‘Are you ready, Jon?’ James enquired.
‘Yeah, are you sure you want to do this?’ I said in a final moment’s hesitation, but with the wheels already set in motion, and adrenaline and testosterone pumping, there was no way they were changing their minds now.
‘Yeah, it’s fine. Don’t worry, we won’t blame you if something goes wrong!’ Chris said laughing.
‘No but your wives might,’ I shot back.
‘OK, here goes. We’ll tell you when it’s safe to come in, so just close the door behind us initially,’ Chris said as he picked up the mattress, slowly opened the cage door and stepped in with James hot on his tail.
As they disappeared into the enclosure, Marty’s snarling and growling intensified. I pulled the door to behind them, conscious that it only opened inwards so if one of them got stuck behind it, it would be impossible for me to safely get them out without going into the cage myself. I tucked myself round the corner, suddenly too fearful to watch as the noise intensified. My mind suddenly flooded with the range of horrific scenarios that could unfold, but it was too late to do anything about it now, I just had to stand there and pray that it all went to plan.
It was probably only a matter of a minute or two, but it felt like a lifetime. The level of ferocity escalated and then died away to a low growl and then I suddenly heard James’s voice.
‘We’re ready for you, Jon.’
Had I heard correctly? Had it worked? I dared not believe it, but then James repeated, more urgently now, ‘Jon we’ve got him, you can come in.’
I unlatched the door and walked in, injection pole at the ready. Chris and James were in the near corner, pushing against the mattress, which was partly wedged under the wooden shelf that ran the full length of the back wall as James had said earlier. Marty’s rear end and tail were just visible against the wall. I didn’t hesitate, quickly jabbing the pole needle into Marty’s rump and injecting.
‘OK, all done,’ I said, stepping back and retreating out the door.
‘Is that it? We’re done?’ Chris said, surprised.
‘Yup.’
‘Wow, you didn’t hang about,’ James added. ‘OK, Chris, one, two, three, and then we retreat, OK?’
‘OK.’
‘One – two – three … go!’ They said in unison. Once outside we shut and bolted the door.
‘Wow, well that went better than I thought,’ said James.
‘Yeah, it certainly did,’ Chris agreed.
‘Now we just need the injection to work and for him to go to sleep,’ I added.
‘Oh it’d better. I don’t think my heart could cope with having to do that again. I won’t lie, I was fairly terrified,’ James now revealed.
That really was not a sensible plan, I reflected, feeling that we’d had a lucky escape. Just as well Dave hadn’t arrived halfway through it.
It was difficult to assess Marty through the narrow window bars of the cage door, but his growling and snarling slowly abated till, after about five minutes, it had ceased all together. We gently opened the door wide enough for me to lean in and probe him with the pole. He didn’t respond.
‘He’s out,’ I said, with a huge sigh of relief. It was done. Marty was asleep and no one was hurt.
‘Great.’
‘Good job, good job.’
The release of tension was visible on all our faces, but we knew it was only the first hurdle. We still had to figure out what was wrong with Marty. Chris, still tentative, set about cautiously removing the mattress, ensuring that Marty didn’t stir and that he was in fact asleep, which he thankfully was. No longer fearful, we lifted him onto the shelf to use as a worktop. I then wheeled the portable anaesthetic machine into the cage. I needed to intubate him before I could properly connect him up, but in the meantime I used a mask over his mouth and nose.
Into the midst of this busy scene Dave now arrived. The shock, disbelief and confusion on his face when he realized that we had already anaesthetized Marty was a picture.
‘How did you do it?’ he enquired.
‘I made an injection pole and used that,’ I said casually, not wanting to go into too much detail, aware of the disapproval that it would be greeted with. Fortunately, Dave was quickly distracted by the job in hand, assisting me to intubate and catheterize Marty.
‘Dave,’ I said. ‘Are you happy for a moment? I just need to ring the capture specialist in Somerset and tell him we don’t need him. I had him on standby just in case.’
‘Oh, that was good thinking. Yeah sure, go call him, I’ll take over here.’
‘Thanks.’
And with that I headed out of the building to call Eric.
I walked back down the corridor to the cage doorway. Dave looked up at me, giving me a knowing, disbelieving look. Clearly James or Chris hadn’t felt the same reluctance about sharing our unconventional, high-risk injection strategy as I had. Obviously he’d be having words with me later, but for now we were focused on the patient before us. I handed Dave the urinary catheter. It took several attempts and a few patient minutes, but suddenly it advanced and with it a stream of dark, foul-smelling urine flowed forth.
‘Good job,’ I said to Dave.
‘Yeah, he was definitely blocked and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a bladder full of stones, but there’s no way of telling without X-raying him, so I reckon now that we have him anaesthetized and stable, we open him up and flush out his bladder. What do you think, James?’
‘Whatever you think is best.’
‘Jon?’ Dave said turning to me.
‘Yeah, I agree. He seems stable and we’d be kicking ourselves if he reblocks in a day or two.’
‘OK, are you happy to do the anaesthetic if I do the surgery?’ Dave asked me.
‘Yeah, no problem.’
‘Perfect.’ Dave picked up the clippers and started clipping the hair away from Marty’s belly where he would make the incision.
‘Anything we can do?’ James asked.
‘Could you grab a jug of warm water?’ I suggested.
‘Sure,’ James replied and disappeared.
I turned my attention to checking Marty. He was breathing steadily, heart rate was 80 and he had no blink reflect; he was nicely asleep and stable.
James returned a few minutes later with the jug, Dave had finished clipping, so having added some iodine solution to the water, I started scrubbing the now exposed skin to clean it and prep it for surgery. Once finished I sprayed it with spirit while Dave used an antiseptic gel to sterilize his hands. I then opened the surgical kits so he could gown and glove up. With Marty draped, and Dave’s instruments laid out next to him, I provided him with a scalpel blade and suture material and he was ready to go. I did a final check to make sure Marty was fully under and then Dave proceeded.
It turned out that Marty had a bladder full of a gelatinous material, rather than the classic stones we were expecting, but nevertheless the find confirmed the need for the surgery. Having removed them and flushed through his bladder, Dave closed his bladder and then his abdomen and finally his skin, using buried stitches so they wouldn’t need removing.
‘Well that went pretty well,’ Dave confirmed as he removed his gloves and packed away his surgical instruments.
‘Thanks, guys, it was definitely the right call,’ Chris said.
We cleared all the equipment out of the cage. Once the room was empty, I turned off the anaesthetic machine, disconnected it and wheeled it out. Dave drew up the reversal agent and after I had removed Marty’s endotracheal tube, injected him. We both retreated, closing the cage door behind us to wait for him to wake up.
Ten minutes later he stirred, and within minutes was then up and about, prowling around the cage.
‘You should keep him in for a few days, so maybe allow him access to the neighbouring cage as well.’
‘Sure,’ Chris agreed. ‘Does he need any follow-up meds?’