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Polite habitual behaviour was displayed by Arnie, a huge Newfoundland Dog who would pace around the consultation room while I did my best to follow him and treat him with NIS therapy. I would encourage him to sit or lie down in one spot to make the treatment easier by bribing him with doggy treats which worked well initially. After a while, he was so good at sitting down for his treatment that I forgot to offer him treats so he decided that a new strategy was needed and every few minutes he would intentionally get up to pace so that he could be given more treats!
Cooper, an exuberant Labrador’s talent was to drum his enthusiastically wagging tail on the door in time with music! A handsome and gentle big Rottweiler called Tyson apparently had a great singing voice and would howl in tune to songs.
Other animals aren’t all that bright, like Jack the collie, who was a lovely dog but behaved strangely sometimes. One night his owner heard him barking relentlessly at something in the living room. She went to see what the problem was and saw nothing of concern, but as she observed Jack a little more closely she determined that he was barking at the barking dog that was reflected in the windowpane, which was Jack! Most of the time, dogs that enter my consulting room are happy to be there, but there have been a couple that have started barking uncontrollably, and even one that cowered in the corner in response to a picture that I have on the wall of a cat!
What often amuses me and really frustrates animals’ owners is when they come to the vet and the owner tells us that they’ve been limping or that they have been depressed and as soon as us vets set eyes on them they’re one hundred percent normal turning their owners into liars – just a visit to the vet has a therapeutic effect!
One day I saw Fizzy, a little cat who had had surgery the day before for a bad abscess. Fizzy wasn’t eating at home and his owner was very worried. I examined Fizzy and found nothing wrong and decided that he must be a bit uncomfortable despite having painkillers.
It’s very important that cats eat, otherwise, they just get sicker and so I prepared to show Fizzy’s owner how to force-feed Fizzy (now that’s a tongue twister) soft food through a syringe. Much to my amusement, as soon as I opened the tin of food, Fizzy rushed over and began to devour its contents, the visit to the vet had seen him right!
To read more about Dr. Liza’s adventures, read Vet Tales available as a Soft Back book, PDF Download or e-book from https://www.drliza.co.nz/shop/
