Tail-Ectomy

Our long awaited appointment with the vet from Miami happened this morning. We loaded MadibaWeasel and Mr. Kitty into their respective cargo carriers and then stuffed them into the truck. We were twenty minutes early and the vet was running 40 minutes behind schedule, but eventually we got in.

After examining MadibaWeasel, Chris, the vet, agreed that we needed to amputate the end of her tail. I held her down while he gave her a Ketamine sedative shot. I held her in my arms for five mintues as she slowly went limp.

Once she was sedated, we laid out a mini surgical theatre. First up, Chris shaved the weasel’s tail while I manned the Shop-Vac. Once the hair was sucked up, Chris grabbed a pair of scissors and cut off the offending piece of tail. Two stitches later, she was good as new.

I have included a photo of the tail-shortened weasel above.

Mr. Kitty, who is actually Mrs. Kitty, received a check up and she was found to be ok. Chris did provide a new med for Mr. Kitty to combat her hair loss. Mr. Kitty is currently 14 years old and as such she is experiencing several age-health related issues. She may be getting old, but she seems ok to me.

We returned the still drugged MadibaWeasel and Mr. Kitty to the Bailey house and after making sure the weasel wasn’t suffering any ill effects from the tail-ectomy, we loaded back into the Bailey-mobile and headed to Prime Island Meats up in Hooper’s Bay. We purchased several types of gourmet lunch meats and cheeses as well as a couple pounds of chicken breasts and breakfast sausage links.

On the way home, we tried to get propane, but there was no one at the BEC plant. Go figure.

A quick stop off at the Exuma Market and then we were on our way home. On the way, we picked up the usual assortment of Bahamian and Haitiaan hitch hikers. I think we maxed out at 6 in the back of the pickup.

We reached home and Amy stowed our purchases while I found MadibaWeasel and made sure she was ok. True to form, she was already up and running around playing with Bodhi and Sattva. The tumor that the vet removed was at the very end of her tail and it’s size and weight had been enough to throw her balance out of whack when she was jumping. With it now removed, she seemed much more sleek despite the lingering influence of the sedative.

In other news, I went up to Dream Catcher yesterday. She is doing fine, but my new 30 hp engine overheated on the way to her. Fortunately, I had elected to carry our trusty 15 hp with me for the test run. I swapped out the 30 for the 15 and completed the trip without issue.

As near as I can tell, the cooling system is either clogged up some, or the impeller is shot. I’m going to pop open the lower unit and replace the impeller and then do a vinegar bath for the cooling passages. Hopefully this will get the new engine back online. I’ll keep you posted.

Five days to the start of lobster season. More to follow, end of line …

Comments (3) -

What is going on with you web address.  I have been using http://www.theconchhorn.com/dreamcatcher for quite a while, but now it doesn't work.  I did a google search to come up with http://www.tendervittles.net/.  Was there a change and I missed the announcement?  Did you lose the war with the spammer?

Rob

Kerry Kilcrease 7/29/2013 7:17:32 PM

Is your vet going to test that tumor or is he certain it was benign such as a lypoma  etc ? Or is it not something your worried about ? I'm just an animal lover worried about yer critter.

Kerry,

   We talked it over with the vet who is not a weasel specialist, but still very much in the know and he agreed that there was no point in having the tumor checked out. Between our physical location, the weasels age and the fact that 99.99% of these "Chordoma" tumors are benign we are almost certainly in the clear.

   Thanks for your concern.

Regards,

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