The border collie dog limped into the consult room, a tired old, worn room, with dull green paint on the walls, and a nail scarred consult table. His tail wagged happily, as his mum sank onto the chair with a sigh, fanning herself with a book.
\”Hello!\” she said. \” I haven\’t seen you before. Hot, isn\’t is?\”
The room was like an oven, shimmering in the heat. No aircon here, and the sun was beating down on the roof from a pitiless blue sky.
\”Yes,\” I replied. \”I\’m fairly new here – I started work here about 3 months ago.\”
\”What do you think of it?\” she asked.
\”Hot, dry and sandy,\” I smiled.
\”It is, isn\’t it. Welcome to Western Australia! Must be the hottest day we\’ve had this summer.\” she replied.
\”So what\’s up with your dog then?\” I asked (he was curled up on the floor, panting).
\”He\’s got a big fat sore front foot, and he\’s limping on it. It\’s blown up over the past couple of days. He\’s had it before, grass seeds, I reckon…\”
\”Yep, we see them all the time,\” I replied. \”Could you pop him on the table?\”
Once he was up on the table I could get a good look – I parted the hair in between his middle toes, and could see a big swelling with a purple looking softer bulge in the middle. He didn\’t seem too bothered about me touching it. Otherwise he was fine, no temperature, happy as. I tried squeezing it a little, and though he looked at me, he really didn\’t seem to mind much.
\”He\’s got a pretty high pain tolerance?\” I asked.
\”Oh yes, the last time they nicked it open and pulled them all out just sitting on the table like this, and he hardly batted an eyelid,\” she replied.
I popped out and got a scalpel blade, and liberated it from the shiny foil packet, carefully wrapping all but the smallest cutting tip up with the packet. I got her to take a firm grip on his head, and then quickly nicked the skin in the middle of the softer lump in the middle of the swelling. Blood and pus burst out, and I wiped it up with a swab. I had some special fine grabbing forceps in a tray, and I gently fished in the wound, grabbed! And pulled out a grass seed about 2 inches long, all sharp and jagged. I gently squeezed, and a few more fragments popped out. The dog watched all of this with interest, tail lazily thumping on the table. I fished around a few more times – there was a deep pocket extending right up between his toes. I pulled out another four big grass seeds, and then couldn\’t find any more. I flushed the wound out with a gentle peroxide solution, and straightened up, massaging my lower back.
\”I reckon he\’ll feel a whole lot better without that in there,\” I said, gesturing towards the tray full of bloody grass seeds.
\”Yep, he will. He got better quickly last time. Will he need any other medications?\” she asked.
\”Just some antibiotics for a week, is all,\” I replied.
\”Ok then,\” she said, limp in the remorseless heat. \”I\’ll grab them out the front desk, and see if I can find a cool corner to crawl into when I get home. Nice to meetcha!\”
I tidied up, running with sweat, and got ready for the next client to come in…