Texas Equine Veterinary Association

www.teva-online.org • Page 27 my mustache, all over my glasses, in both nostrils, in my ears, 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. "Well, I kept thinking he would get better on his own. When it first happened, I thought it would get better, but it just hasn't. I just couldn't stand to see him take a bite of food and then watch it just fall back out of his mouth. So, I decided that I would just chew his food for him while whatever was wrong got better. I would just chew the food myself and then put it in his mouth. Some of it would fall back out, but most of it he was able to swallow." I was mesmerized by the thought of this little woman chewing every bite of Bule's food for the last three weeks. She must have chewed it for a while and 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 his dog food, hoping that it would have everything in it he needed to get well." Well now, what would you have done at this point? I was just amazed. Do you realize how much dog food you would have to chew a day to keep a fi y-pound bulldog in good shape? Can you imagine doing that for three weeks? What must her breath have smelled like? Why didn't she just get canned food? I started to go get a bowl of dog food for her to show me the entire procedure, but I decided that everyone might just get sick watching. We fixed ol' Bule, and he went on to do just fine. I decided that this was the greatest act of owner loyalty that I had ever witnessed. Man, what a job. From the Book Crowded in the Middle of Nowhere. BO BROCK, DVM, DABVP Submitted by TEVA Founding Member and Current Vice President, Bo Brock, DVM, DABVP. Author of "Crowded in the Middle of Nowhere" e 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 pets an ice-cream cone before coming to see me. I've seen painted toenails, dogs with pierced ears, cats with a 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 on pets, an artificial testicle placed back in the scrotum to keep it from looking empty, tubal ligations and vasectomies so the animals can still have fun but not get pregnant, wheelchairs for paraplegic dachshunds, contact lenses for poor vision in old dogs, tennis shoes for hunting dogs, and on and on. But I have never seen anything like what happened a few months back. e presenting complaint was that this dog "just can't chew food." e dog was a burly bulldog that slobbered continuously. Just looking at the critter, you could not tell anything was wrong. e dog just stood there panting and slobbering all over everything in sight. e little lady who brought the creature in was obviously in love with this drooling rascal. e look in her eyes was nothing less than terror. It seemed that ol' bulldog, Bule, had been unable to eat for a while. When I asked what the problem seemed to be, she just shook her head and said, "He hasn't been able to chew his food for about three weeks now." is rascal was fat and sassy. He certainly did not look like he had gone without food for three weeks. Besides that, why did she wait so long to bring him in if things were so destitute? "Something is terribly wrong with his chewing mechanism," was the statement she made over and over as I examined the jowls of this spit factory. e more I looked, the more it became apparent the ol' Bule had a dislocated joint in his jaw. When his mouth closed, his teeth did not line up anymore. I was amazed. How could this fat critter have made it so long without being able to chew? He could lick, though. Boy, he could lick. His tongue was about four inches wide and must have been ten inches long. He loved to use it. e entire time I was examining him, he was licking his nose and my face. No matter where I moved, he could stick that thing out and give my cheek a good licking. By the time I was through with the exam, I had Bule spit in CHEW!

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