If it can lick, it can bite

This week I was bitten. No laughing matter, so please don’t.

Luckily, getting bitten doesn’t happen too often; as for getting bitten this time round, I’ll get to how that happened later. Its only natural for a dog to be scared at the vet’s. I have heard countless stories from owners bout how their pets somehow know when they are going to be taken to the vet – whether this sense of foreboding happens as soon as they leave the house or on the road as they are being driven to the clinic, they show their owners very clearly that they are upset.

 

One of the best stories that I was told was when one of my canine patients, upon hearing my voice on TV when I was a guest on some pet programme, started to shiver and went to hide under the table with sorrowful eyes.

There is a certain approval I feel when I see a well-trained dog looking up and observing its master, as if seeking permission before making any movement.  A vet can perform a thorough clinical examination far better on a well-behaved dog, and the inverse is also true: an uncontrollable dog can make a simple examination very difficult.

It is also a fact that examining a dog while it is awake is far more fruitful than when it is sedated because signs of discomfort in the dog when being palpated and prodded are far more detectable.
Dogs do not talk, which makes the physical clinical examination by veterinarians that much more important to ensure accurate diagnosis.  Yet there is another issue that is worth mentioning here: it is always a good idea that part of a dog’s training includes getting used to wearing a safe muzzle.

When I ask owners to place a muzzle on their dog I all too often I hear the comment ‘my dog does not bite’. This usually brings a smile to my face as it reminds me of the classic scene by Peter Sellers in one of his Pink Panther films. (Those of you who might like to check it out can go to Youtube and search for ‘does your dog bite’ by Peter Sellers).

Humour apart, the fact is that there are occasions when you may need your dog to be wearing a muzzle. Speaking from the point of view of a veterinarian, having a dog get upset because it is forced to wear a muzzle it has not become accustomed to has already somewhat compromised the examination process and could impact on how effectively this can be carried out.

Perhaps more importantly, there are other situations during which you should never assume that your dog doesn’t bite...such as when you are in the vicinity of a smaller dog or, Heaven forbid, of a child that startles your dog and it unexpectedly reacts by snapping or biting.

The first time I was bitten I was still a student. I was seeing practice in Somerset, south-west England, and had accompanied one of the local vets to call on a Jack Russell belonging to the local pub.  All I remember is this dog hanging by the teeth from one of my fingers... and I still have the scar till this very day. Apparently the dog was well known with the patrons – just one of the crowd – except that they all knew not to mess with him.

More recently, it was only my watch that saved my wrist from being ripped open. This time it was a case where the owner had little to no control over the dog, so there was no way that the dog was going to tolerate being muzzled and he slipped the collar while I was trying to give an injection.
You can’t blame him I guess – the dog I mean – and my wrist is fine, even if the watch needed to be replaced. We all learn the hard way, but you can help your veterinarian in their work by sparing their fingers and hands.

Whenever we perform a full examination of a dog, this includes having a good look down the throat and around the mouth but, having done this, it would be far better for the dog to be wearing a muzzle while the vet is examining other parts of the patient.  So, please purchase a good muzzle the next time you visit your pet shop and get your dog used to wearing it; if not for the couple of times a year that your dog might visit the vet, at least for the other reasons outlined earlier on.

Dr. Martin Debattista
Veterinary Surgeon

thisweekwiththevet@gmail.com