Friday, January 27, 2012

A whole different...

Saw a puppy today for a post-purchase exam. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, it's where the proud new puppy owner presents us with the breeder's list of absurd recommendations, and expects us to state categorically, on the basis of a physical exam, that the animal is completely healthy and has no genetic or congenital defects. This gets the breeder off the hook if a hidden problem (that couldn't be detected on physical examination anyway) arises later in the pet's life.

Anyway, I pointed out to the owner that both of the puppy's testicles were descended. He said that was fine, since they were planning on neutering him anyway. I explained that it was actually an important finding, because neutering a puppy who is an abdominal cryptorchid is a lot more involved than a routine prescrotal orchiectomy. In fact, I explained, it's a whole different...BALL GAME! HA! As usual, his only response was a blank stare of incomprehension. No one in my practice seems to appreciate my sense of humor.

11 comments:

  1. *I* appreciate your humor, and will absolutely start using that. Brilliant!

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  2. That's awesome! Feel your pain; the people at my practice really don't get my sense of humor either but then neither do most of my friends. We are having a LOT of rain over the past few weeks and I commented totally straight-faced that I have been looking for the sign directing me to "ark boarding" but I guess I missed the boat. Not even a chuckle... Sigh!

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  3. I think all of you would be easy to be friends with. I love a good (bad) pun.

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  4. That reminds me of something a vet said to me right after we did about five neuters on some barn cats. We put them through a little assembly line (it was amazing that a farm was actually willing to help with the problem of over population) and at the end I looked in the tub table to find all the peices parts for the garbage. He (Dr. L.) looked right at me and said... "You know what you got in there?" I had no idea he was making a joke and said, "Yeah, I know what they are."
    He was disappointed I didn't take the bait, but he let me have the punch line anyway. "Just a bunch of mixed nuts."
    He laughed to himself and went to his office. It was rare to get a joke out of him, and I've even used that joke a few more times in the last ten years.
    ~~JayKLVT

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  5. And wouldn't you know it... my captcha to post that comment was NUTINGL. HA!

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  6. I am totally stealing that excellent pun.

    If it makes you feel any better, I was referring to something (I forget what) in regards to a patient with diarrhea the other day and called it "a crapshoot". Not on purpose - that's how deeply ingrained bad puns are into my system. The owner liked it.

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  7. I thought it was funny. Once when we were really busy with surgeries I stuck a testicle to the wall and proclaimed we were going "balls to the wall"

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  8. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who makes those sorts of jokes. I scrubbed in for a leg amputation surgery and was nearly asked to scrub out when I made the crack, "So, most of the LEG work is cutting through the muscles, eh?" *sigh* Comedic genius lost on the unappreciative masses.

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