Tok the Contortionist

Tok preens. I have watched him stick his hind legs in his mouth and use them to clean the back of his ears and then lick off all the mud from his paws and underbody. He does it 2 perhaps 3 times per day. Needless to say, the cone has been an issue. He continues to preen-- cleaning the inside of this cone more than his body, but, dernit, he still tries.

When I came home today, I took Tok out of his kennel and saw that he had dried blood on the outside of his cone. I knew he had been contorting his body to clean, and today he had rubbed his incision. He had not been able to lick it, but the hard plastic had obviously irritated his skin.

Fearing infection, I made a followup appointment with the Vet. She prescribed penicillin to combat any possible infection, and then she asked about his behavior. I described the preening. After she finished giggling at my dog's feline tendencies, she recommended sedatives. By today, the incision was supposed to be scabbed over; it was not. And she thinks that knocking him out would be beneficial to his healing.

So, I brought home the "preener" and opened his two new prescriptions and assessed how to feed them to him. I grabbed some of Julez Treats, and he took the sedative easily. Now onto the penicillin, which was a gelcap. I gave him the med with a treat and then put the caps onto the bottles. I look back down at the coned dog, who is now covered in white powder and chewing on an empty gelcap. It had exploded all over his face and the floor below him. So, I pulled out a slice of cheese, wrapped up another gelcap and fed it to him, making sure there were no other explosions.

Let the healing begin.