German Shepherd ears are like vacuums, they like to collect all kinds of dirt and the occasional foreign object. Draco and I are well familiar with that at this point, he has had 4 fox tails in his ears requiring 3 ‘procedures’ to remove them. The first time a vet tried to take them out is the reason why I have to be strategic while cleaning my dog’s ears and insist he be put under anesthesia at the vets for ear stuff.
He was maybe 2 years old when he had severe head shaking and a constant tilt and I decided to call the local vet. I’d known of him for a long time and he was pretty popular, especially with horses and cattle, but I had little personal experience with this specific vet. I did not go to my regular vet because it would have been almost a week before I could get in.
I walk in and I can visibly see he is timid of my dog, he tries to stand behind him the whole time but he inevitably will need to touch Draco’s face. He does his physical exam, jumping at every subtle movement Draco makes. He comes to the ears and stuffs the tool in there to take a look and Draco is obviously in pain and jumps back and barks loudly and bares his teeth. He won’t let the vet try again and this vet about peed himself so the vet decided to put Draco under. He gives him a shot, it does nothing because apparently this shot works less when the dog is stressed and has adrenaline pumping. We waited about 10 minutes and gave up on the shot so the vet brings out a ‘gas mask’. Draco won’t let him put it on his face, so about 5 minutes goes by of me holding Draco while he growls and jerks his head away from the mask, the vet keeps jumping and has zero aim so he can’t get it on Draco’s mouth for even a second.
I’m fed up with this terrified vet so I told him to leave the room and close the door. I sit with Draco for a moment to calm him down and let him feel safe again, then I put the mask over just the tip of his nose, he’s slowly passing out so I gradually slip it on further. Draco looks to be pretty out, his eyes are closed and he’s lying on the floor. The vet was peaking in the door and came in, immediately shoves the tool in his ear, probably too far, and Draco yelps very loudly and jumps up growling. He’s still pretty drowsy so he’s falling on the slippery floor and bumping into everything. During his yelp his tongue fell between his teeth and he’s still too drowsy to open his mouth, so he’s yelping more now and growling because he feels pain and doesn’t know why. His tongue is bleeding so I grab and stabilize him as fast as I can and shove my hands in his mouth and open it to release his tongue. The vet is on the other side of the room terrified and tells me to get away from him because he will probably bite me. I ignored him. I wasn’t about to let my dog bite his tongue off.
I wait for Draco to wake up enough to walk out of there, we made plans at another vet’s office.
The fox tail are pierced through his ear drum and it was very infected, he was yelping even while shaking his head and having a stranger shove something in his ear causing immense pain scarred him for life. I can’t bring anything solid/hard near his ears, so no ear cleaning bottles or Qtips. To clean his ears I soak a cotton ball in solution and slowly squeeze it out in his ear very gently and slowly. His new vet knows that any ear stuff is to be avoided unless he is knocked out, lest we all get growled and barked at and he tries to break out of the room.
He was maybe 2 years old when he had severe head shaking and a constant tilt and I decided to call the local vet. I’d known of him for a long time and he was pretty popular, especially with horses and cattle, but I had little personal experience with this specific vet. I did not go to my regular vet because it would have been almost a week before I could get in.
I walk in and I can visibly see he is timid of my dog, he tries to stand behind him the whole time but he inevitably will need to touch Draco’s face. He does his physical exam, jumping at every subtle movement Draco makes. He comes to the ears and stuffs the tool in there to take a look and Draco is obviously in pain and jumps back and barks loudly and bares his teeth. He won’t let the vet try again and this vet about peed himself so the vet decided to put Draco under. He gives him a shot, it does nothing because apparently this shot works less when the dog is stressed and has adrenaline pumping. We waited about 10 minutes and gave up on the shot so the vet brings out a ‘gas mask’. Draco won’t let him put it on his face, so about 5 minutes goes by of me holding Draco while he growls and jerks his head away from the mask, the vet keeps jumping and has zero aim so he can’t get it on Draco’s mouth for even a second.
I’m fed up with this terrified vet so I told him to leave the room and close the door. I sit with Draco for a moment to calm him down and let him feel safe again, then I put the mask over just the tip of his nose, he’s slowly passing out so I gradually slip it on further. Draco looks to be pretty out, his eyes are closed and he’s lying on the floor. The vet was peaking in the door and came in, immediately shoves the tool in his ear, probably too far, and Draco yelps very loudly and jumps up growling. He’s still pretty drowsy so he’s falling on the slippery floor and bumping into everything. During his yelp his tongue fell between his teeth and he’s still too drowsy to open his mouth, so he’s yelping more now and growling because he feels pain and doesn’t know why. His tongue is bleeding so I grab and stabilize him as fast as I can and shove my hands in his mouth and open it to release his tongue. The vet is on the other side of the room terrified and tells me to get away from him because he will probably bite me. I ignored him. I wasn’t about to let my dog bite his tongue off.
I wait for Draco to wake up enough to walk out of there, we made plans at another vet’s office.
The fox tail are pierced through his ear drum and it was very infected, he was yelping even while shaking his head and having a stranger shove something in his ear causing immense pain scarred him for life. I can’t bring anything solid/hard near his ears, so no ear cleaning bottles or Qtips. To clean his ears I soak a cotton ball in solution and slowly squeeze it out in his ear very gently and slowly. His new vet knows that any ear stuff is to be avoided unless he is knocked out, lest we all get growled and barked at and he tries to break out of the room.