Holiday Hound

One thing I forgot to write about regarding our holiday was Hound, and her adventures.

Where we stayed had several other dogs around, including Shep – a cross-eyed collie who ran diagonally. No idea why he ran diagonally, but I suspect it may be related to being spectacularly cross-eyed. Anyway, on the Sunday, Shep and Hound got on great, and were both chasing after the same tennis ball.

They both leapt for it, Hound leapt highest, got the ball, then crashed heads with Shep – Hound’s jaws descending on the top of Shep’s head. Shep was fine. Hound, however, wasn’t. She started coughing up dollops of blood, with some also running down her nose. As you can imagine, we were more than slightly concerned.

During the evening, Hound settled down a bit, but was obviously still not happy. The bleeding stopped, so we didn’t worry about it too much. We decided to see how she was in the morning.

Come morning she was still being deeply dismal, and while not in pain was also not happy at all, and some more blood had come out overnight. So, on an Irish bank-holiday, we had to go to the vets. The people who owned the place recommended one, we called him, and were assured he was opening anyway, so bring Hound along.

We found the place, and took her in – to find what has to be simply the best vet I’ve ever come across. As soon as we explained she’d got Megaoesophagus, and that she’s now eight years old, he was impressed – dogs with Megaoesophagus rarely get past five years old. It turned out he’d dealt with several dogs over the years with the same issue, and so knew lots about it, including being able to give us some new ideas for a couple of things which we’ll be trying when we need to.

Hound ended up being sedated/knocked-out, so he could see what was going on. While she was out for the count, he also (without being asked) did a full health check on her, looking at all her limbs, teeth, eyes, and checking heart, lungs etc. As you can imagine, on a bank holiday with her already sedated, and being owned by two English people on holiday, the expected total cost of treatment was going up like a taxi-meter in our mind’s eyes… He also cleaned the tartar off her teeth while she was out, saying “Well, you don’t want to have to knock her out too often”.

As it turned out, when Hound collided with Shep, she’d managed to dislocate her jaw, then force one of her teeth through the roof of her mouth. He reckoned that the impact of her landing again had then re-located her jaw back into the correct place. She was fine, just with a bloody big hole in the top of her mouth.

He ended up giving her a long-term antibiotic- one jab for the week- and an anti-inflammatory, as well as four more anti-inflammatory pills for the rest of the week.

So all told:

• Initial consultation
• sedative pre-med injection
• Ketamine sedative
• Full mobility check and health check
• Teeth cleaned
• Antibiotic jab
• Anti-inflammatory jab
• 4x anti-inflammatory tablets

On a bank-holiday.

And the total bill? €50 I don’t know how he does it and stays in business, unless it’s just the repeat trade. God knows, if he were on the mainland (anywhere on the mainland) he’d be our primary vet from now on. Absolutely fantastic.

And Hound was fine after that, no more trouble at all. Thankfully.