The Glens Veterinary Hospital

To start off with let’s define what we are talking about when we are talking about tail docking in dogs.

Tail docking from a veterinary perspective refers to a surgical procedure done to puppies between the ages of 3 to 5 days old, where a portion or partial length of the tail is amputated or cut off with a scalpel or surgical scissors, bleeding is stopped by cauterisation or tying off of bleeding blood vessels with absorbable suture material, and placing a suture or sutures in the skin to close off the wound.

Pyometra is a condition of unsterilised females, usually older than 6 years of age. “Pyo” refers to pus, and “metra” to the uterus. Literally translated, it would mean “bad of pus”. It is a very serious condition and if left untreated for too long, can have deadly consequences. It can be treated very effectively if caught early and taking your animal to the vet when signs first appear can save its life.

Pets are known to have an acute sense of hearing. What would cause them to lose this ability? How will they cope with deafness? To answer these questions we first have to look at the normal anatomy of the ear.

Dog and cats ears, much like humans, can be divided into three areas: the outer ear, middle ear and inner ear.

• The outer ear consists of the external earflap called the pinna, and the ear canal which is a narrow tube through which sound vibrations enter the ear.
• The middle ear contains the eardrum, a membrane that vibrates correspondingly to the incoming sound waves, and the small little bones on the inside of the eardrum called the auditory ossicles. These small bones transmit the eardrum vibrations to the inner ear.
• The inner ear, located deeper within the skull, contains the cochlea, a snail-shaped structure containing nerve endings that receive the vibrations and pass nervous system signals along to the brain, thereby enabling hearing.