Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Eyelid surgery ain't for wimps

My German shorthair Sam went in yesterday to have his teeth cleaned and to have a small tumor removed from his right eyelid. They cut a pie-shaped piece of his eyelid clean off and sewed the two sides back together. It actually looks really good, except for the massive swelling. Poor little man! It looks like he was in a bar fight. I'm supposed to be putting ointment on his eyeball, but the eye is swollen shut so I'm just smooshing it on the outside for now.

The teeth cleaning was almost as involved as the surgery. I knew Sam needed his teeth cleaned, and then last week he started chattering his teeth randomly. They called from the vet yesterday to let me know that he had a piece of a plastic butter tub lid jammed between two of his back teeth. I have no idea how he got hold of a butter tub lid. This is the same dog that dug up an onion-flavored allium bulb and ate it. I feel bad that he went a week with a big piece of plastic stuck back there.

Willow was a good girl tonight. We had company in the arena -- the assistant trainer was working with a 14-hand pony named Fishie. Willow wasn't quite sure what to make of Fishie; she's more used to giant-sized horses than tiny ponies. Anyway, once she got her mind off Fishie and on me, things went well. I'm finally starting to get in sync with her big new trot (the result of the new, better-fitting saddle). I really liked how the sitting trot felt tonight -- the half halts were coming through. I also worked on simple change through trot, and after four or five changes, Willow decided to cut out the extra work and threw in a flying change. Yay, Willow! We ended on that note.

1 comment:

Erica said...

I hope Sam is feeling better!