Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The deed is done, the dog is down

The advantage (or disadvantage!) to having a vet in the house is that you can do surgery on your dining room table.

Where else but in homeschool can you get "Small Animal Surgery 101" in first grade?

Tis strange to have our boisterous boy (the four-legged one) wanting little else but to lay around with his head in my lap.

I hope you feel better soon, Jackson!

That's it for now at . . .

17 comments:

melanie said...

And the disadvantage might be that no one will accept another dinner invitation, knowing what ELSE you do with that table! (Ha-ha! Just teasing)

Hope everything heals well...

Pat in east TN said...

HA ... I was thinking the same thing as Melanie!

Beautiful dog and hope he is feeling better now.

Michelle said...

Drat, you're already onto my scheme to cut down on house guests.... :-)

Heather said...

Wow, are you lucky! What did Brian think of it all? I just paid $401.00 to have my pup neutered. I think I'll marry a vet!

Anonymous said...

Oh goodness, hope you sterilize that table, LOL! Hope Jackson feels better soon.

Unknown said...

having worked at a vet. clinic for 7 yrs(and one that actually does farm animals too:)I can only laugh because I can recall some funny things that happened at the vet. Working for a vet. was best experience I could have had prior to getting into farm animals. Great post Michelle!

Kathy said...

Oh, oh...another "HooHa-ectomy". :) The two boys we have left got theirs a couple of weeks ago. They don't miss their HooHa's at all. ;)

Why is it every vet I know uses the dining room table for surgery? LOL!

And, like every other male - they try to get sympathy from the Alpha females.

Michelle said...

Holy cow, Heather! Does your vet suture up the dog with gold thread??? The reason Rick got around to "doing the deed" is that the local small animal clinic was going to charge $100, and our prices out here tend to be higher than some other areas.

As for the dining room table, you all can't tell me that things just as, um, "organic" haven't been on YOUR tables, you meat eaters you! :-) It's the only large-enough surface at a good working height we have around here!

Gone2theDawgs said...

Most surgery tables are much cleaner than the average dining room table. I wouldn't have any problem having dinner at your house! :) Besides I always say what's a few dog hairs between friends! I won't mention the spay I had to have done on Kylie that ran in excess of $1,700.......

Michelle said...

Tammy, OUCH! That vet must have replaced Kylie's ovaries with gold nuggets!

Carol B. said...

I am wishing your dog a speedy recovery with no hard feelings toward the one who did the deed.

I need to be thinking about appointments for Hannah and Belle to be spayed. I am thinking that I will take Hannah in first. She is also due for a rabies shot. Belle has had all of her shots.

When you have a lot of 4 legged family members, it must be nice to have a veterinarian in the family too.

~~Sittin.n.Spinnin said...

Poor Jackson! I am a huge advocate of fixing pets, I get pretty outraged at people who dont, but after the surgery they always seems so dispondent and confused and you know they feel like doodoo! Poor baby

Pamela said...

Wow! That is so interesting! One thing I have always wondered. How come vets doing surgery don't use masks?

Hope he gets to feeling better real quick!

And lovely table, too. Very pretty!

Michelle said...

Pamela, some vets do, but it really depends on the type of surgery and the kind of animal. The old saying, "It's hard to kill a cow," is totally true. Orthopedic surgeries have to be done with sterile technique, as they are more prone to really tough infections; castrations are not that problematic. Shoot, when I was a teen living on my dad's family farm in the panhandle of Texas, my grandfather castrated horses himself! Tied one leg up, laid them down, had someone sit on their head, used his pocketknife, and poured salt in the wound to help draw out any "bad stuff." And you know, we never had one get infected or have any other complications.

Tammy said...

Hope Jackson will soon be up to snuff again. I'm glad the 'deed is finally done', so it's behind you all and you can move on. That has to be much easier on the pet, to keep them in there own home and they (hopefully) never clue into what is going to happen. Thanks for sharing Michelle--a really interesting post.
Tammy

Miss Effie said...

Michelle -- That's exactly how I grew up. My dad was a large animal vet and his office was 15' out the back door of the house.

I can't even remember the number of times I watched a spay while munching on a peanut butter sandwich.

I can still smell the office --- what a wonderful life you have given your son.

And I would come to dinner!!!

Clink

Kathleen said...

After seeing my dog spayed at our Peruvian vet's office, I think your dining room table surgery is fabulous. When my dog was fixed, the vet had 5 other dogs on, around, and under the surgery table, all waiting their turns or in various states of recovery. And her 5 month old son crawling around on the floor between her feet while the operation was done. I was appalled, but Celeste seems none the worse for it!