My office is lonely today; the blankets under my desk are empty because "Daddy" stayed home and is working from home today. This means he got to keep our dog, Verbal, with him. I am so very fortunate to have been able to bring her to work with me every day since we opened the hospital 6 years ago. Not everyone is that lucky, for sure. There are a lot of pets who spend most days alone, waiting for their humans to come home, some for long hours at a time. Verbal occasionally stays home when my husband Michael stays home. Getting to play in the yard HAS to be more fun than sleeping under my desk. But after the past two days of over the top emotions, I really don't like those empty blankets.
How about I tell you a bit about my wonderful Verbal dog? Can you guess where her name comes from? While it is true that she is very talkative and has an opinion about everything, that isn't the reason for the name. When I brought her home as a 4-week old puppy, I thought it best to let Michael have a go at naming her. We had just bought our first home, and I had already brought home chickens and ducks and we were working on fencing to move our horse home. Our favorite movie at the time was "The Usual Suspects" with Kevin Spacey. He actually had two character names in that movie, and Keyser Soze just didn't fit a cute little girl puppy. His other name was "Verbal" Kint.
Yes, 4 weeks is way too young for a puppy to be leaving its mom and litter mates. She was actually brought into the clinic where I was working that year to be euthanized after her daddy dog mauled her for getting too close to his food bowl. She had a fractured jaw and her tongue was torn to the point that only a 1/4 inch strip of delicate tissue held it in place. Well, I could understand putting down an aggressive dog that would do such a thing to a helpless puppy, (would he hesitate if it was a young child, after all?) but certainly not the pup. The "breeder" (I use the term loosely as this was a cross-bred puppy, Labrador and Golden Retriever, where no health testing of the parent dogs had been done prior to breeding-more on that later) refused to spend any money on fixing the pup as they had 9 or 10 others at home and the costs seemed too much to them. Michael and I really had started talking about adding our first dog to our family, so I asked for these people to surrender the puppy to me so I could assume her care.
The owners of the clinic were great, big-hearted people and allowed the surgery to place a pin in her tiny jaw and attempt the re-attachment of that hanging tongue. I was really concerned about the nerve and blood supply, and because the tissue was so swollen, didn't think the sutures would hold very well. But young animals have special angels looking after them and my new puppy healed very quickly. Yes, to this day her tongue is a bit goofy, curling up to her ear when she yawns, and most of her water goes anywhere but in her mouth when she drinks (is that any different from most floppy-lipped dogs?) But it adds a bit of character to her big goofy smile, and boy does she have a great smile!
She was growing quickly and healing well, so about 10 days later we anesthetized her to remove the pin from her jaw. Her heart actually stopped during the procedure and required aggressive CPR and an injection of epinephrine or adrenaline right into the heart itself to get things started again. Obviously we were successful in getting her back, but the lack of oxygen to her brain resulted in her being blind for a full day and she was ataxic or wobbly for about a week after! It was awful; I was so in love with that little girl already and hated seeing her like that. Thank goodness it was a transitory thing, likely brought on by low blood sugar. We usually fast animals (withhold food) before surgery and in very young patients like her, probably should have shortened this time. I threatened her that she would never get anesthesia again, having to stand very still and suck it up when she was spayed (just kidding!)
So, as I mentioned, with no health testing of the parents, it was inevitable that the puppies of that litter were affected by serious issues such as hip and elbow dysplasia, orthopedic conditions where the joints don't form normally and result in painful motion. Verbal was actually "rabbit-hopping" to prevent that pain at 6 weeks of age-that's how bad her hips were! She had a femoral head and neck ostectomy (FHO) surgery to completely remove the ball from the ball and socket joint of her worse hip joint. It was a terrific "salvage" procedure for a bouncy, busy young puppy where confinement would really be an issue if we chose other types of surgery with lengthy "keep them quiet and off the leg" recoveries. Her strong muscles of the thigh are holding the joint together.
Verbal has been what I lovingly call my "genetic disaster" dog. Other than her routine spay at around 5 months of age and the FHO and jaw and tongue surgeries, she has had multiple surgeries on her legs, been treated for allergies in the form of skin and ear issues, and has had several dental procedures. A few of her permanent teeth were affected by the pin placed in the jaw and subsequently "died." I have always been a bit cautious about her temperament, especially around little dogs, since she has that genetic trait passed on from that "wonderful" daddy dog of hers. She has had numerous lumps and bumps, but two very serious cancerous masses where she had radiation therapy for one and radical surgical excision for the other.
She has been a trooper, going through all those anesthetic procedures and now managing her multi-modal analgesia (pain management) for pretty bad arthritis. Her remaining teeth are worn down from always chewing on tennis balls when she was younger. I learned all about that from a veterinary dentist when I noticed her teeth were gradually wearing down to the gum line. He told me tennis balls have silica in them, a very abrasive substance. So be warned about letting your tennis ball-obsessed dogs chew on those balls. It is fine to play fetch, just take them away after the game so they aren't worrying them and abrading their teeth away like Verbal did.
Verbal is 10 years old this year and is slowing down like older dogs do. Since I really thought each time she faced cancer that I would lose her, every extra day with her is a wonderful gift.
She puts up with the various cats and other critters I have brought into our lives at different times in her life. She doesn't have time for me to be sad, often coming to me and pushing my arm up with her big nose, telling me things will be fine. She loves to chase the chickens and rabbits in our big yard, never wanting to catch them, often just bouncing in place to try to get them to go so she can chase them again. She is such a happy dog, always having a stick or stuffed toy in her mouth when one is to be had. Can you tell how very much I love that goofy yellow dog? Aren't we all lucky to have these great friends in our lives?
Peace,
DrReneigh
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