Laparotomy, Enterotomy

Lateral abdominal xray
With Labradors the mouth is faster than the eye.
Tilly 4 hours postop
My grandfather had a sign that said “even a fish wouldn’t get in trouble if he kept his mouth shut”. What are the consequences of operating one’s mouth in a unmindful way? This is Tilly 4 hours post-op, walking out of Georgetown Vet.
Mao, Liberty and unknown
Tilly swallowed that third button to the right of Mao and Walking Liberty. And the consequences… When did it go down? How did it go down. It resided in her stomach (how long? long enough for the button message to be digested), got ejected through her pyloric valve, raked through the duodenum and hung up in the jejunum 20” from her stomach. The surgeon did a midline incision, a laparotomy, pulled her guts out. A linear track of inflammation was visible along the anti mesenteric surface of the bowel. The surgeon made a longitudinal incision about 1.2” through the bowel lumen and removed Tilly’s prize.
Where did she find it? Probably on the side of the road in Charlottesville
rocking the E collar
She feels much better. Resting. Sleeping a lot, on several meds and delicious food. Wearing an Elizabethan collar…

Porch Life

porch night
“Porch life” is a term social historians have applied to the gathering of family; neighbors and friends which took place regularly during fair weather on the verandahs or front porches of many of America’s homes around the turn-of-the-century. Such use of porches was a strong tradition until after World War II. —From Porch Swings to Patios