Being a vet is quite a serious business.
One of the best bits about our one pet one vet policy is that I get to know my clients and my patients well, over an extended period and a number of visits. So I feel that, on the right occasion a little leg pulling might be acceptable.
One day I needed to check a spaniel’s ear canals. Not every animal will allow their vet to put a firm hollow tube into their ear. It does take quite a calm relaxed pet. And if the ear is infected, inflamed or painful then it requires trust from the little one to allow me to help them in this way.
I find it helps if the patient can hear me continuing a calm conversation with their owner. My intention is to send a signal to the pet that everything is normal and acceptable. They are so telepathic that if we become tense as we gather around them, it’s only natural that they tense up, wondering what is about to happen.
So, I continued a gentle monologue as I prepared my auroscope to look down his ear canal. It has a light, which I turned on, and a magnifying glass for me to look through. As I set myself up to insert it down the nearest part of the canal I was murmuring reassurance. I checked there was no ulceration or foreign body present, then gently inserted the probe deeper, adjusting the angle to slip it round the ninety-degree corner between the vertical and the horizontal ear canals. This allows me to see towards the eardrum, which separates the outside world from the pet’s brain.
At this point I asked the client to let me know when the light shone out the other side. She replied steadily that she couldn’t see it, but that she would keep looking. Her family and I cracked up with laughter. Only then did she realise that I have been implying that her beloved pooch had nothing at all between his ears.
They still tease her about it now.
