April 5, 2018 - We had to take Flash to the Vet today. Nothing serious. He needed his nails trimmed and his anal glands....expressed. Its a Basset Hound thing. The trouble is he hates to go. He knows that if we want to put him in our old van that that is where he is going. He is terrified, starts shaking, and acting like "this is the last ride to that big farm in the sky". I am convinced that is what Charlie, our adopted Coon Hound tells him.
So it is an event every time we go and we put it off as long as we can. When we arrive he hid under a chair and would not come out. Since he is a 70 pound load of fat with teeth this can be a problem. The Vet suggested we sedate him and I readily agreed.
So now on the waiting room floor I have a drunk 70 pound toddler of a basset hound. They needed to bring in a electric gurney just to get him off the floor. All of this just to get his nails trimmed and,,,yeah that whole expression thing. The vet took him back to the exam room which was right around the corner from the waiting room in his small office. Since he learned I was a retired physician he wanted to talk shop.
So he was giving me a play by play of his exam and procedure while I waited around the corner. He regailed me with the complete purpose of a Basset Hound Anal gland, it's anatomy, and physiological purpose.
"Most dogs don't need this done," he casually remarked, "When they have a bowel movement the pressure of the stool forces the gland to express".
"He's just special I guess", I replied not really wanting the narration.
"Oh he is indeed. This is the largest anal gland I have seen," he said.
"We used to take him on tours to show him off at shows", I replied, "There was good money in it." Not picking up on my sarcasm he droned on until -
"Uh oh". then silence.
"What?" I rose with mild alarm.
"I have never seen that before," he said. "When I expressed the last one it shot out and hit the opposite wall! I had to duck it so it wouldn't hit my coat. My assistant was not so lucky."
I just smiled. "That's my boy," I thought.
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