Dog Chronicles: The “thing” between his legs

The day was almost over, I looked forward to the close of work after a hectic day at the clinic. The clock read 5:50pm. Ten more minutes I silently chanted to myself smiling delightedly. Ten more minutes and i could go home, relax, have a good dinner and surf the net. A perfect end to an incredibly busy and tiring day. Alas! It was not to be.

At precisely, 5:55pm, my boss called me to go on an ambulatory visit. To say I was upset was an understatement. All the same, I packed my things and went to see my patients.

On presentation to the clinic: blood drops from the trauma site

On getting there, I discovered that there were 9 dogs – a  mixture of Rottweilers and brindled Boerboels- all male.
Their handler called me aside saying, “doctor, there is one, hin tin don big.” Not fully comprehending, I asked him to show me the one. I couldn’t believe my eyes! It was the biggest scrotum I had ever seen on a dog. Up untill then, I hadn’t witnessed a case that bad.

A closer look

I examined him quickly. His temperature was sky rocketing, he could barely walk and was in obvious distress. It was painful watching him try to walk.  I knew immediately that I had to take the poor dog back with me to the clinic.
I got to work treating the other eight dogs quickly. It was a routine treatment- deworming and vaccinations.

On getting to the clinic, every one was startled. “What is that?” – was the question on everyone’s lips as they pointed at the poor dog. My colleague was almost convinced it was a hernia. It was that huge!

The poor dog!

We put him on the table, examined carefully and properly and concluded it was indeed Orchitis- inflammation of the scrotum. Antibiotics and pain relievers were administered daily for a week. By the 7th day, our dear boerboel was ready to go home with a normal-sized scrotum.
His handler was so relieved when he came to pick him up and I learnt that sometimes great opportunities happen at the least favourable times.