Tales From the Vet Box - The Castration Song

Many of you know I worked in vet clinics as a veterinary technician for years.   Some of my best animal stories come from my time spent working with really good vets in Washington State and here in Colorado.

The Castration Song

We had a client who brought in her four miniature donkeys for annual veterinary work, including vaccines, dental work, and one youngster to be gelded.  The client was a larger woman, sturdy farming stock, with wide girth and muscular arms, wearing a large canvas work coat and coveralls.  She doted on her donkeys as though they were beloved housecats.

She had a song she always sang to them whenever one was castrated.  While the little donkey wobbled under sedation as the veterinarian was crouching down trying to emasculate a testicle, she would kneel in the stall and croon,

"Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they're here to stay
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly, I'm not half the stud I used to be
There's no shadow hanging under me
Oh yesterday, came suddenly

Why they had to go, I don't know
She wouldn't say.

But I've done something wrong
Now I long for yesterday"