Bud is a really big dog. In fact, at 105.5 pounds, he’s the second biggest dog in our practice. The biggest is a mastiff named Samson.
Regular readers know that I’m not a fan of giving people food to pets, so don’t think that I’m giving approval to the practice through this story. Indeed, on the contrary, it is a good illustration of yet another reason not to feed pets people food.
One of Bud’s owners was about to eat a Nutty Buddy ice cream, and offered her spouse an ice cream on a stick. He wasn’t in the mood for ice cream, so, rather than go all the way back to the kitchen with it, she offered it to Bud.
Thinking Bud would make several bites out of it, she lay it down on the floor. The massive beast inhaled it.
Stick and all.
Down the hatch.
All in one piece. All in one bite.
Of course, they were worried, but didn’t think anything would happen to him immediately. Rationally, they expected any complications might come when it was time to pass the stick from the “other end.”
“I was seeing dollar signs,” the Mrs. interjected as she told the story to us at the clinic tonight.
“So am I!,” I joked, as I listened, still worried that the stick was lodged somewhere in his small intestine, or even still in his stomach.
“This morning my husband took him outside, but he only urinated. Before I left for work I took him out one more time. I sat down, face to face with Bud. I asked him why he did such a thing, and expressed concern about what was it going to be like when he passed the stick. Just then, he walked to another part of the yard, where he had thrown up at some earlier time. There lay the stick! Somehow he had thrown it up! It was as if he had taken me there to show me that he was going to be OK. Is that crazy or is it possible he knew I was upset and worried about him?”
“I think anything is possible and maybe he knew he had messed up. The stick probably got lodged in his esophagus and never made it all the way to his stomach. I’m just glad the thing is out of his body!”
Thirty-one years of practice, and I’m still seeing new things.
No wonder James Herriott had enough material for four books!
See you tomorrow, Dr. Randolph.
