Fix a tooth, shoot a dog (with penicillin)

Friday I went to a couple of dentists' offices to get started on the repair of the tooth I broke off Tuesday. In Oakhurst the first dentist did a procedure called a root canal and post implant. I arrived at 9:30 and the job was done by 11:15. That gave me plenty of time to head north to Mariposa for the next procedure, fitting a fake tooth on the post. That went from about 1:30 to 3:00 o'clock.

Then I drove back home. Karla and I and the two dogs took a hike, and as we passed the big unused-roof-tile pile north of the house, Sioux, the white dog, yipped. She got nailed by a rattlesnake. Barely, I think. Karla called our vet, described the wound, and he suggested a regimen. She took the dog up to the other house where Luke and Hilary, accomplished animal-repair folks, gave her an injection of penicillin and some oral medication whose name I forget. It's nice to have syringes around for things like that.

I can't even think how many gallons (liters times 3.8) of penicillin I've shot into horse butts over the decades. It's thick, like dilute pancake batter, and takes awhile to push through the tiny hole in a needle. The game, for me, was to get good enough at it that the horse never felt the needle being inserted. I found that if you slap hard enough on the spot where the needle will go, they won't feel it. Of course, the horse may turn around and bite you; it's a trade-off.

As I write this Saturday morning, the dog is fine. The rattler bite must have been just a warning. After all, the dog is way too big to swallow so why waste venom?