Doris was a much-loved small mongrel with a fawn, slightly rough coat. She was one of my patients for years but I particularly remember the last year of her life.

She was15 and beginning to show some of the problems of old age when her owner brought her along for a check-up. As we talked and I examined her, I tried to build up a complete picture of her problems.

Her breath smelt awful because her teeth were covered in tartar, she was getting arthritis in her back legs, her sight was not so good, particularly at night, and she had a nasty little tumour in the skin over her ribs.

Despite her problems her tail still wagged cheerfully. We talked through each problem in turn. Her heart was strong and regular and there was no obvious reason why she should not have an anaesthetic.

She was finding it increasingly uncomfortable to chew hard things and was only eating on one side of her mouth, so her teeth needed sorting out. I also felt that the tumour on her chest would be uncomfortable and would probably get worse quite quickly.

It would be well worth giving her tablets to relieve the arthritis. I could do nothing about her sight. The problem was degeneration of her retina, but like many old dogs she had adopted a set routine around the house and on walks and coped extremely well.

We talked through what an operation would cost and I explained that modern anaesthetics made operations pretty safe even in old dogs. She was still happy, ate well, enjoyed her walks and was always pleased to see her owners so I had no doubt it was worth doing.

I knew that if she had been my dog I would have been comfortable doing the operation and said so.

She came into my hospital the next morning. I gave her an anaesthetic and removed several loose and infected teeth and cleaned the rest up. While she was asleep I also removed the tumour from over her ribs. The whole operation took about 45 minutes.

By tea-time she was ready to go home and when she came for her check-up two days later she was back to her old self. From then on I kept her on tablets for arthritis which helped a good deal to control the stiffness and keep her comfortable.

I saw her for regular check-ups until one day about a year later she died peacefully and quite without warning in her sleep.

Simon Thomas's practice is at the Gatehouse Veterinary Hospital, Allerton Road, Bradford.

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