X-RAY OF HIPS, KNEES AND ELBOW JOINTS
Helsingborgs' Animal Hospital 18th of july 2000.

Oh dear, was I nervous about this event... Ambrosius' own "help mistress" Ann escorted us since his master could not get free from his work. I had no idea on how this x-ray event should work, but now I know and will tell you all about it. I worried a lot about everything. How in the world should they be able to get him up on the x-ray table for example???

A rottweiler dog shall be x-rayed after its first birthday and these photographies is then sent to the Swedish Breeding club for a judgement. After that they send the result home to me with notes from an expert. Here in Sweden the cost for the x-ray was 910 swedish kronor (approximately 114 US Dollar).

I was told not to feed the dog before doing the x-ray since it could start to vomit or feel sick when the treatment started.

We were showed in to examination room no. 6 and had to wait for a while on the veterinary who should listen to Ambrosius heart and find out his weight. He weighed 51,5 kilograms and the nurse gave him a shot with some medication which made him VERY sleepy and relaxed. She told us that it was common that the dog starts to vomit by this medication, and then she left us waiting.

Me and Ann sat there, very tensed, and just waited for my beloved little Abbe to start to vomit... but nothing happened. He just layed down and fell asleep. Snoring loudly on the floor - and then I started to relax a little...

After about 20 minutes another nurse came into the room with a "table on wheels". It was very good because it had this mechanism that allowed it to come down to the floor - like a elevator. We lifted Ambrosius up on this table and started to wheel him into the x-ray-room. He was a little bit troubled about the noise this table made, but I talked to him in a "chicken-mommy-voice" and it seemed to calm him down..... or was it ME that got more calmed perhaps hahaha.

It was NOT quite easy to lift 51 kilogram totally relaxed dog... I strongly recommend to grab a hard grab - otherwise he can easily slip out of your hands. I heard a liiiiittle growling sound from Abbe, but did not mind about that. I FULLY understood if he thought the whole situation was strange.

Inside the x-ray-room me and Ann had to put on some large x-ray-clothes filled with led. It was very heavy. After that we lifted Ambrosius to the x-ray-table. It was a little tricky because there were this plastic "cradle" that we should put him in to fix him in a straight position. The cradle looked like a threedimensional V and he should lay on his back with his head sticking out the one way and the rear sticking out the other way.

Now Ambrosius did some small movements to try to break free, but we held him and straightened him up and after that he fell asleep again for a little while. I was very worried about his breathing because I couldn't see if he was. I put my hand several times on his belly - just to feel if he was alive...

"The cradle". You can see Ambrosius friend JOKER in the cradle.
Joker is a Bearded Collie and has his own homesite.

I did try to take a photography in the x-ray-room when Ambrosius was fixed in this cradle, but the room was too dark. I have instead tried to draw it as you can see at the above picture. I believe that it felt good for Ambrosius to lay in this cradle - and suspect that we could not have held him in this position by hand since the medication made all his muscles so relaxed. So this cradle was a good idea.

Now the "terrible" part started. The nurse and Ann drawed in his back legs to get them in the right position so that the picture should be good. The legs should be straight out and the knees should be very close to each other... They had to take a hard grab and I DID NOT like it. Three pictures was taken but none of them was good enough. Then the nurse fetched a veterinarian that came into the room...

...she said "Oh, theese patellas HAS to be pulled out hard to get a good picture". The sounds that came from my little Ambrosius legs and hips was AWFUL and I was just about to faint. I got VERY angry and told her to not take that hard in MY DOG!!!!

The veterinarian told me that the dog did not feel anything - but I was furious. I saw how Ambrosius tried to pull his poor legs back but she held them in a firm grip and the picture was taken. She explained that it was muscle contractions but I did not like it and did not like her, so I just gave her a murder-glance...

I said: "Well if this picture is not good enough I don't give a damn and will just take my dog home now!!!".

The picture was good enough and I was releaved.

After that they should x-ray his elbows and that was more easy treatment. We took him out of the cradle because now he had to lay on his side. I just pulled his one leg aside and the pictures was taken. We rolled him over and made similar with the other elbow.

I sneaked out to the photography-room to have a look at Ambrosius pictures. It is strange that the x-ray-machine can "take away" the fur, blood, organs, muscles and other things from the physical body. The only thing I saw was Abbes nice, white little sceleton-hips.

Before Abbe had his awakening-shot he layed as if he was dead in the corridore. "Waky, waky Abbe-darling". - Hello my lovely! WHAT a good dog you have been!

After the x-ray we lifted him back on the wheel-table and drove him out in the corridore and layed him on the floor. The nurse came and gave him an "awakening-shot" and after about 5 minutes he woke up. It looks like he was drunken when he got up from the floor, but after about 5 more minutes he was normal again. We went to the cashier and payed and went outside.

I don't believe that Ambrosius has any memories from this event because I believe that he slept most of the time - it sounded as small snorings now and then...

Afterwards we went for a LITTLE tour in the forest - just to relax a little. I believe that Mistress had to relax more than Ambrosius because he sniffed along and behaved very normal. When we came home I gave him his present - a LARGE marrow bone (see pictures).

It doesn't seem as Abbe have taken any harm from this treatment. He is of course tired and have now slept on his blanket for three hours. I just let him sleep as long as he wants. It was a hard day on his Mistress though. It feels like I should need a x-ray now since having been so tensed my back is really acing... I am SOOOO tired and will probably fall asleep after having posted this report.

I will publish the results from his x-ray here when I get it.