This owner story has them all 'licked'

The human animal bond is a strong one, and at times I am amazed at what people will do for their animals.

I know people who will buy their pet an ice cream cone before comingto see me. I've seen painted toenails, dogs with pierced ears, cats witha gold-capped tooth, dogs with rollers in their hair, many types of sweaters,a horse with a glass eye, bunk beds for cats, various types of tattoos onpets, an artificial testicle placed back in the scrotum to keep it fromlooking empty, tubal ligations and vasectomies so the animals can stillhave fun but not get pregnant, wheel chairs for paraplegic Dachshunds, contactlenses for poor vision in old dogs, tennis shoes for hunting dogs, and onand on.

But I have never seen anything like what happened a few months back.

Chewin' troubles

The presenting complaint was this dog "just can't chew food."The dog was a burley Bulldog that slobbered continuously. Just looking atthe critter you could not tell anything was wrong. The dog just stood therepanting and slobbering all over everything in sight. The little lady thatbrought the creature in was obviously in love with this drooling rascal.The look in her eyes was nothing less than terror.

It seems that ole bulldog "Bule" had been unable to eat fora while. When I asked what the problem seemed to be, she just shook herhead and said, "He hasn't been able to chew his food for about threeweeks now."

This rascal was fat and sassy. He certainly did not look like he hadgone without food for three weeks. Besides that, why did she wait so longto bring him in if things were so destitute?

"Something is terribly wrong with his chewing mechanism," wasthe statement she made over and over as I examined the jowels of this spitfactory.

The more I looked, the more it became apparent the "ole Bule"had a dislocated joint in his jaw. When his mouth closed, the teeth didnot line up anymore.

Slobber machine

I was amazed. How could this fat critter have made it so long withoutbeing able to chew? He could lick though. Boy, he could lick. His tonguewas about four inches wide and must have been 10 inches long. He loved touse it. The entire time I was examining him he was licking his nose andmy face. No matter where I moved, he could stick that thing out and givemy cheek a good licking. By the time I was through with the exam, I had"Bule" spit in my mustache, all over my glasses, in both nostrils,in my ear holes and all over my hat.

"How have you kept this dog from drying up and blowing away?"I asked as I pondered the condition of the dog.

Mama bird

"Well, I kept thinking he would get better on his own. When it firsthappened, I thought it would get better, but it just hasn't. I just couldn'tstand to see him take a bite of food and then it just fell back out of hismouth. So, I decided that I would just chew his food for him while whateverwas wrong got better. I would just chew the food myself, and then put itin his mouth. Some of it would fall back out, but most of it he was unableto swallow.

I was mesmerized by the thought of this little woman chewing every biteof Bule's food for the last three weeks. She must have chewed it for a whileand then spit it back into her hand before she poked it down his throat.I was trying to picture it all in my mind as she went on with the story.

"It didn't seem to bother him a bit for me to chew the food first.But don't you worry Dr. Brock, I know better than to feed him human food.You told me a long time ago to never feed Bule human food, so I chewed hisdog food hoping that it would have everything in it he needed to get well."

Thoughts to ponder

Well now, what would you have done at this point?

I was just amazed. Do you realize how much dog food you would have tochew a day to keep a 50-pound Bulldog in good shape? Can you imagine doingthat for three weeks? What her breath must have smelled like? Why didn'tshe just get canned food? I started to go get a bowl of dog food for herto show me the entire procedure, but I decided that everyone might justget sick watching.

We fixed ole' Bule, and he went on to do just fine. I decided that thiswas the greatest act of owner loyalty that I had ever witnessed. Man, whata job.