeth are rotting out of mouth – will also want a nail trim.

Dachshund of any age, unable to walk/stumbling: Intervertebral disk disease – the same gene that makes them short legged and long backed also makes their connective tissue crap and they will often “slip a disk” and without surgery +/- major anti-inflammatories, will be paralyzed – will definitely request a nail trim.

Coughing dog anywhere in the southeast – Heartworm until proven otherwise

Dog constipated: diarrhea – almost every time. Diarrhea causes straining, straining looks like constipation. Most owners, including myself don’t necessarily pay attention to their dog every time they go out, but will notice when the dog is going out all the time and straining.

Dog stares off into space, stumbles, or collapses when not walking, urinated on self – marijuana – just admit it and save us all a big “told you so” and, like, $400 in diagnostics. We won’t call the cops.

Any animal with the history of “I think my neighbor poisoned him” = anything except poisoning by the neighbor – just doesn’t happen.

Lump on boxer : mast cell tumor until proven otherwise

Dog with episodes of choking or “something stuck in throat” – allergies with reverse sneezing or kennel cough

Dog with lameness/stiffness/lethargy in certain areas of the country: lyme disease until proven otherwise

Small breed dog with hind limb lameness: luxating patella (knee cap slipping out of place)

Large breed dog with sudden hind limb lameness: ruptured cruciate ligament (like the ACL tear in athletes)

Goldens: especially the super sweet ones that belong to a special needs child: Cancer. Every F***ing time.

German Shepherd: will rush the door viciously barking as soon as you open the exam room door. Everyone in the clinic will hear and will assume you saw the shepherd. Will not let you touch it the whole time without heavy restraint, muzzle, sedation. Absolutely will request nail trim.

Cat with scabs all over body: fleas/flea allergy (even one bite from a flea can trigger the allergy in some cats)

Obese draft/quarter horse/donkey/pony that is stiff, doesn’t want to walk: founder/laminitis

Anything that is scratching and not on veterinary prescribed flea meds: fleas. Always fleas. Especially if the owner preaches essential oils and says there are absolutely not fleas and uses a natural remedy for flea control – fleas all day.

Cat with significant weight loss: and drinking a lot/not eating: kidney failure. Eating a ton/personality change: hyperthyroidism

Anything named “Lucky” or “Miracle” = doomed.

Anything named “Angel” will bite, unprovoked – owner will definitely want a nail trim.

Again, these are things vets just assume when they see it on the schedule. It doesn’t mean every patient every time and we all certainly go into the exam room with an open mind.

April 19, 2020

TT: COVID-19 Update part 2

Alright, here we go. It’s been a little over a month since I wrote about how Emily, the kids, and I are doing while in the grip of the Corona virus. In general we are doing very well, and for that I am thankful, (perhaps not as thankful as I should be considering all the people that are truly suffering from COVID-19). But, to say that ours lives have not been completely changed in the past two months would be very wrong. I’m not sure if (the proverbial) you would classify this post as complaining or whining, but I’m going to think of it as an update on how we’re feeling and how we’re coping with our new found life.

**Emily’s quarantine Birthday, one of the 2 time’s we’ve gotten take-out.**

Luckily Emily and I both still working. The vet clinic where we work is still open and fully functioning, we are not turning any clients away and seeing all kinds of appointments (not just emergencies). I know most people have been quarantined to their house, their place of business has been shuttered, and they are staying home to self isolate and help flatten the curve. Emily and I have “essential” jobs and I am thankful. Our lives have maintained a certain amount of consistency because of this. We get up, we drop off our kids at daycare (still open for essential employees), we go to work, we pick up the kids, and we go home. But there is so much more stress and anxiety with everyday life now. I’m awake and writing this at 3:30 on Sunday morning. Neither of us sleep very well anymore, the corona virus is ever present in our thoughts, and the kids’ lives have been very much changed.

At work: at work COVID-19 is always present, always lurking around the next corner. We clean insistently. Every thirty minutes each phone, computer, calculator, door handle, and any other surface that is generally touched gets wiped down. Clients are no longer permitted in the building and that has been the case for a while now. We’ve tried to pair doctors and assistance to cut down on people’s exposure to one another. Everyone at the clinic wears a face mask to catch any sneeze or cough. But, even with all these precautions, COVID-19 lingers. There have been three coworker leave work due to illness. None of them have been tested, let alone tested positive for corona virus. But still, we have had three different cases of illness at the clinic. As an assistant, it’s my job to go out to the client’s car to get the patient and the patient’s history. Every time I go out to talk to a client, I can’t help but wonder if this client is sick, or have they been exposed before coming here. Is this next client taking social distancing seriously, are they wearing a mask to protect me from their coughs and sneezes? I have personally had clients try to hug me since this began. I’ve had several clients try to shake my hand, I’ve been coughed on, sneezed on, I’ve had a client put a pen in their mouth before attempting to hand it back to me (I politely declined the pen). COVID-19 and the fear lingers everywhere at work. Mostly I fear taking it home. I don’t fear getting sick myself, this is probably overconfidence, but I do fear being the one to get my kids sick.

**Calvin’s makeshift mask. I think it’s covering the wrong part of his face!!**

At home: at home the fear is more distant. When I’m at home the fear feels like it’s “out there.” It isn’t here, it isn’t present, but it is still lurking. Trying to find a way in to our little bubble of safety. Emily goes to the grocery store once a week or every other week to buy food, and that is our extent with contact to the wider world except through work and daycare. When we are not working we are home. In general it’s been nice. We’ve started new quasi education projects. We’ve learned that vinegar will eat the egg shell off an egg, now we have a very squishy egg sitting in a glass jar (we also learned that the egg will absorb some of the vinegar and expand – now the egg can’t fit through the top of the jar.) We have also started a container ecosystem. The kids and I went down to the creek on our property and collected rocks, mud, plants, and creek water in a big container. So far we have seen some worm looking things crawling in the mud, some bug creatures swimming around the surface, and two tadpoles swimming around. We’ve also started a garden, started taking walks around the neighborhood, and many other little projects. Without school, Emily and I are trying to educate the kids at home. This is very tough due to the lack of change in our schedules, we still work five days a week. Instead of reading to the children at night, they now read to us, the school has provided packets of work for them to do, and we’re rehearsing sight words. I hope it’s enough, India is in first grade and Oscar is in kindergarten so school isn’t too challenging. We are, however, getting restless. Understandably, the kids want to go to the park, they want to go to church to see their friends. I find myself staring at the mountains longing to go hiking again, the walks around the neighborhood are nice but they aren’t quite the same. We all long to be out in the world again, to eat dinner at a restaurant or to play at park, but we are making due at the house.

At least the media and social media seems to have more fully understood the dire situation we are in. I no longer hear a lot of people down playing COVID-19, although you still have your outliers like the quarantine protesters in Lansing, MI (even though Michigan has one of the highest disease rates in the nation) and “Dr.” Phil who compared COVID-19 to car accidents. In general we as a society now understand the risk that we are currently living with. Most clients are taking social distancing seriously, most clients are wearing masks when I go out to talk to them, and I’ve even had some clients cancel non emergency appointments because they didn’t want to risk their health for an appointment that could easily be rescheduled. Emily and I are trying to do our part, I think most of the people out there are doing their parts. I can’t imagine that this will go on indefinitely. This is not the new normal, but hopefully just a blip (a very scary and difficult blip) in our lives.

On a lighter note, there have been some good things to come out of being quarantined with the family. Work is more stressful but also more fun without the clients in the building. At work we can talk about things we would never talk about with clients in the building. Conversations tend to be more frank and honest and language is a tad more colorful (helps with stress relief). Patients’ histories are more direct. As a family we’ve learned that McDonald’s is still open even though Emily and I tried our hardest to convince the kids that it was closed. I look weird with a shaved face (I’ve grown back the goatee), and Emily likes to dye her hair pink. Trying to teach a 2 year old anything school wise is almost impossible(we tried to teach Calvin to write his name). We’ve also learned how to better be content with what we have and enjoy those around us. Enjoyment and fun is not found out of ourselves but comes from within.

Tell us what you think, how is COVID-19 effecting you and your lives? And, as always, thanks for reading.

April 17, 2020

It pays to spay and neutered is tutored.. or whatever

**Two bulls butting heads – fighting is another reason to have altered pets**

I would say that for the most part, owners these days are much more aware of the benefits of altering their pet’s reproductive abilities, but we still run into the not-so-rare emergencies that come from not having a spayed or neutered pet. There continues to be more research as to when is the best time to have the procedures done, but overwhelmingly, the consensus is that it is safer, healthier, and dare I say, less expensive to go ahead and have that surgery done.

For the bitches: An obvious reason that it is recommended to spay a female and remove those hormones and organs from her body is the prevention of accidental litters of puppies. Despite the fact that nowadays, you can slap a cute breed remix name on a mixed breed puppy and get some attention, overwhelmingly, there are too many homeless pets in the shelters being euthanized every day to take the risk of finding forever homes for new lives. You won’t know until it’s too late whether you’ll have to find homes for just one puppy (which can be hard on the mother as that one puppy tends to be much larger than individual puppies in multiple puppy litters) or 17 puppies. And let’s say you secure homes for all these puppies, don’t pat yourself on the back yet, now these families will need to keep these puppies forever without dropping them off at the shelter when they start chewing up the couch or drywall before you can count yourself responsible. Obviously, I’m not talking about responsible breeders. There are absolutely some wonderfully thoughtful and detail oriented breeders out there trying to improve whatever breed they have chosen through intensive genetic testing and screenings and I salute them.

**Puppies from an emergency C-section I did**

Other reasons it is healthier to spay your female: You will prevent an emergency, very expensive, very dangerous condition called pyometra – this is a condition where weeks to a few months after her heat cycle, her uterus, having been open to the world when she was in heat with an open cervix and the amount of mucus dogs tend to produce during heat cycles create an optimum environment for bacteria to enter and take over. So, a month or so after they’re in heat, they become lethargic, can become septicemic (systemic infection spread through the blood), sometimes vomit, and can die. They basically have a giant sac of pus sitting in their abdomen that can spread to the blood supply or the uterus can rupture and then fill the entire abdomen with disgusting infectious pus. This happens with enough occurrence that if vets see a female dog coming in for lethargy, vomiting, ADR (ain’t doin’ right) and she’s not spayed, it’s considered a pyometra until proven otherwise. This is a condition that is best dealt with by doing immediate surgery to remove said sack of pus. This surgery, especially in the middle of the night or during the weekend (when bad things tend to happen) may cost anywhere from $600 at your most rural practice to $2500-5000 depending on the severity of her condition when she presents at an emergency clinic. So, not only are you going to easily spend 6-10x what you would have to have a spay done, but now her life is in danger on top of anesthesia risk. There are non-surgical ways to treat (I know some were asking) but those are not at all guaranteed and can prolong your dog’s suffering and possible eventual death.

**Our dog, Rigby – a stray found wandering the back roads due to irresponsible breeding**

Lastly, medical complications like mammary cancer is greatly increased with the more heat cycles your dog has been through. Generally speaking, you’re bitch is safest if spayed before her first heat (prevalence of mammary cancer: 0.5%), then safer after her first heat (prevalence: 8%), and least safe after her second heat (prevalence of cancer: 25%)

**Oscar – but the picture looked right for all doom and gloom**

Other excuses for not spaying:

“She’s in a fence, she never leaves my yard” – great! As long as that fence cannot be penetrated by a male dog’s organ – because they can and they will.
“She’s a German Shepard and my male is a Chihuahua, there’s no way they even could” – Sweetie, where there’s a will, there’s a way. They can and they will.
“I’ve heard it calms her down to have just one litter” – Nopity nope. Not true. It will have a very different and unpredictable effect on every individual – some bitches get more aggressive with puppies. Also, if you start with a crazy/semi-aggressive/insecure mother, you’re more likely to have the puppies inherit/learn that behavior as well.
“She won’t hunt if we spay her” – Ummm, well, she won’t be hunting for males!! *knee slap*
“They are brother and sister or mother and son – they wouldn’t do that” – Yes. Yes, they will. They don’t care about human social structure or taboo when their hormones hit.
“I want my children to witness the miracle of life” – Let me suggest a DVD: PBS Nova’s Life’s Greatest Miracle. You can buy it on Amazon.com for $16.59 – Pop it in the DVD player, I think you can even watch it online. It will save you the risk of an emergency c-section (go ahead and put aside $800-$5000 just in case), the possible loss of life of your dog and her puppies, or the possibility of having orphaned puppies that you have to feed, and stimulate to pee and poop every 2 hours. And then, don’t forget the vaccinations, de-worming, and health examinations ($45-$100 per puppy depending on your area) you will need to get all those puppies before giving them to their new home.
“She’ll just get fat” – To be fair, obesity is a problem in all of our animals, surgically altered or not. We just like to feed them and forget how little they actually need. You are in complete control of their nutrition, they don’t have to worry about getting depressed and polishing off a bucket of cheese balls and a bottle of wine. You keep your dog at the right weight, not them. I’ve had surgically altered dogs my whole life and none of them have been overweight.

**Laonia – another dog found on the streets (parking lot of Kroger)**

Now for the boy’s side. To be fair, I don’t have nearly as many medically scary side effects of having testicles, but in short, being neutered will prevent unwanted puppies (yes, owner’s of males are also responsible for shelter euthanasias. I’ve heard too many times “well, I don’t have to worry about that because I have a boy”- just because you don’t see the litter born doesn’t mean it wasn’t your fault). Other medical reasons would be benign prostate issues when they’re older, testicular cancer, and preventing other emergencies such as being hit by a car when your dog runs down the road because he smells a female in estrus, dog fight wounds, etc.

**Norman when he wandered into our yard – intact male wandering. We neutered him, but then he ran away – we hope back home.**

Cancer: if you have the organ, it’s open to get cancer. Intact male dogs are more likely to not only have testicular cancer, but also prostate cancer, benign prostate hyperplasia (testosterone causes large prostate that presses on and blocks colon) and perianal (right next to the anus) cancer.

Other “excuses”:

“He’s my BOY! I wouldn’t do that to him, just like I wouldn’t do it to my best friend” (usually of the male persuasion) – A couple of things bother me about this one. For one, why are you emotionally attached to your dog’s testicles? Your dog isn’t. Your dog has no idea what those things are for and doesn’t care a wink when they’re removed. Second, would you keep your best friend, your “boy” isolated in the house while you go to work? Would you walk them on a leash? Would you let them poop in your backyard? Now, imagine your best friend was also your roommate and had typical male desires that comes with full testosterone load from having testicles. Now, imagine telling your “boy” that he won’t be allowed to be with females ever (because you’re responsible). Again, your dog doesn’t care about his testicles, but if he has them, he will want to do things with them. If he doesn’t have them, he’ll just live in an ignorantly blissful world where he never even knows he’s missing anything.
“He’ll get fat” – see previous reasoning in the girl section
“It’s not my responsibility if he gets out and gets a female pregnant” – This is just infuriating for obvious reasons
“I might stud him out” – good luck with that. He’s no Kentucky Derby winner and the very rare chance someone is actually going to ask to pay you for his services, you’re not likely to get much for it when you weigh all the risks of keeping him intact.
“I love it when they get those large, disgusting testosterone pumped butt holes” – Said no one ever.

**Hope you had as much fun as I did! Merlin – neutered Saint Bernard. Mangled (three-legged) survivor of a litter of puppies murdered by their own mother.**

April 4, 2020

Emergency! My horse gashed himself good!

Horses are well known for their impeccable ability to get injured even in a round room with padded walls. They’re 1000+ lbs of bulk that can move really fast and with momentum like that, any surface can be a sharp surface. Not to mention many injuries come from their incredible flight response in which they don’t even consider what or who is around them, they’re going “all in” and running away even if that means scaling or jumping a wall at the drop of a hat (sometimes literally). This can create some rather impeccable injuries and those injuries are the topic of this post. Some gruesome crazy injuries that I have encountered – all with happy endings, no worries.

No pictures of gruesome wounds. Only completely unrelated horse pictures.

**Cute foal cause it’s cute. Painting I did for a friend**.

************WARNING************ Detailed description of wounds/bleeding (as well as healing) to follow. Dad, you better sit this one out.

**Miniature horse – “Dolly” – given to India – unfortunately, India breaks out in hives when she touches a horse. =(**

Let’s start with my own personal disaster, Orion. My first horse, ever, was a middle aged quarter horse mare named Jinjer. She was the best – she would go anywhere, do anything and never spooked at anything. She was a level-headed tank of a horse. Then, when I was a teenager, I got odd jobs and finally saved up enough money to breed her. I was silly and decided to breed her to a thoroughbred to get more height and athleticism than my little 14.3h ex-barrel racing mare. It gave me what I wanted physically, a long-legged, well-built athlete with unending potential as a sport horse. Somewhere in the genetic swap, though, we lost the brain and got a skittish, scared, highly reactive animal. I sometimes thought that he was like a guy on a bad acid trip and that when the wind was blowing, he thought spiders were crawling through the grass – you COULD NOT ride him if there was even a slight breeze, or if you were wearing anything that crinkled.

**My favorite horse, Jinjer and a very young Orion**

His first disaster incident, I went out to feed them and found him at the bottom of the pasture, not wanting to walk. I ran to see what was the matter, and his right hock was flayed open. I gasped and cried. He was only 4 years old and had been coming along in training so well. We were planning to take him to his first show (and my first show) ever. I had been so incredibly excited, and now here he was, crippled with a huge fleshy opening on the front of his hock. Another horse in the pasture had chased him into the fence (barbed wire – bad stuff). I called the vet, they gave me a poor prognosis for his future soundness as the slice covered the whole front of the hock and cross all the joints. Once the joints are damaged or opened, it can mean life long lameness or even death in a horse. I declined taking him to the vet school as I was an undergrad at the time and had no money. The vet couldn’t do much at that point except bandage him up and start pain medication and antibiotics. I spent months tending the wound every day and over $1000 in bandage material and rechecks by the vet before it finally closed up. But, unfortunately, he was lame the rest of his life – he would drag the toe when he trotted.

His next fun adventure was when I was an intern at UGA and he was 11 years old. I had him tied to a 4×4 post that was concreted in the ground and securely fastened to the roof of the barn. I was grooming him and don’t remember what set him off, it was very likely the end of his rope hit the dirt ground with a soft “pat”. He freaked out. He threw his whole 1100 lbs backwards against his rope halter and snapped the 4×4 post about 6″ from the concrete bottom and ripped it off the rafters. And then, he took off. With the jagged post attached to his face with the rope halter.

**Orion “tied” to a metal post (rope just wrapped around so he couldn’t repeat this incident)**

Now, having that rope, dragging the post next to him was even scarier than the initial fright and he just kept spooking more and more the more he ran, the post dragging, bouncing around, hitting him. All I could do was watch and wait for him to stop his shear panic run. Finally, about 10 minutes later, he stopped and stood. He was breathing very hard and was trembling. Then I saw what I had feared would happen while he ran around frantically. There was blood streaming from his abdomen and splashing onto the post that was on the ground next to him. I just knew this was it, I just knew he had sliced his abdomen open and soon, his intestines would fall out onto the ground.

Somehow, though, I got very lucky and the jagged post had not penetrated his abdomen, but just made a huge gash in the bottom of his flank that tunneled a hole under the skin all the way to his hip – about 24 inches of skin ripped from the muscular layer. This wound took about a month or so before the open dead space between the skin and muscle finally filled in and the draining of serous discharge (a yellow colored fluid from inflammation and granulation tissue) finally stopped running down his leg, causing massive hair loss despite constant cleaning.

**His more sane mother, Jinjer while she was pregnant**

So, now I’ll move on to other impressive wounds that did not include my own horse and did not end up on the show (large chunk of muscle missing from pregnant racehorse mare’s hind). One was an Amish farmer’s cart horse who, like most, got spooked and ran between two sheds where the tin roof was a little low and sliced himself from shoulder blade to hip all the way down to the ribs. I could see the intercostal muscles moving with every breath. The farmer had packed the wound with burdock leaves and called us out immediately. It took about 2 hours of multi-layer suturing, but finally got the wound completely closed. I talked to the owner a few months later and he showed me a picture (on his phone -?-) of the horse looking back to 100%.

One early morning, I got a call that a horse had jumped a fence and had a huge wound. When I arrived, you could see most of the muscle from the upper right foreleg hanging to his cannon bone by just tendons with the radius (upper arm bone) partially exposed. I attempted to fix it with him standing, but he was too painful and I knew I would never get the lacerated muscle back in contact with the muscle origin while trying to fight with gravity, so I gave the horse enough anesthesia to lay him down. By now, though, the muscle was contracted and swollen and it still didn’t look good for getting the muscle back together. I sutured what I could along the sides for extra support and placed some large sutures in the muscles, then wrapped the whole front leg in one giant bandage. The most dangerous part of anesthesia with horses is the recovery as they are incredibly drunk and huge and trying to stand on toothpicks for legs. We painstakingly got him to wake up slowly and stand three-legged in the middle of a field with nothing but us ( 4 women) and some ropes to support him as he stood and wobbled.

**Touring the Michigan countryside with Dolly (the mini)**

Unfortunately, the sutured muscle didn’t hold and with the loss of blood supply to the end of the severed muscle, I ended up cutting away a lot of muscle and tissue, leaving a 4-6″ gap between origin muscle and severed muscle. Through continued bandaging and debriding of tissue, the wound eventually closed and the horse went on to training to become a western pleasure horse.

One day I got a call from another Amish gentleman that told me that his horse had injured himself a week or so ago and it was healing fine, but today, when he lowers his head to eat or drink, blood gushes out of his neck like a water hose. None of this sounded right or fit with any wound healing I could think of, so I packed up and headed out. When I got there, there was definitely evidence of a heavy bleed as the horse’s face was crusted over with blacked, dried blood, but there was not an obvious bleeding area. There was a wound on the right side of the neck in the jugular groove that appeared to be healing quite well, beautiful pink granulation tissue, no signs of infection, and contracting very well.

Then the horse tossed his head and that’s when a huge gush of blood came shooting out of his neck in the direction of his head. This was not old blood, or bloody fluid, this was whole, frank blood – it looked like a horror film. But as soon as he settled, the bleeding stopped again. I cleaned the area, put on gloves, and explored where the blood was coming from and as soon as I moved some tissue around and then held off the jugular vein on the body side of the wound, the gush of blood came flooding out again. I stuck my gloved finger in the hole the blood was coming from to plug it, then sutured the area closed tight. That did it. The bleeding stopped. I cleaned up and he thanked me and I went on my way.

**A friend’s horse and their temporary “pet” Ferdinand, the wild hog who adopted them.**

The next day, I saw that he had called me again and my first thought was “oh no, the sutures didn’t hold”. When I got to the farm, though, my sutures were still holding, but now the thing was bleeding from the other side (head side) of the wound. The same trajectory as the right jugular vein, but this time on the head side of the gap. This one was coming from a much deeper place and I had to plug the gushing hole while dissecting out the vein and pulling the friable dead tissue away and then placed suture around that vein. Finally, both sides of the gaping jugular were closed and the horse could heal.

He ended up recovering and returning to his job as ranch horse. The only thing I could figure was that when the horse had initially injured himself (caught his neck on a jagged piece of fencing while drinking), he had miraculously twisted off his right jugular vein and didn’t bleed to death right then. Now that the wound was healing though, somehow the vein opened back up. I know what you’re thinking; “That just doesn’t make any sense” and you’re right. I still don’t know what was going on.

**Dolly with her newborn filly, Sparta**

Horses are amazingly accident prone, but luckily, they’re also quite talented at healing. They are fantastic producers of a tissue called granulation tissue that looks like a bright pink, foamy tissue and, while very vascular and prone to heavy bleeding, will seal the wound from infection and fill the space for the skin to grow across. Sometimes, though, their amazing production of this tissue can get in the way when the wound is on a bony surface like the lower legs and will need to be gently shaved or trimmed away by your veterinarian to allow the skin to make it’s journey across. Luckily, granulation tissue does not have any nerves and the vet can sometimes trim away large amounts of the excessive tissue without hurting the horse – you sometimes don’t even need sedation – but the bleeding will look like a massacre. It’s okay, they have a lot, but PLEASE call a vet to do this or show you the proper way to or both you and your horse could end up seriously injured.