Poor Puppy

Poor Jack. Jack is our circumferentially enhanced Australian Terrorist. Breed standard says he should be around 14 lbs. Vet scales yesterday put him at 24.6lbs. Yesterday was a bad day for the pup. He had been doing some pretty weird face scratching after drinking water the day before. I opened his mouth and couldn't see anything and thought maybe a tooth issue was going on. It happened to be time for his thyroid re screening, hence his weight problem, so called the vet to take him in for both situations. Upon vet's exam with three helpers holding the dogs jaws so he couldn't chomp the vulnerable fingers, it was revealed that there was pencil size stick caught between the back molars of Jack's mouth. Since it was so far back and so deeply embedded in the roof of the mouth Jack got a quick dose of sedative so that work could be done to remove it. The good vet took the stick out with a set of forceps and rinsed the bleeding and cut off bad tissue. Nasty. The bone of the roof of the mouth was exposed it was so deep of a cut. I was told it was to be a week of house arrest and canned dog food for a week for Jack.

Poor puppy is right. You have understand that even tho this boy is way over the supposed to be weight limit, he is not slow. He can catch lizards with ease, and birds and whatever small rodent he might come across. Bugs, frogs and now apparently sticks are part of it too. Jack's days are spent in the quest for more things to eat and the great outdoors holds no end to the smorgasbord. The initial reason of the vet putting him on the thyroid medicine was to help with his sluggish metabolism and hopefully help him lose weight. It did pep his spirits tremendously but no weight was lost because he just got to the food faster. Jack is a serious supplementor.

Anyway, back to our sedated pup. Jack is laying there on the stainless table with tongue hanging out and a stupor in his eyes while we waited for him to start shaking off the juice. There is a bit of blood coming from his mouth, but not bad. So the girl assistant decides to take advantage of his situation and cut his toe nails. She got two of them done and then struck the quick on the third. Now we have major gusher. Poor puppy again. The vet comes back in, sees the mess, rolls his eyes and grabs some gauze and tape to fix the flow of crimson.

The hemorrhaging contained with bright green flex wrap and white tape up to the elbow, Jack starts to come back to the planet. I was told that this type of sedation tends to make them do a funny behavior upon trying to awaken. The behavior actually is called the "Stevie Wonder Syndrome". It is a side to side wagging of the head that really looks just like what the famous singer does. Should have had a video camera. Opportunity for fame and fortune on You Tube was lost.

Jack is now home from the clinic and will be an inside dog for the week while his mouth heals. For a week there wont be any trip to the barn to pick up spilled grain from the horses mouths, or the stuff from the other end. No sticks either. Jack is adapting well to his incarceration and is getting used to this pampered life of luxury pretty quickly. Sofas do make pretty good dog beds and there is a neat dark cave to hide in with lots of soft cloth things to lay on just past the water bowl that the people sit on. The food is great, real canned chow with beef and rice instead of the dry chunks. Yup life is rough. But I think Jack is just doing quite alright with his poor puppy status