This pointed 'joke' is lifted from a Facebook page called Emergency Vet Tech Memes.
For those that don't know what they're seeing - this is an endotracheal tube, used during surgery to keep the airways open and deliver oxygen (and anaesthetic) to the patient.
Normally, ET tubes are whipped out once the patient comes round enough for the swallow reflex to restart - and not least because they're uncomfortable.
But this little dog clamped down on the tube, preventing the vet techs from moving it, so they left it in for a while longer. As you can see, he looks chilled. That's because the tube ensures the dog's airways are open. In brachycephalic breeds, coming round from an anaesthetic with an ET tube still in place can mean the first truly clear and unhindered breath of their waking lives.
Just as sad and telling are some of the comments from other vet techs in response to the pic.
• "Hahahaha!! I know that's right! Never fails! Best SPO2 of their life!"
• "Bahahaha true, yet terrifying when you de-tube lol"
Don't be put off - this is black humour; a way of coping when a fair proportion of your working life is spent trying to fix problems inflicted on dogs by people who think defect and deformity is attractive.
Many vets will tell you similar stories of happy-looking Bulldogs and other brachcephalic breeds running round with the ET tube still in place post surgery.
In this very sad piece, UK vet Nick Marsh describes doing a C-section on a Bulldog called Heidi assisted by veterinary nurse, Sam.
I look sadly down at [Heidi]. Her whole life is a struggle with her own body – whenever she tries to walk, or eat, or defecate, or breathe, she has to wrestle against her own bizarre anatomy.
Placing an endotracheal tube is difficult too – Heidi’s soft palate is too long for her mouth, and it takes some searching before I manage to locate her epiglottis – but the moment the tube is in place, Heidi’s tongue loses its alarming bluish tinge and turns a reassuring pink.
“Probably the best lungful she’s had for a while,” says Sam.In truth, I've run out of novel ways to say we shouldn't be breeding dogs that live their whole lives starved of oxygen.
But I don't mind repeating myself.
Is there no way that this can be stopped under existing animal cruelty laws?
ReplyDeleteI would hope so too but there is some nonsense about animal cruelty laws.. there is a puppy farm not too far away from where I live, and when it was brought to the attention of the welfare people, they disliked what they saw BUT THEY COULDN'T DO ANYTHING BECAUSE THERE WAS CLEAN WATER and it was moderately clean. The dogs distressed and clearly unhappy - just like these puppies will be when they grow up, the wrinkles and the lumps of fat on their noses will always be there, their legs compromised because of the uneven distribution of weight, their little paws already splayed to compensate. I dread to think what their mouths are like and how they chew their food and the effect on their digestive tracts. IT IS TIME AUTHORITIES SHOULD START CHALLENGING THE KENNEL CLUB AND MAKE THEM RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE DREADFUL BREEDING PRACTICES.
ReplyDeleteRight! There´s something very strange with a subculture which protests it just adoooores dogs... and yet, the dog, plain and simple, is just never good enough for it: deformity must be added. As if dogs needed to be turned grotesque to deserve to be adopted into this sect. Actually, if long custom and the veneer of social status had not blinded us to it, animal protection laws would have put an end to it long ago.
DeleteI think we need to give brachycephalic dogs a campaign of their own....tragic.
ReplyDeleteI'm not defending these mindless comments by the vet techs. But sometimes, humour can be a way of people coping with situations that can be distressing. The medical professionals can have a dark sense of humour, as do the police force. Sometimes, it's people's way of coping, but those comments should not be made public and I would be concerned that these individuals are fit for their job, morally speaking.
These dogs need to be made undesirable to own and care for. Any advertising campaigns that use these types of dogs need to be lobbied against - just write to the companies and explain exactly that they are promoting their products alongside disabled and deformed dogs who are suffering. Are their products defective too then?
It's shocking how so many people simply DO NOT REALIZE that having a flat face is a deformity, especially in a long-snouted family of carnivores like the Canidae. When will people realize that they are intentionally breeding deformity when they select for brachycephaly in populations (breeds) like the bulldog and pug?
ReplyDeletehere is my paper on this issue (which has been posted here previously) - http://www.toothvet.ca/PDFfiles/Stop_Brachy.pdf.
ReplyDeleteDr Hale, do you think you have made any progress with regard to educating clients and breeders in Canada on this issue?
DeleteGood for you for speaking out! Hopefully more veterinary professionals will take your lead.
I would be more than happy to have the breeders surgically "enhanced" to match their dogs.
ReplyDeleteOh. And enforced in-breeding for breeders.
BUT, the people who create the travesty would be scot free. It would be the result of surgically enhancing them or the offspring of such a union that would suffer. If the breeders were told to put a paper bag over their head and a peg on their nose and given a bowl of cornflakes to eat whilst walking around with shackles on then they would see the true discomfort of what they are inflicting on another species. And, even then, I doubt they would understand, as long as the money keeps on a coming they don't care. And yes Anon 16/6 8.30 it is as sick as that, mentally sick. We accept things so quickly as human beings, windfarms for instance. The first in the area an abomination, it has to go, we have to stop it, it is built - oh well, another development same area, shock, built - oh well, third one - and? Just like in dogs, wrinkly, cute, winklier very cute in deed, one big smelly sick bald wrinkly dog - and? It's a breed so "nae bother" the KC approve - so? We quickly accept destruction as a normality, and sadly this is becoming the norm in our global societies.
Delete[whisper] I thought wind farms were a good thing? Better than fracking etc isn't?
Deleteecologically windfarms are a travesty, read about the toxic lakes in China, water displacement etc etc. but that's a digression from dogs, it was used as an analogy and when you dig into windfarms, your belief that they are good better than fracking (which is also dreadful) equates to seeing a cute wrinkly dog, or pushed in face dog, or massive dog, whatever, and decide that you want one that's even more wrinkly, snubbed, bigger therein lies the problem. Unless we are made aware of the problems that the land, or the dog, or the horse suffers because of our need to twist things to our way of thinking or need, people will continue to blindly buy or accept what is offered without being aware of the suffering of a living thing and centuries to put right a "green" energy supply. We all need to think laterally. Hope I'm not shouting and talking reasonably quietly RiverP but I do have a big mouth and a little brain :-(! and a great passion for animals.........
DeleteWill do but I warn you the whole of China is toxic...the communists didn't put ecology and environment high on the agenda. But today all motor bikes for example in that vast country China need to be electric by law and they are leading in the use of solar energy etc......some inroads at least.
DeleteNo no I was just whispering because it's not on topic, well at least I couldn't see the dog connection.
DeleteYes I did see wind farms as a good alternative source of energy.
In California they are all over the place, from my hybrid Prius with the old sticker of vote Obama in the back window I thought they looked charminginly progressive?
It's like posting pictures of people who have cleft palettes or some other facial deformity and laughing at how 'cute' they look! Pretty sick. It doesn't make sense that our legal definition of cruelty to animals is so one dimensional.
ReplyDeletecheck out the 'exotic bully.' dogs so unsound they can't run, walk, stand on their feet, breathe..selling for thousands of dollars.
ReplyDeleteDon't blame the vet techs for the jokes. I used to work in human health, and that kind of humour can be the only way to get you through awful things and still do your job effectively. Their jokes serve a useful function by showing us how common it is for these poor dogs to want to keep the tubes in :(
ReplyDeleteMy vet reports a similar experience - in fact, she says that she hates to remove the tube from these dogs because their breathing is so much better with it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a damn shame.
I am a vet tech, and have witnessed this first hand. In fact, one retired show pug came to us terribly overweight, so I worked with the vet to install a permanent neck trach/stoma tube (placed a screen to keep debris out of it. To allow the dog to breathe well enough to exercise/lose weight. This dog weight from morbidly obese and lethargic, to fifteen pounds lighter and alive in a month!
ReplyDeleteIt's not just dogs that have the squashed face problem. I bred and showed rabbits for thirteen years. My breed was the netherland dwarf. The standard called for a head "round in shape, like half an apple" Over the years the noses of the breed I saw on the table became more and more concave... suddenly teeth and jaw problems were rampant... and judges poured awards on these rabbits! As a long standing and highly regarded breed club member, I held several panels discussing this issue, with the result of making the concave nose a disqualification.
Liking a look is fine, but taking the look to an extreme that detriments health is wrong, and should not be encouraged.