This is a hemostat and having one around the house for emergencies is an excellent idea when you’re a dog parent. Take for example a recent incident I had.
Before I go into it, though, a moment of explanation about the dog who prompted me to write this blog post because she is the reason behind the most recent hemostat use. She’s a senior Dobermann, somewhere between ten and eleven. I am sure she was the runt of her litter. I showed her in Rally years ago, and was asked if she were a German Pinshcer. Short stuff she is.
I found her in a shelter. She had a camel’s hump on her back, a front elbow that had been broken and wasn’t treated, so healed in quite a distorted fashion. She is street smart, a little bit bossy, and funny. She’s also become a little bit hard of hearing as she’s moved into her golden years. And she eats wood. She loves it. Pine cones are even more her favorite when she can find one, hence her pine cone collar. Otherwise, she runs around the back yard looking for wood chips and strips from palm, pine, and citrus trees. Never mind the set of steak knives she ate when this wood fetish started a few years ago.
Recently, Pippin’s face swelled up. The right side. The first thought I had was that she was having an allergic reaction to an insect or bee. This had been the case for other of my dogs this summer as the bees have been loving the flowering weeds around my yard and certain dogs love to snap at flying things.
The usual remedy, Benedryl, post bee bite didn’t help at all, though, so I took a closer look and found that she had a puncture on the side of her head. Good grief! She has been falling lately, so I assume she fell on something, which created the wound and an infection. The antibiotics she was on would take care of the internal, while I cleaned out the external parts. And after 24 hours, still no reduction in swelling.
This is when I took a look inside her mouth and saw a piece of wood that had been jammed into her gums. And believe me, her mouth is as slimy as it looks. There was no way I could have grasped that thing with my fingers or even a cloth. The area was too small.
So I went inside to find the hemostat, and with a few maneuvers with the clasp and lock on the instrument, I managed to yank that piece of wood out and relieve Pippin of her pain. And guess what. There was a wood sliver embedded on the other side as well! Out it came in much the same way.
I then washed Pippin’s mouth out with water from the hose – her nose pointed to the ground so she wouldn’t swallow water and drown – and wondered how a senior citizen could get into so much trouble. She has fully recovered and I am now using a muzzle on her when she is not hearing my pleadings to stop gnawing on wood in the back yard. And tooth brushing is definitely going on the to-do list of doggy hygiene.
All of the handling I did above is due to training husbandry with my dogs. If Pippin weren’t comfortable with my hand in her mouth, pulling the wood chip out with the hemostat just wouldn’t be possible. Muzzle wearing is something I also teach my dogs to accept for such unexpected cases like this. It’s imperative to work with your dog to make him comfortable with husbandry. If you need help with getting your own dogs to accept handling, contact me, to make a training appointment.
For an informative site on muzzles, visit The Muzzle Project. To order a pair of hemostats for your dog’s first aid kit, check on line.
By Helen Verte
Certified Pet Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed, Certified Trick Dog Instructor
Plantation Florida
