Of Foxtails and Bitches

Paulie Walnuts is a soft wirehair dachshund and with the exception of his occasional grooming, has required very little monetary upkeep. Recently his ear had been giving him trouble; he would scratch the inside until it bled. Constantly. He had a lot of wax in that particular ear so I just figured we should pick up an ear cleaner and give him a few shots of it. I asked the husband to call the vet to recommend an ear solution. The vet tech recommended that we come in instead. Paulie is one of Dr. R's favorites so bringing him we figured was just a way for him to see Paulie after a long absence. When we walked in to the office there were three other dogs there plus several whimpering animals that we could hear from the back room.

In the middle of the waiting room was a giant white fluff. She was a Great Pyrenees named Smidgen. She was in town for a dog show but wasn't feeling her best. The "bitch" (the co-owner's label, not mine) only had her picture taken before heading to our vet's office after a referral from someone at the dog show. She laid on the ground panting and looking rather sad. Another patient was a black pug whose owner had just moved to town. They came home at lunch to find a swelling on the side of Rafiki's neck the size of an orange. Terrified, they found Dr. R in the phone book and brought her in. Howling in one of the rooms was a less than one year old bloodhound. He was upset about something but Paulie was curious enough to poke his head into the room and make him howl even more.

When it was Paulie's turn Dr. R asked us to hold him and briefly talked about the great new ear solution that he would give us for Paulie's ears. He looked into Paulie's right ear which was healthy and pink. He didn't look into his left ear for long before he pulled a tube out of the drawer next to him and said, "He has a foxtail in his ear." I was confused and he showed me the tube - in it was what looked like a bunch of small, thin dried leaves.

The good news was that he could remove it and the bad news was that Paulie would have to be knocked out. So Dr. R gave him a quick shot from a syringe in his shoulder to calm him. We took Paulie to the waiting room for about 10 minutes for the doggy-valium to take effect. They brought another syringe out with some stuff that looked vaguely familiar and then took him into the back room. A few minutes later, Dr. R brought out the offending seed that looked like some kind of insect. He offered it to me as a souvenir and I declined. They cleaned him up and while still sedated, brought him to me to hold while he came to. He couldn't hold his tongue in and was totally out of it. He eventually started to come to - looking like he was watching a tennis match as his head bobbed from side to side. After 30 minutes of watching him slowly come out of his drug-induced haze, we took him home. Our story had a happy ending thankfully.



But during those 30 minutes of waiting we saw some not so happy scenarios play out. Smidgen, the bitch who was not feeling like her usual peppy 10-year-old self had an x-ray taken to see if she had possibly eaten something that she should not have. The prognosis was bleak: this sweet, giant cotton ball had a massive abdominal tumor. They didn't think she would make the car ride home to Illinois. Her days had been reduced to hours and her other co-owner would be flying in to say goodbye tomorrow morning. The vet tech and Dr. R exchanged looks that made me think tomorrow's flight could be too late.

As we were leaving, Rafiki was being taken into the backroom to test a salivary gland for the cause of its swelling. I recognized the fear in the owner's eyes and felt terrible for her.

I am sitting here on my couch with a sweet little yellow fluff in my lap; warm and sweet and still very much out of it. I am thankful that we didn't have to make any hard decisions today.