WE had a very close call last night. I heard the raccoon messing with the empty feeder around dark, but figured it had seen there was nothing to eat and moved on. A few hours later Pepper blink blinked her morse code to tell me she had to go out. I put the leash on, opened the door stepped out and she shot towards the feeder so fast the leash was ripped out of my hand. 5 seconds later, everything went wrong. The racoon ran away, but she had run down there with such force that she broke the ceramic bowl I had out for my one wing one legged cardinal and it cut her so bad. I ran in with her and blood was everywhere. I ran to the bathtub and rinsed it off, but it was coming out so fast I grabbed my robe and applied direct pressure. I brought her to the sofa to try to get a better look, but I just coulnd't really see it well and the bleeding was bad so I knew I had to get pressure back on it, so I had no gauze or tape, so I took one of my grandson's diapers, cut a strip where the velcro taps are and put that snugly over it, then I held her leg above her heart, cradling her against me. WE stayed that way until the sun came up. I had 2 grand babies that were suppose to come at 9, Hyia is not feeling well and had to stay home, so my plan was to go the vet by my Mom's which opened at 7 30 am. I dropped off Hyia at my son's and told her to tell him to meet me at the vets if I was not back before he had to go work.
I knew there was no way I could wait at the Humane society with both babies, one almost 3, the little girl is one year, nor did I want to drive the long way to Independence holding on to the dog with them in the truck,. . The vet by my Mom's knew me because I took her old beagle there to have pts when Mom broke her hip. I told her Mom would let me use her credit card, and she remembered Sammy so they took her in. i prayed it wasn't as bad as it looked, abut it was worse. What I thought was visible bone, was severed tendon, and she cut a major artery. IF I hadn't kept pressure on it for 4 hours I don't know what would have happened, I might have lost her. If I had known it was that bad I would have taken her to the er vet. By the time I changed the dressing on it that I had made out of the diaper, it had stopped bleeding but it looked ghastly I didn't think I should put anything on it yet because I didn't know how bad it was. I didn't let her have anything to drink or eat, in case she needed surgery which she did. . I didn't let her even shift, we held so still, I didn't dare doze because I was afraid it might swell with the bandage on, so I was checking it every few minutes to make sure her middle two toenails stayed in line together and didn't' separate. THe vet said I did everything right, and the diaper bandage was a good idea because it did what needed to be done. She has lots of stitches, a very long splint that goes above her elbow, which she will have to have on for 6 weeks. I take her in Monday to have the dresing changed, and later to have the stitches removed, but the splint has to stay on to make sure she doens't bust open that artery or mess up the reattached tendon. The tendon is the one that runs up to what I call a false thumb, I don't know what that is called. So hopefully it is not going to do permanant damage. When they say things can go bad so fast, it is so the truth. All of this happend in about 10 seconds.
It hurt her so bad, she is finally asleep in her chair, ate a big dinner and drank. I carried her out to her private place for elimination, and she must have held it all day, because I didn't think she would ever stop going. She has sad painful eyes, and I am so very sorry. I had no idea that racoon was still out there, nor was I expecting her to shoot out like a cannon ball. She is my best leash dog, she heels and minds better than Victor does so I was not expecting her to do that.
I knew there was no way I could wait at the Humane society with both babies, one almost 3, the little girl is one year, nor did I want to drive the long way to Independence holding on to the dog with them in the truck,. . The vet by my Mom's knew me because I took her old beagle there to have pts when Mom broke her hip. I told her Mom would let me use her credit card, and she remembered Sammy so they took her in. i prayed it wasn't as bad as it looked, abut it was worse. What I thought was visible bone, was severed tendon, and she cut a major artery. IF I hadn't kept pressure on it for 4 hours I don't know what would have happened, I might have lost her. If I had known it was that bad I would have taken her to the er vet. By the time I changed the dressing on it that I had made out of the diaper, it had stopped bleeding but it looked ghastly I didn't think I should put anything on it yet because I didn't know how bad it was. I didn't let her have anything to drink or eat, in case she needed surgery which she did. . I didn't let her even shift, we held so still, I didn't dare doze because I was afraid it might swell with the bandage on, so I was checking it every few minutes to make sure her middle two toenails stayed in line together and didn't' separate. THe vet said I did everything right, and the diaper bandage was a good idea because it did what needed to be done. She has lots of stitches, a very long splint that goes above her elbow, which she will have to have on for 6 weeks. I take her in Monday to have the dresing changed, and later to have the stitches removed, but the splint has to stay on to make sure she doens't bust open that artery or mess up the reattached tendon. The tendon is the one that runs up to what I call a false thumb, I don't know what that is called. So hopefully it is not going to do permanant damage. When they say things can go bad so fast, it is so the truth. All of this happend in about 10 seconds.
It hurt her so bad, she is finally asleep in her chair, ate a big dinner and drank. I carried her out to her private place for elimination, and she must have held it all day, because I didn't think she would ever stop going. She has sad painful eyes, and I am so very sorry. I had no idea that racoon was still out there, nor was I expecting her to shoot out like a cannon ball. She is my best leash dog, she heels and minds better than Victor does so I was not expecting her to do that.
