Another Trip to the Veterinarian
O.K. I’ve come to the conclusion, we can’t win to lose. Just as Dunkel’s injured toe was finally healing we find ourselves with two more injured dogs this week. One of the incidents was as unbelievable as the freak accident that took Kawlijah from us, only this time we were lucky enough that there were no fatalities in the kennel.
A few days ago, Buckwheat and several dogs were all playing together. They have this little game of doggie tag that they play every night, where they all chase one dog around, then they’ll take turns and all chase someone else. It’s really comical to watch, and they wear themselves out chasing each other over every square inch of our property.
Sadly, Buckwheat was getting chased and he ran through the middle of the dog yard. Crumb leaped out to get in on the action, and somehow, at the speed Buckwheat was moving, the Swedish snap from Crumb’s collar caught in his skin. He was running so fast that it literally peeled the skin from his chest like a banana. About a six inch patch of chest meat got exposed.
We quickly brought him in, cleaned out the wound and used a skin stapler to hold the flap in place until we could get him to the veterinarians. They got him into surgery, and $300 we don’t have later, he got all stitched up and now has a drain sticking out of the wound for the next 12 days. See picture below.
The second injury in the kennel this week came during another play session. Several females are in heat right now, and they tend to get really, REALLY bitchy with each other. We had Oaky and a few house dogs running around with us while doing some chores to get the garden in shape for the year, but Oaky thought it would be more un to pick a fight with Butterscotch. The squablle only lasted 30 seconds, but there were a lot of bites exchanged in that time before we broke them up. Oaky learned the error of her ways as Butter got the best of her. Oaky now has several holes in her ear and we are flushing the wound daily to try to keep it from getting infected.
Hopefully next week will bring some better luck our way. Until then…
May 24th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
Sorry to hear of your troubles. It sounds like the dogs are enjoying this beautiful weather.
When you mentioned the skin stapler, a little light went on in my head. I am an operating room nurse so we always have things that get opened or dropped and can’t be used. If you give me an idea of the things you could use, I’ll be happy to start a “stash” for you. We are planning a trip to your neck of the woods in mid-July. I would like to stop by and meet you all so I could bring it to you then. We have basins (large and small), open tubes of antibiotic ointment, gauze, staplers, suture, drape sheets, irrigation syringes, just to name some items. I’d be happy to keep it out of the landfill and put it to good use.
By the way, which Vet do you use? I would like to buy stock in his/her business. *wink*
May 24th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
I won’t say anything about bringing home Trouble – it’s just a coincidence, I’m sure!
OW! OW!
May 26th, 2010 at 10:45 am
My gosh! hopefully things will get better soon. Cute kitty, hope she won’t be to much trouble. Want to come out for a visit sometime. You can let Laurie know when you have some; dare I say “Free time”. Poor Buckwheat and Okie. Talk to you soon
Kate