Nappy, the Conehead

Nappy was almost 4 months old when we had to take him to the vet to be neutered. It is very difficult for Shih Tzu’s to give birth to puppies. It is better to have them fixed. Their bodies are so small, that any pregnancy will tire the mother and it’s not certain that all the puppies will survive.

Since we heard about these complications, we did not want to be the ones to contribute to this affliction. We arranged with our vet to have our little shih tzu neutered. The day came when we took him and left him with our vet overnight. Even though we only had him for a few weeks, the night seemed endless. We missed having him home running around us with his tiny little feet. The next day even seemed longer. I couldn’t wait to receive that phone call from the vet so that I could go to pick him up.

At last, around 4:00pm I received that call. I anxiously got into my car and drove as fast as I could to get there. He was already awake and ready to come home with me. He circled around me, until I picked him up in my arms. The vet asked me to leave the cone on his neck, just in case he licked his wound. I thought I’d better leave it off. I didn’t expect that my little Nappy would lick his wound. I treated him like human even though he was still a puppy and a dog, to top it all off. Well, not having the cone on, didn’t help. I had to put it back on, since every chance he got he would lick his wound and it would bleed.

We left the cone on for about two weeks. We had to feed him by hand. His face is so flat and the cone was so wide, he couldn’t put his nose in his bowl to get his food. He healed quite nicely, and a couple of weeks later we removed the cone. He grew attached to it though, and wanted to keep it with him at all times. Gradually, I took it away from him and hid it, afraid that he might bite it and swallow some of the plastic pieces.

The days and the months went by and he forgot all about his little ordeal as any dog would. He is still as active as any puppy or any two year old dog would be even though he is neutered. But we don’t mind. We like having him running around and playing with us. When he doesn’t we think there is something wrong with him.