What’s up with Twiggy?
Dear Dr. Forsythe: I heard that your mascot at the veterinary hospital, Twiggy the bulldog, was having a serious operation. Is she OK? Can you please share the details? How soon before she is back at work full time?
MJ, Sonoma
Dear MJ. Thank you for your inquiry. Word does travel fast in this town, however, I do realize that Twiggy is a bit of a local celebrity. Indeed, after her appearance in “Legally Blonde” in Santa Rosa this past spring, she has become nothing less than a living legend. Unfortunately for her, despite a presence nothing short of magical, her inwardly grown corkscrew tail has put a little “hitch in her get along “ and slightly “cramped her style” for the last year of her life.
Bulldogs or other dogs that have naturally short and curled tails can have corkscrew tails that are inverted or abnormal. This can be congenital problem (present as a birth defect) or the result of improper tail docking within the first few days of a puppy’s life. In either case, if the caudal vertebrae is inward growing, the skin covering the tip of the tail can develop a small pouch that gets dirty and infected. Eventually the skin becomes chronically irritated and the tissue beneath so inflamed that the pet is constantly aggravated by the itching and pain.
In Twiggy’s case, even though we cleaned the pouch around her tail every day and placed medication there, she developed such an itch that she would go through intense bouts of rubbing and scratching at her tail base to try and get some relief.
Can you imagine the look on our clients’ faces as they witnessed a frantically possessed Twiggy desperately trying to spin around on her little tail nub to get relief? With her eyes fluttering and her mouth gaping open, it looked like she was undergoing an exorcism. It finally got to the point where Twiggy’s condition was so severe that it was clear that surgical correction had become necessary.
This past Tuesday, in a two hour procedure, Twiggy’s last caudal vertebra and surrounding inflamed tissue were removed by my colleague, Mark Doverspike. A specialist in veterinary surgery from UC Davis, Dr. Doverspike has performed many intricate surgeries at Altimira Veterinary Hospital over the years, ranging from orthopedic procedures to lung removals and even heart surgery.
After surgery, in place of the twisted, gnarly short tail piece that she went in with was a smooth row of stitches that will heal completely and leave her with a clean, itch-less rump. This afternoon, Twiggy was snoring away in her recovery cage, high as a kite on morphine, and oblivious to her surroundings. Unavailable for comment, at one point she lifted up her big thick wrinkled head, looked at me with her bloodshot eyes, and simply let out a big sigh of relief.
I suspect that in the coming days, she will quickly bounce back to her old self, less the miserable irritating tail. With more time to enjoy life and no problematic butt problem badgering her constantly, she will have more time to attend to her customers at the veterinary hospital where she is in full command of the duty desk.
