Well, I guess 2009 needed to go out with a bang, though I would've preferred practically anything else. I'm not sure how it happened. Tina hurt herself. Ripped a hole in the upper, back part of her front forearm. The girls were running around playing in the yard, it was icy. Tina yelped and we had to RUN to her to make sure Kali didn't attack. (side note - can you train OUT that whole "survival of the fittest" instinct??)
After a thorough check, we saw the hole. It wasn't deep but it was wide. I called the vet and they got her in within 30 minutes. I guess, thank goodness it happened early in the day. DH took her. I wanted to go, but New Year's Eve is my daughter's birthday and there was prepping to be done for that. DH and vet surmised she must've slid or fell on a branch. They had to cut away -excess skin around the outside- and put in two staples. I was kindda furious this was done with no anesthetic, but what can you do after the fact? So she's now on oral antibiotics, topical antibiotics, no painkillers, and limited activity for 12 days.
Vet recommended we put a t-shirt on her to keep her from bothering it and ripping out the staples. I had to wake my DD and ask her for her tiniest t-shirt. (I will definitely get a picture of this later though! DD picked a blue AC/DC shirt, that looks just too cute for her!)
I spent the rest of the day having to crate and rotate Tina and Kali. Anytime I tried getting the two of them to be out together, there was LOTS of growling. This is a problem I have with Kali... Plus we had company come over.. talk about adding to the tension. Better we did it here though, then if we had to go out. I truly couldn't have left Tina at home in pain, nor taken her with us. She was limping and obviously in a lot of pain. On the upside, my girls did GREAT being crated most of the day with people in the house. I just kept the people downstairs away from the girls. Astra, Adonis and Brianna got to socialize a bit.
Tina's favorite human, an old friend of DS #1 and now an unofficial family member came over. She normally goes crazy when he comes to visit. She jumps and kisses and claims him as hers. Not yesterday, he sat on the floor to greet her since she's not supposed to be jumping.. she walked over to him with a slight tail wag and just sat in his lap. Broke my heart to see her in so much discomfort.
She slept in the large crate, in the living room, with a big lumpy dog bed. Lumpy's better for her, she has the chunky body and short legs that lumpy bedding does better to support her limbs. I pulled out the spare mattress and slept next to her.
She is moving a little better this morning. Kali and her were able to be out in the yard at the same time for a few minutes.
Susan