Convalescing
The vet called yesterday morning with the bad news. "He's mighty wiggly, so I did the best I could to find the undescended testicle and couldn't find it with him awake. We'll have to do exploratory abdominal surgery, and of course, that will be an extra fee and his recovery will take longer."
"What would be the worse case scenario to not remove it" I asked, dreading the long week or weeks of keeping him on a leash and out of the creeks".
"I once removed an 8 pound cancerous testicle from a dog. The undescended tissue predisposes to cancer and there's no way to spot it until it is a large tumor, put I can't give you any odds" she told me, honestly and sympathetically.
At one o'clock, she called back. "Good news. With Tsuga sedated I was able to find the missing testicle, descended but deep and embedded. No abdominal incision. He should be good to go tomorrow."
We pick him up at noon. We will keep him chemically sedated for a few days to give his incision time to heal. I'm going to see if the vet will prescribe some for Ann and me, too. Maybe we'll all just sleep through the remainder of this ordeal and wake up perky about Wednesday of next week.
Annxious Ann is all worried that without his gonads he's going to come back all limp-wristed and effeminate, a mere shadow of his former obnoxious self, and it will be OUR FAULT for disfiguring his little doggy uniqueness. She even considered calling the vet and asking them to put the missing parts back in place. I think she was kidding about this. But you have to know how some of us here are governed by an overpowering sense of ShouldaWouldaCoulda. I'm sure in a month all the emotional and physical scars will have healed and the boy will be back in the creek, up to his hip-waders and happy as a pig in mud. Tsuga will be better too.
Comments
Great Gosh a terrific tail ...with a happy waggy ending!? Ya gotta love that creek :-)
Posted by: Sallie | March 11, 2004 7:16 AM
Glad she found that missing testicle!
Posted by: bogie | March 11, 2004 7:21 AM
The dog that lives next door, a shepherd/chow mix about 8 months old that was rescued from wandering in traffic on Main Street a couple of weeks ago, was neutered Monday. I can't tell one bit of difference in his nonstop ebullient puppy antics or his personality since he got back home. You're a worrier, Fred.
But then, I admit, we never had our male Great Pyrenees neutered - mainly because I was scared to have him put to sleep. We rationalized: "maybe we'll want to breed him someday." And our vet - an oddball - didn't pressure us to neuter. In 40 years in an extremely busy practice, he'd never seen a single case of testicular cancer, he said, and he knew us well enough to know we'd NEVER let our city dog offleash to get into mischief. (Pyrenees are known for their independence and for wandering off - for days-long excursions - so we can't even let him loose on hikes.) And this dog already had so placid a temperament that lethargic would have been the next step.
He's nine years old now - the picture of mental and physical health, so far - but there is one negative effect of the non-neutering decision: this dog who peacefully coexists with virtually all creatures morphs into a terrible fighting machine on the very rare occasion when we encounter a hostile male dog that's his size. But maybe that would have been the case anyhow, since Pyrenees are natural guarding dogs against what they perceive as a threat.
But with your lucky, free-ranging country dog, you had to do it.
Posted by: Lin B | March 11, 2004 7:53 AM
He'll be fine. A little embarrassed perhaps, but fine.
Posted by: susan | March 11, 2004 9:02 AM
I'm just trying to figure out how she'd even try ANY of this without putting him to sleep! let alone finding the elusive one without an incision . . . but I guess I don't really want to know. I'm just glad he's OK, and you won't have to worry about stitches, etc., let alone him prowling the Appalachians every time a bitch comes into heat!
Posted by: Doc Rock | March 11, 2004 12:51 PM
Well, pa, like I told mom last night, don't feel too bad about it. I recovered nicely after mine. In fact, I don't even remember the procedure. And i woulnd't worry about the effeminacy thing.
Well, off to paint my toenails again. You know, I never can find a nail polish that lasts...
Posted by: nate | March 12, 2004 12:28 AM
Poor Tsuga ... he'll surely be on the receiving end of plenty of TLC in these next few days. The guilt alone should catapult you to puppy groveling for days on end. I tease, of course. He will be his manly self once more, just a little less (more or less).
Extra points, by the way, for that clever ending!
Posted by: ntexas99 | March 12, 2004 12:33 AM