Arthur's no longer a 'he man'

Poor Arthur… we had decided to have him castrated as it was a far less difficult operation than having Blue sterilised. As he is such a huge great lump, plus gets so travel sick in the car, Andres the vet was happy to come here to do the operation. Of course we had to be on hand to help, and he was not a happy Mastin! He was given a sedative first of all to relax him whilst Andres set to work giving him a little trim. That was ok! Then came the time to put him to sleep, and he needed an intra muscular injection, he was not having that without a huge fight! He was so scared, and did not like the injection that he put his mouth around Alan’s arm, just to prove a point…. So Arthur got muzzled! Andres managed to get most of the injection in, and the decision was made to let him go to sleep then give him the remaining dose.

Mark, Alan and Andres lifted him onto the table and I was happy not to be around whilst the surgery was happening, and disappeared off somewhere. I was called when all the gory stuff was over and came down to look after Arthur. It was horrible when the poor big boy was coming round, Andres did explain to me that sometimes they hallucinate after the anaesthetic, and if he began howling or crying, not to be alarmed, he was not in pain but just hallucinating. He was not too bad, but was shaking badly as though he was in shock. He obviously had to have a large dose of anaesthetic being around the 50 kilo mark, and he did not really start to come round for about five hours, when he dragged himself along the floor for a while… aww bless him.  He managed to get up on his long legs and stagger out like an old drunk man. Alan spent the night down in the bottom apartment and kept Arthur inside to try and reduce the risk of any infection. They both slept soundly and Arthur was like a new dog the following morning. Alan bathed Arthur’s little bits three times a day and the incision healed perfectly.

I was very worried when the stitches were taken out a week later and we dragged Mark and Nigel to help pin Arthur down, (whilst I decided Blue needed a walk, and made a hasty exit) but the big fella hardly flinched, good boy! Phew that’s over!

Arthur gets pampered

Blue wants to be next

Getting a big kiss from Mark