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It's been a bad, bad morning (long)
My parents are on vacation this week and while they are gone I've been taking care of their dog, Rufus. (He's as much my dog as theirs, but since he doesn't live with me we designate him as "their dog")
Well this morning I got a frantic call from my mom saying that the neighbor called and said that Rufus was in a fight and he was hurt really bad.
Their "neighborhood" isn't so much a neighborhood as a collection of streets & it's out of city limist so there aren't any leash laws. Rufus is an outside dog, like most of the dogs there. Most of them are friendly and wander freely into each others territory, and there are surprisingly few dogs hit by cars b/c everyone knows to look out for them. But there is always a "bully" or two in every bunch, and Rufus has never been one to back down from a fight.
I was upset, but cautiously so because sometimes a small wound can bleed a lot and make things look worse than they are. The neighbor was kind enough to load him up and meet me at the vet since that was faster.
He was really bad. I didn't see a lot of gaping wounds, but there was a lot of blood and he wasn't really moving and holding his head in an odd way.
We got in there and on first examing him the vet said it looked like he had a punctured windpipe and possibly a severed spine because he was showing signs of paralyzation. She said the best place for him to be was the nearest trauma center which is in Winston Salem, but that will be very, very costly and even then his prognosis would be "cautious."
Long story short, after many phone calls between the vet, my parents and myself they took an xray. His spine is intact and his windpipe isn't punctured, but it has been damaged and "pulled down." He has severe muscle damage with tears that go down to the bone in at least two spots, and while they were doing the xrays he started having small seizures which indicates that he has swelling around his brain as well.
It's all stuff that has to heal on its own, if it will heal at all. The vet was explaining everything to my parents on the phone and she told us all our options. When she got to the part about possibly euthanizing him the look on her face pretty much told me everything I needed to know. She never said it out loud, but if he were her dog she would, clearly, go ahead and put him down so he wouldn't suffer any more. She wasn't pressuring us in any way, and she was very, very kind, but she said this was the worst she had ever seen and if we decided to let him go she wouldn't feel guilty about our decision and admistering the shot.
So right now they are treating him for shock and infection and cleaning up his external wounds the best they can. My parents just couldn't make that decision right and and I can't either. They are coming home Friday, so we are going to give him 48 hours and hope that he shows some signs of improvement.
I feel so guilty, and I know there was nothing I could have done if I'd been at their house. The fight didn't happen on their property, he was just out wandering around like he always does. I guess there really isn't anyone to be mad about. Dogs will fight and knowing how the other dogs in the neighborhood all react to each other, it's just one of those things. The neighbor that brought Rufus in said that his own dog has gotten into it with the same two dogs and it just as easily could have been his.
He's such a sweet dog and I'll be so, so sad if we lose him, but after seeing him I'm not sure if it wouldn't be selfish of us to ask him to try to recover. I guess we'll see what the next 48 hours holds.
Thanks for "listening." I'm going to go take a very long, hot shower.
Re: It's been a bad, bad morning (long)
OMG Shoe I am so sorry...
I will be keeping you, Rufus and your family in my thoughts and prayers.
i'm really sorry he got hurt so bad. keep us updated. hope his condition improves quickly.
I would give yourself sometime. See if he will get better in a couple days.
This story reminds me of our dog, Charlie. Not quite the same story, but he got seriously hurt. He had disappeared for about three days, finally able to drag himself back home. Like your dog, he was an outside dog who roamed. He had a large gash on his throat, and a little wound on the side of his body. We took him to the vet, and she said that he had been shot. Probably someone saw him chasing a deer or something. Long story short, he managed to get better, the bullet managed to steer clear of his organs which was a miracle all by itself.
What I'm trying to say is take a couple days, and hope for the best. I never thought our dog would survive something like that, but he did and lived many more wonderful years. My thoughts go out to your family. These decisions are never easy.
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