IN human medicine, surgical procedures that are carried out for non-therapeutic reasons are usually rather grandly referred to as cosmetic or plastic surgery.

It is very clear that the regulatory body of those of us who work with animals, The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, greatly disapproves of cosmetic surgery in animals as it quite rightly refers to such procedures as 'mutilations'.

Now there's a word that is ever so slightly emotive. With tail docking in puppies, which can only be viewed as a relatively minor procedure, about to be banned, you could imagine the repercussions if vets were to be involved in, for example, tummy tucks for show dogs.

Indeed, even necessary medical procedures, such as tooth straightening, which alter the conformation of dogs, have to be reported to the Kennel Club. Which is why there were some raised eyebrows amongst the nursing staff when they saw that I had booked in Betty, a one-year-old Shih Tzu, for a face-lift last week.

There was stoney silence as she was anaesthetised. The ice-cold atmosphere was disturbed by huffing and puffing as I clipped the hair from the wee dog's head. The temperature rose and I could feel angry eyes boring into the back of my head as I scrubbed up.

It's not the first face-lift I have performed, nor will it be the last. But before you rush to report me to the RCVS, be assured it was carried out with the patient's, not the client's, best interests at heart.

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