Hello All,

Today I want you to meet Forrest Stump,

he was olive now brown male out of my Glory and Bear litter that was born on February 6, 2016. You may have seen in some pictures that I posted up on Facebook that one burr head has a bare tail which when you look closely it is shorter and has stitches in the end of the tail. Here is what I wrote to my puppy buyers a few days after the little guys surgery.

When your a breeder you deal with the ups and the downs of breeding. If you breed long enough you encounter all of these things. You try your best to do everything perfect but there is never perfection. I wanted to share with all the puppy buyers that olive boy needed surgery on Monday. I wanted to tell you before you saw pictures and wondered if you were seeing things. If you notice a shaved tail and a little stump your not seeing things. I don’t know what happened all I can suspect is trauma, the little tail was kinked, lost blood supply, became infected and needed to be removed so it didn’t cause any further damage. He was such a trooper and handled his day at work with me beautifully. I have to thank my boss who took such care of him with this delicate operation at just two weeks of age. I of course wouldn’t let anyone but me assist with the surgery. He is doing great! He’s on antibiotics and pain meds and momma glory is leaving the stitches in. This by no means will make him any lesser of a dog, he will just have a shorter tail so the items on your coffee table are safe. I’ve been calling him Forrest Stump and giving him all the kisses and hugs he can handle.

Saturday February 20 while cleaning the puppies I notices a little blood on the end of olive boys tail. It was really odd and had no idea why there would be a little blood there as I didn’t see any wounds, I did notice the little tail was kinked a little ways up the tail and the hair was shorter when I thought was real odd, Glory must have been licking it and broke off all the hairs. I watched it Sunday and nothing changed until Monday morning when I was cleaning them all before I went to work and that is when I saw the tail was swollen and when I squeezed it puss came out. Time for his first trip to the vet. I grabbed his blanket, formula and feeding tube and off we went.

The infected tail.

My boss took a look at his tail and cleaned it. While cleaning it we found out it was much worse than it looked as the skin on the tail sloughed off. We had to make a decision as to what to do. We could clean the tail, put him on antibiotics and let it heal so that the tail is saved. Or we could amputate and not risk the infection going higher up in the tail or to other locations in his body. We decided surgery was the best option.

Before surgery.

He was never bothered by his tail or what was going on at all.

Surgery.

Of course I was the Veterinary Technician assisting in this surgery and making sure he was doing well with the anesthesia.

Using the laser unit.

All our surgeries at Harmony Pet Care are done with a laser surgery unit. The laser cuts and cauterizes with using a beam of light. It cuts the nerve so there is less pain involved and less bleeding.

After surgery.

He handled the anesthesia so well, the surgery when really well and now he has a stumpy tail.

In recovery.

His recovery was uneventful. He of course got lots of handling with all the hugs and carrying around he got while at the clinic. He went home on pain relievers and antibiotics.

We are now 10 days out from surgery and he is doing do well. He takes his antibiotics great, the surgery site looks wonderful, he is a trooper and doesn’t even know anything happened.

Meet Forrest Stump.

This surgery will not affect him in any way shape for form. He may have a couple inches off his tail but that will not hinder his everyday doing’s or his hunting ability. It gives him character and a story!

Thanks again to my boss Dr. Johansen who made the right decision on this surgery and for doing such a great job on this little guy. Your surgery skills are amazing. I’m so glad I have you for all my pets needs!

We are joining Linda at 2browndawgs and Jodi at Heart Like A Dog for this great blog hop.