A new experience for Samson

We made our first trip a veterinary emergency room last night. Samson is fine, but here is the story. Much like teething tots, young dog like to chew on things. Samson has a whole array of rubber and nylon bones to chew, but one of his favorite chew items are frozen beef bones. A few times a week, we will reward his good behavior with one of these tasty treats. We purchase the bones from our local D&W, where the butcher will saw a soup bone into one inch long chunks. We will then throw the bone pieces into the freezer, the marrow freezes and the bone becomes for all intents and purposes it becomes a bovine lollypop. Well, Samson had a habit of sticking his lower jaw and tongue into the bone and chewing on the bone so it encircles his mandible. Unfortunately, the bone he got last night was just a little too small and it became wedged on his jaw. He came to us for help, sitting by my feet while I was doing the dishes and looking up at me as if to say, "Can you please get this bone off of my lower jaw?" While he came to me for comfort, he would not allow me to manipulate the bone to get it off of his jaw. I gave him a few puppy treats in the hope that he would work to move the bone off himself, but it was to no avail. We decided that we needed professional help, so a little before 10PM we loaded Sammy into the Land Rover and took him to the Animal Emergency Hospital. Samson was doing OK, and he trotted into the clinic. A vet tech took him back to a treatment room, and a few minutes later a veterinarian came to us and asked us a few questions about his medical history. The plan of attack was to sedate him using a fast acting barbituate and remove the bone. About 15 minutes later, the aforementioned vet returned with the bone in a plastic bag. Her efforts were successful, and she said that in 15-20 minutes Samson would be able to go home. We settled our bill and just a few moments later, Samson came out into the waiting room. He was a little wobbly as the the anesthetic made him woozy. We walked him to the car, I picked him up and put him in our travel kennel. We were home by 11:30PM and Samson promptly put himself to bed. I am happy to report that when he woke this morning, he was back to his normal, goofy self

We learned a valuable lesson last night: No more bones so large that he can wrap his jaw around it!