I was back at the hospital today, however it was a pretty slow day there since a surgery had been canceled. The first dog that I came across was named Brazen. He was a black lab and was there for mostly cosmetic reasons: teeth cleaning, ear cleaning and removing of some growths on his paws. The teeth and ear cleanings were pretty routine and done by vet technicians; he did not have to have any teeth pulled fortunately. When it came to the three cysts on Brazen's paws, Dr. Harish was called over to surgically cut them off. Although the growths were benign, one was rather larger and could easily catch on things and begin to bleed or become irritated. It was clearly in the dog's best interest to get them removed. Dr. Harish first took a scalpel to slice off the first cysts on Brazen's hind leg. Once removed, a vet technician jokingly said it looked like cauliflower. Then Dr. Harish used another tool to "zap the bleeder" (stop the bleeding) and followed that with sutures. He repeated this for the other two growths on that were on different legs. Once finished, they took Brazen off the anesthesia, and I learned that it can take anywhere from a couple minutes to fifteen minutes for a dog to wake up. However, they are not fully awake and won't be fully alert for a couple of hours.

After the surgery, I noticed that Stewart was no longer at the hospital. I was told that he was allowed to go home and his owners were giving him fluid therapy at home. And that the owners had decided to take it one day at a time for Stewart, as well as call the hospital with updates on his status.

The last appointment I shadowed was for Duke, an adorable yellow lab puppy. He bounced right into the room ready for his vaccinations. I learned that dogs usually get their first round of shots at nine weeks, then another at thirteen to fifteen (like Duke), another round at sixteen to eighteen and they finally get a rabies shot at one year.