Tag: The Vet
Mocha is so out of it right now.
He just came back from the vet. They gave his teeth a good cleaning. This was his annual dental cleaning. Doing this requires being sedated. Though he’s awake right now, the sedatives are still swirling around in his little body.
So Mocha is just kinda wandering around, looking at nothing in particular and going nowhere special. Every so often, he’ll lean up against our legs or the wall. Or he’ll wobble for a moment, then slide to the ground and just stare. It’s like he’s high or something. So naturally, I had to take a picture of our lil drowsy doggie. Hehe.
We took Mocha to the vet today to examine a bump on his head. An old tick bite seems to have gotten infected. Thankfully, it wasn’t anything serious. But while at the vet, we asked him about Mocha’s odor too.
Mocha stinks. He stinks more than a normal dog should stink. Whenever he’s playing with Melvin & Cabbie, he’s the stinkiest one of the three. People will walk by and say, “Damn those dogs stink!” And it’s not dogs, it’s dog. It’s Mocha.
The vet asked us if it was a fishy odor. It mostly smelled like ripe dog to us, but there seemed to be a fishy element.
“It’s his anal glands,” he told us.
Anal glands?
“You know how dogs smell another dog’s butt when meeting a new dog? They are smelling the scent from the other dog’s anal glands.”
Ah.
“These glands can become full or impacted if he doesn’t defecate regularly. How regular is Mocha?”
Mocha’s usually goes about twice a day – although lately, he’s been going once a day. Perhaps he has a bout of constipation? The vet seemed to be onto something. He inspected Mocha’s butt. I imagined Mocha squirting his anal gland juices like a skunk onto the vet’s face. Sorry, my mind wanders sometimes.
“I would suggest feeding him some pumpkin every day. From what you’ve told me, his diet isn’t high in fiber and he could use some. Pumpkin is a safe source of fiber for a dog. It’s also nutritious and some dogs love the taste.”
Sounds great!
“The alternative is to express his anal glands.”
Express? His anal glands? Like drawing a picture of them?
“Either I can do it for you, or I can teach you how.” He then proceeded to describe the procedure. And, um, I think we’ll stick to the pumpkin for now.
Hello pumpkin, good bye stink!
Photo via: the_girl
Woof woof whimper. Whimper whine whine. Woof woof whine. Whimper whine whine.
Woof woof woof. Woof woof woof. Bark! Bark bark bark! Yip yip yip yip yip!
Woof woof woof. Woof woof woof. Woof woof woof. Woof woof woof.
Woof woof bark! Yip yip yip yip yip!
Translated from Dog:
Daddy took me to a scary place today. A man in a white coat put me on a scale and looked all around my body. The place smelled like pee. I smelled dogs and cats being scared too.
But after that place, Daddy put some water in my food. It made my food soggy and moist. And yummy! OMG it was so good! Thank you Daddy thank you!
I wonder if the man in the white coat told him to do that. I haven’t been eating because the food smelled yucky. It’s the same food Daddy always gives me. Except it was near the bottom of the bag and smelled yucky.
Now that Daddy is putting water into my food, it tastes so good now! Thank you Daddy thank you!
Today the sutures come out! Woo hoo!
Mocha isn’t as excited though. He’s licking his chops nervously. Something’s up. He knows it. Something potentially scary and painful. Something to do with his pee pee. (“Bad touch! Bad touch!”)
But don’t worry boy, everything will be fine once it’s over. The sutures will come out real easily, and then you’ll be able to go into the pool and the dog beach. Won’t that be fun! Woo hoo!
After picking Mocha up from the vet, I walked him for a bit so we could get to know one another. I also wanted him to poop and pee before coming into the apartment. Fortunately, that seemed to work. No poop or pee in the apartment! Whew.
He cowered away from other people though, especially men. It made me wonder if he was abused earlier in his life. His tail was permanently tucked between his legs as we walked around. Poor little guy.
He wandered around the place, sniffing every little corner and crevice. Mocha was still nervous, so I tried to be as calm as possible. He eventually gravitated towards a particular corner and laid down.
This probably didn’t help, but I couldn’t resist taking lots of pictures. I felt like a new Dad who takes thousands of pictures of his first child. If we ever get a second dog, he’s going to have like just two pictures. Ever.
I played with him as often as I could, so he could grow comfortable with me. Being in a drowsy state, he entertained me a bit, then wandered back to his new favorite corner to nap.
At one point, Mocha got up, so I outfitted his corner with an old towel and some dog toys. He just sniffed them and laid down again. I think I had more fun with his toys than he did. That sounds dirty. I mean, I had fun arranging them around his head for my photos.
As expected, Mocha was pretty timid on his first day with us. He eat well though, despite being heavily medicated from the neutering operation. That was a great sign, especially since he was so emaciated. (I kept saying he was emancipated, to which Mia finally replied, “Well, of course he’s emancipated. He’s out of the shelter now, a free dog.” Hardy har har.)
Welcome home, Mocha! You’re a free dog now.
Today I picked up our new best friend from the veterinarian. He was just neutered, chipped, and vaccinated – all necessary things to do for most family pets.
He was pretty drugged up and mellow. I imagined him thinking, “Dude, this is like… dude… what’s going… where am… dude… this is all like so… dude…” Not sure why I imagined him talking like a surfer dude, but I did.
The stitches were red and raw. I couldn’t help taking a peek, then grabbing my own balls and shrieking in sympathetic pain. “I’m sorry boy, I’m real sorry,” I whimpered. His balls looked like a shriveled little prune sack. How sad.
We don’t know his exact birthday, nor his exact age, since he’s from an animal shelter. Just the same, we decided to make today – May 26th, 2009 – his 1-yo birthday. Being the geek that I am, I marked it on my Google Calendar so I wouldn’t forget. You laugh now, but wait ’till you forget a birthday and wish you had a Google Alert warning you of a friend’s upcoming birthday.
We have a feeling Mocha is probably younger than a year right now. But just so we could stick to the human convention of celebrating an entire revolution around the Sun, and because we’re a bunch of saps, we made today his birthday.
Happy Birthday shriveled-prune-sack dude!
