Honey's a TV star!

This was a big weekend for a pitbull.

Honey shared the stage with the lovely and talented Lisa Rinna on the set of Soaptalk. Honey was one of the three starring dogs in a segment to illustrate animal plastic surgery.

Now, it isn't the way it sounds. Yes, I live in LA but, no, I am not insane.

Back when Honey was pregnant, she was huge. She weighed 72 pounds when I found her - up from 55. (Side note - one time I misspoke and said she had weighed 172 and did not realize it. The person I was talking to kept saying it seemed impossible and since I thought 72 was a lot, I said, yeah, I know. But they relentlessly kept saying she must have been as big as a house and how awful until, finally, I became defensive and said, well, she was pregnant. When they said, even so...I put it all together and realized in that case each pup would've weighed around 15 pounds.) She gained more weight in the next two weeks before she delivered so she probably was around 80+. And her teats became massive. I'm not sure there is any way to describe the situation delicately except to say she was the Pamela Anderson of the pit bull world. (And look! She ended up in show biz.)

This all would've been fine and good except, when her pups got sick a few weeks in, they thought it might be her milk (it wasn't), and abruptly put the pups on formula. This left Honey with huge teats that quickly became long empty sacs - especially in the back. These flopped and rubbed against each other causing a rash which became infected. Meanwhile, she was having other problems and needed to be spayed immediately. Dr. Schulman (our hero) said he would take the back teats in at the same time because they was no way to prevent continual rashes and infections until (or if) the back teat sacs fully receded.

She quickly healed from the operation and the change in her health was remarkable. Since then she has had two articles written about her procedure but this was her first TV appearance. She was the last dog to go on.

The first dog was the biggest Doberman I've ever seen.
He had had a face lift and looked so much younger! Just kidding - he had to have it done because he was having problems with his jowls. I have read about this before. It is a problem for a number of reasons including infection - and is exacerbated by food getting caught. I'm sure Dr. Schulman explained it much better than that but I was too nervous to listen, waiting for Honey's turn. Honey? She was cool as a cucumber.

They showed photos of a Sharpei who had a lid lift. His folds were so exaggerated in the before pic, he couldn't see at all - it seemed like his eyes were shut. The after picture showed a very cute dog with nice, warm eyes peering out.

The next dog on was a sweet, chubby tank of an English Bulldog. Loveable and affectionate to people, he growled and bared his teeth to both Honey and the Doberman. His owner was humiliated and said there's nothing like your dog misbehaving in a setting like this to make you feel completely ostracized. She was very nice and took her oblivious, if not proud, troublemaker to the corner to wait his turn.
He had had a case of screw tail which can be painful as well as cause infections. He had had to have his tail removed. I'm not sure how this was plastic surgery exactly since I was thinking of the human equivalents as helping define them but, maybe there are some medical procedures I'm unaware of. If so, it would be best to keep it that way.

And then came Honey.

I was afraid she would plant her feet and have to be dragged out letting out this new little pig-like grunt I've noticed every once in a while. I thought she might not stop and stand where they wanted her to. I thought she would pull them to move on and leave the stage.

But, she ended up just being Honey. She came walking out easily, licked the vet in the face. Stayed when she was supposed to. She let the vet hold her up to show her stomach scar. Then, she calmly stood there in front of the "live studio audience." She did stare at them at one point which I know makes people nervous but that is also Honey. She's just trying to absorb new information. Unfortunately, she didn't know which camera was hers so she didn't make the most of her close up, but they kept her on rather than walking her off when the segment ended so she was out there quite a while. Then, she came walking back to me and seemed a little bored and ready to leave. Just another day to a pit bull....




pit bulls, animal plastic surgery