[Blue Fox]

My poor little man has cut his leg. :crying::crying: Came home from a meeting last night to find what looked like a massacre, blood everywhere in his kennel and all over him. Mad panic to see where the blood was coming from, T has cut his front leg quite badly digging under the fence. I can see the tendons just above his paw :shock:

Ring the closest vet (only 100km away) and she is on holdays till January, so ring the emergency vet in the next closest town (400km away). He says bandage and dog will be fine over night but bring him down for sutures today.

So my OH is now driving T to the vets. I have had no sleep worrying and checking him every hour cause he was so sooky and quiet last night. Have a killer headache with worry - damn dogs, too much stress for me today, not coping very well at all. Just want him back home with me!

 

[Blue Fox]

Thanks for the well wishes guys, really appreciate it from those who know how I'm feeling.

And don't they make you feel bad - his [email protected]^m fault for digging under the fence but I feel bad for not having concreted around the bottom now, and not having made it extra safe for him. Last night and this morning he's waving his bandaged paw at me with the saddest eyes like "ohhh Mum how could you let this happen to me". When I was redoing the bandage this morning for his trip he was half crying and half grumbling - they certainly have a way about them these poodles!

OH will still be about an hour away from the vets so I won't get any news for a while yet - the waiting is the worst part.

 

[Blue Fox]

Yep Pamela this is one of the major drawbacks of living in the bush. Normally we have a vet about an hour away but if she is on holidays we have a 4 hour drive to get to one - I so envy people who have an emergency vet just around the corner. When I rang them last night he said it'll still be fine to suture this morning and to just bandage to keep T from licking it. I couldn't remember if it was suture within 12 hours but it seems there is some leeway on that.

This is a classic case for crate training. My car is overheating and is in at the mechanics so we have had to borrow a friends 4WD to go down there. T's crate doesn't fit in the back seat so he is in the covered tray for the ride down there, his crate has a canvas cover and the tray is fully enclosed but if you didn't have a crate trained dog this would be a worry too.

 

[Blue Fox]

My biggest fear is that he has cut tendons as well, but what I can see looks all intact so I am crossing my fingers and toes that there isn't anything else happening there that I can't see.

Ohhh and their going to have to shave his leg up quite a way :crying: all my beautiful fur, nahh that's the least of my worries although he is going to look quite strange for a while :rofl:

 

[Blue Fox]

Well OH (Troy) rang a little while ago and the vets are now working on T, so he has gone to do some shopping and they are going to ring him when he can go and pick him up. So more waiting!

They didn't want to take the bandage off until they were ready to do the surgery, but Troy said T was happy with all the fuss being made of him and wasn't concerned with the injection to knock him out so sounds like he's not stressed at least. I feel sick and my heart is racing waiting to hear what they find once they take the bandage off - wish it was time for a wine :smile: might have to have a glass or two tonight once the dog is back home.

 

[Blue Fox]

OK a few wines later and all is well, kind of :sad: He has cut the tendon to his outside toe :shocked: but they have sown it back together, sutured the wound and placed his leg in a cast which needs to be on for two weeks. The vets were very pleased with how the surgery went and don't expect any lasting damage so really we have got out of it quite well.

I am now sitting here twiddling my thumbs waiting for them to get back home. I reckon their still about half to one hour away so might pour that next glass of wine :biggrin:

Thank you so much for your kind words today guys, I was really feeling quite sick this afternoon with worry and you have all made me feel like not such an ogre (the wine might be helping too LOL).

 

[Blue Fox]

Thought I'd post some pics

I have put a sock over the cast so he doesn't get it too dirty - you can see how dirty the sock is already and that's from yesterday till mid way through today!


T and his buddy Locky relaxing under the a/c. It is so hot here today so we're all hanging out in the kitchen where it's cool.

 

[Blue Fox]

And where I'll be sleeping for the next few weeks!

We have been carting T up and down the stairs for two nights and it is getting too much. He is now 20kg and either OH or me is going to fall down the stairs with him in our arms if we go on trying to carry him up there. He is still going to the toilet a few times a night so we're going to stay downstairs until the cast comes off and he can get up the stairs by himself again.

 

[Blue Fox]

Yep the vets are quite confident that once the cast is off, sutures removed and his fur grows back you will never even know it has happenned. Even if the sutured tendon doesn't heal back to full use it is only his outside toe which would be affected so he will be fine. This is about the only silver lining to this tale but it is a good one :smile:

He is certainly feeling more like his old self and did climb the stairs before I could stop him yesterday after the cat. He is getting around like the cast isn't even on now, trying to play with the dog and ran flat out across the yard and wouldn't stop when I call yesterday - it's going to be hard to keep him quiet and no playing or jumping for another 2 weeks