Patient of the Month
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I thought I would spotlight Bottechelli, an 8 month old German Shepherd x dog who was due for his neuter. I never got a proper photograph of him, but he was a pretty nice guy. The photos will sort of help explain the neuter procedure.

The dog is anesthetized with injectable anesthesia into a foreleg vein, and then intubated, which is placing a tube in the trachea or windpipe to deliver pure oxygen and anesthetic gas into the dog’s lungs. This helps maintain a steady level of anesthesia.

An incision is made just in front of the scrotum and the testicle is gently eased out through the incision, as seen in the photo above. The testicle is clamped and then double ligated with absorbable suture material to cut off blood supply and prevent bleeding as you may see in the photographs below.

After ligation, the testicle is then completely removed. The procedure is repeated for the second testicle, and then the incision is closed in 2 layers, the first layer you can see below with all the sutures being under the skin and dissolvable, hence negating the need for suture removal 2 weeks after surgery.

There are many benefits to neutering your dog if you do not intend him for breeding. It takes away some male dominance behaviors, prevents the tendency to wander and run away (in search of good looking unspayed female dogs), and takes away some inter-dog aggression and territorial behaviors.

It also helps with pet overpopulation problems. There are many homeless pets all over, so it pays to do your part to help control the problem. It does also make for a better behaved pet sometimes.

Bottechelli woke up from anesthesia feeling fine and the next day he acted as if nothing had happened. Dogs are very tough and resilient in this way. They tend to recover very quickly from surgery and for this reason it is very important to follow your veterinarian’s home care instructions after surgery. This often means strictly on leash for 2 weeks -even to go outside to relieve themselves- as it is not difficult to run into incisional complications if they are allowed to run and jump freely after surgery. There is a small amount of normal swelling after any surgical procedure, but you should consult your veterinarian if you see anything that concerns you after a surgical procedure. Always watch out that your pet has a normal appetite and drinks water within 12 hours of the surgery.

This is Rascal. Rascal was one of my last appointments during my visit if Faro, and one of many of my favorite patients (including Bottechelli), and as you can see, he was a bit worried about his checkup and vaccination. Don’t worry, once Rascal was brought out of the car and into the shelter to see me, he did great. I found him to be perfectly healthy, and he didn’t even flinch for his needle.

Here is my trusty assistant Janilyn outside the Animal Shelter in Faro . This is the building where I hold my clinic in town. The animal shelter was built in the 1970s to care for stray dogs and cats.  Faro is a 3-5 hour drive northeast of Whitehorse, depending on road conditions, and is deemed one of the Yukon’s best kept secrets. We had a busy time there this visit, as it would seems most Faro's pets are due for their yearly checkup and vaccination come May.