The phone rang and my heart sank.
I had been on call three nights out of the last six, and had been hoping for a quiet evening. I couldn’t relax with a glass of wine when on call, but I could at least relax
“My German Shepherd Sabre’s got something wrong with his mouth. He keeps pawing at his jaws, and won’t let me look.”
This was clearly not something I could put off till the morning, so I agreed to meet the suffering pair at the Clinic in twenty minutes. It occurred to me that I might be facing a long night watching Sabre recover from an anaesthetic, if he wouldn’t let me look either. So much for my relaxing evening…
In the consulting room I made friends with Sabre and spent a few minutes ruffling his coat and scratching his back. He seemed cool, so I asked him to sit and positioned myself crouched in front of him.
Was I about to lose my fingers?
Steeling myself, I took his jaws in my hands and prised his mouth open.
I was surprised to see a chunk of wood tightly wedged right across his hard palate, from the inside of one tooth to the other. I let go.
“New problem, how am I going to get this out?” I thought.
I opened a drawer for a pair of round tipped, curved scissors. Opening my perfectly obliging patient’s jaws again, and keeping the scissors firmly closed, I slipped the tip of the scissors between his palate and the wood, and it just popped out. Sabre spat, and it clattered out onto the floor.
It just remained for me to collect my fee, and I could immediately return home to my relaxation. Result!
Don’t forget our dog show as part of Haywards Heath Town Day this Saturday 7th September in Victoria Park, just behind the Mewes Vets Clinic. We will be taking entries from 12pm, enter as many classes as you like, at £2 per class. Join in the fun! For more information go to themewesvets.co.uk/events .
