This past week was basically Surgery Week. Well, that’s every week. But this week involved more than I expected. I experienced a dental surgery and a spay surgery. I have to say, I was pretty proud of myself for not getting lightheaded or passing out! It was a little overwhelming, especially because both of the surgeries occurred in the same day. I can honestly say I was not expecting to see all of the things I saw. This week was definitely the week that made me realize there is nothing I won’t see at Hartwood Animal Hospital.

For the dental surgery, a dog needed routine cleaning so I recorded a few minutes of the process. The whole process actually lasts at least thirty minutes all the way up to an hour, or even longer sometimes. I didn’t realize there was so much involved in a simple canine dental surgery! I learned that there are actually four different “grades” to animal teeth. Grade 1, being the least severe, represents only a few spots on the gums here and there. It ranges up to Grade 4, which includes teeth that are rotting, and gums that can’t even hold the teeth anymore. I believe the dog in the video was actually a Grade 2. His teeth weren’t terrible, but he had spots that needed cleaning. The odd thing about animal dental cleanings is that once an animal has it done, they most likely have to repeatedly have the process done once every year or two. So, unless it’s completely necessary, it’s better for the animal to wait as long as possible to have the procedure done. Here’s the video– warning, the animal is under anesthesia, so he’s not looking his best. But he’s fine.

I think what surprised me the most was the spay surgery (“fixing” a female animal). The doctors that work at HAH do spay surgeries on a regular basis, so they’re not too new to me. But this one was incredibly different than anything I’ve seen at HAH. A client of ours basically adopted a stray female cat by repeatedly feeding her letting her in and out of their house. They couldn’t fully adopt her because she wasn’t up to date on all of her shots and they didn’t have the money to pay for them all at one time. So once they realized she was pregnant, they thought it would be best to have her spayed before she gave birth to her kittens. Unfortunately, this meant aborting the kittens in her womb. I wasn’t a fan of this when it was first mentioned to me. However, once it was explained to me, I could understand the decision that the clients and the doctors made. Since the cat was a stray, it was unknown what diseases the cat may be carrying. Therefore, giving birth to the kittens ran the risk of passing those diseases onto them, along with them being born into the outside world where they wouldn’t have food or know what to do with themselves. It was the decision of the client and the doctors not to bring those kittens into a world they couldn’t survive properly in. Here’s a video of the majority of the spay surgery; the doctor was very clean and efficient. WARNING!!!!::: It’s very graphic, so don’t watch if you can’t stomach it!

So, there you have it. A little bit of a gory week. But at this rate, I’ll be used to it all in no time, and I’ll be well on my way down my career path. Thanks for reading.