12/9/05 Ouch!

Fortunately things have slowed down a bit for me. In fact, work at the clinic has become a bit boring since Mike’s visit. But that is fine with me because when things are exciting I end up seeing monkeys, diaphragmatic hernias, and the like. Sometimes it is nice to just see vaccines, spays/neuters, and mange. But there is always something interesting to deal with.

This photo is a bit graphic but is a perfect example of a BD/LD case (BigDog/LittleDog). This pompek lives with several larger dogs, one of whom attacked him. Actually, he was quite lucky to only have a proptosed eye; I’ve seen patients in much worse shape after a BD/LD attack back home in Baltimore. The chances of him seeing out of this eye again are not very good but maybe we can save the eye because the owner brought him in fairly quickly (about 10 hours) after the attack occurred. I was able to replace the globe into the orbit and secure it in place. I’ll leave the sutures in for a few weeks and maybe all the stretched tissues will come back into place. Unfortunately I forgot to take an after picture. I'd say that I'll take a follow-up photo in a week or two but the chances are there will be a little pompek running around Grenada with his eyelid sutured shut next year.

The ridiculous thing is that this same owner had another little pompek that the same larger dog attacked and killed last year. Maybe it’s time to consider NOT keeping small dogs in the same house as this other large dog. Just a suggestion!