A little adventure with Rottweilers
By ANTHONY THANASAYAN
Talk about Rottweilers that love to bare their fangs!
The only time that
you're likely to catch my nine-year-old Rottie, Vai, doing that sort of
thing is during rare occasions like a fortnight ago when I had to take him
for his dental appointment with the local veterinarian.
And what a little adventure it turned out to be for both of us.
My first task was to withhold all food from the puzzled canine and starve
him from
the use of anaesthesia - the next day.
At
didn't still suspect a thing as he marched with me innocently to the car
where he quickly assumed his place in the back seat as usual.
Next, it was my turn to get inside the vehicle - leaving my wheelchair on a
particular spot in the front porch of my home for me to return to.
A spare wheelchair, which I take along with me when I go out, was already in
the car boot as always.
Vai has been trained to stay put in the back seat
during a journey and never
to come to the front passenger side unless commanded to do so. This ensures
that the dog's presence doesn't distract me while I am driving.
The writer's Rottweiler, Vai,
getting his teeth scaled and polished.
The Rottie, however, is encouraged to occasionally
rest his head or muzzle
gently on my shoulders - a sort of reassuring gesture giving me confidence
that I am not alone and potentially helpless as a result.
For instance, in an emergency Vai is capable of
retrieving my car keys or
mobile phone should they/it accidentally fall out of the vehicle or be out
of my reach.
We arrived at the veterinary clinic in good time. Vai's
veterinary surgeon,
Dr Kathiravan Sethu, had
already reserved a parking spot for us at the
entrance. The good doc and his assistant also helped me get my second
wheelchair out of the boot.
Vai and I were escorted into the clinic. After an
hour's rest, the Rottie
was anaesthetised by the surgeon.
The entire process of scaling and polishing Vai's
teeth lasted about half an
hour as the dog remained in deep sleep.
It was another couple of hours before the anaesthetic
wore off and I finally
brought home a slightly groggy and wobbly Vai. Within
a few hours, however,
Vai was back on all fours.
As for me, I was relieved and thankful to know that everything had gone
well.
The veterinary clinic experience wasn't the only event that day that touched
my life in a special way.
Just before my animal clinic experience, I had to make a quick trip to
Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia (HUKM) in Bandar Tun Razak,
KL, to
collect antibiotics for an infection that I was being treated for.
My friend Veronica Leo offered to accompany me in my car and make the
collection at the hospital's pharmacy on my behalf to make things easier for
me.
Veronica spared me the difficulty of having to go in and out of the hospital
to collect my medication and she also helped me save precious time so that I
could make it to the vet's on time.
My rehab specialist, Dr Amara Naicker
from the Orthopaedic ward at HUKM, was
also fully aware of my vet appointment that morning.
She kindly volunteered to see me briefly at the car park just to ensure that
I was receiving the appropriate medicines for my infection and allergies.
To do this, she had to walk a few hundred metres from
her clinic to where I
was.
To me, it was wonderful to know that there are kind-hearted doctors around
who would literally walk an extra mile or two to help their patients with
disabilities.