About a month ago I had to perform minor surgery on my cat Cosmo because somehow he ended up with two severely ingrown nails. Did you know that cat claws can curl back up into the toe pads, penetrating them and growing into a circle?
I've had cats my entire life, and I never knew that until it happened to Cosmo. It's only supposed to happen if their nails haven't been clipped in months and months, but I had clipped his about three and a half weeks before.
That's when I realized that a few of his claws have stopped shedding properly. And I looked into it and after hours of digging, found that it's just something that can happen to older ragdolls. Ugh.
Too bad he's not a ragdoll mix from after breeders bred out a lot of the defects. But his parents (okay, his mother and grandfather, his father was his older brother, poor little inbred soul) were originally strays.
Tuxie, before he passed, had scratched a hole through one of his ears, it just barely went all the way through, but the area that almost went through was the size of a silver-dollar. Had to tend to that and other wounds he gave himself (severe flea infestation we struggled to get under control) during the last few months of his life.
I've also had to perform the heimlich maneuver on cats and dogs. I've had to scrape dead tissue out of infected wounds, lance abscesses, give shots, pull baby teeth that just wouldn't come out and were very painful and getting infected, induced vomiting, nasally irrigate, flush and apply ointment to eyes, and all sorts of other things with my animals over the years (primarily my cats).
I've also had to do a lot of that stuff for myself, and some for my husband as well. But with humans making holistic remedies isn't quite as daunting because it's much easier to remember everything that's toxic to humans than cats.
I've yet to give stitches, and I hope I never have to. My husband is in the habit of supergluing his wounds that require stitches. And I don't go and get stitches when I need them, either.
I've actually seriously considered going to veterinarian school on many occasions, if only to be able to provide emergency care to my own animals and to the animals of others. (Sort of an emergency vet that makes house calls.)
Good job sewing the little piglet up!
Edit: Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I have fishing line embedded in my sternum. I'm quite the strange fellow.