So I have been off line for a few days. I have a good excuse, really. Besides the school fundraiser and the kids, we had another Duncan emergency. Yes, another one. Besides him getting himself sick and electrocuted, yet another emergency. I almost think he has a deal going on with the vet except we have had to hit several due to the days this stuff happens.
Thursday Charlie and I came home from the gym and having lunch. We had a short time before we would have to head out for his playdate and me to help organize for the school fundraiser pick-up day (woohoo Chip Shoppe!). When we opened the door we heard dog noises, as we always do since they are pinned-up in the basement, but the noises today were different. There was Max's usual barking, but Duncan's yap was different, instead of the typical bark, there was more cry with it today. When I opened the laundry room door to get him out of the crate, I saw a very upset Duncan, stuck in the back corner of the crate with slobber, blood and a small bit of poop in his crate. He was stuck, hurt and really upset, hence the #2, listed as #3. When I got closer to look and opened his crate I could see his front floor was stuck on the bars of his crate, with the wire going through the webbing between two of his toes. I don't know how he did it, be he was harpooned between the toes. His foot was over the plastic floor of the crate, under the side wire wall, and the curved part, holding the side and bottom together was through his skin.
I realized there was no way to get in the crate with him to try to release him, I couldn't even get my arms around him. I first started taking the sides off to try to loosen things. The piece was bent and thick enough metal I couldn't easily bend it. The side was able to lay flat, as it was the bottom piece that was actually through his foot. (I will have a picture to really describe, no blood though) After trying to pry the piece off I realized that I would need pliers. Problem with that, I was in the basement, trying to keep Duncan calm and the pliers were in the garage. I called to Charlie, upstairs, he came running down and asked what. I told him to go to the garage and get the pliers. I was really hoping that he could do this as in the meantime I had scissors to try to bend think metal.
Thankfully only about a minute or two longer, who really knows, Charlie came walking down, nice as could be, with pliers. Yeah! I didn't even ask until way later how he was able to get them, I didn't care and was just happy he did. It took a little prying, and Charlie holding up the top that was still attached, but the metal did bend and I was able to slide Duncan's foot off. He still was hurting, but much happier, even if bloody and upset. I had already called the hubby to try to get any assistance possible and a trip to the vet, as well as a remedy for now wht since the crate was now too much of a mess to use again. Voicemail.
We let Duncan outside to potty. Tried gently wiping off his foot and looking at it. While on the deck I poured hydrogen peroxide all over it. Figured couldn't hurt, might help and really my go-to move with the boys and certain amounts of blood or bloody messes. Got through to the vet, but nothing until hours later and we had the huge fund-raiser delivery and pick-up of stuff, like over $10k worth of stuff for hundreds of kids and parents to pick-up, that day. Hubby finally called back, finished his mid-workday run. Said he could meet us at PetsMart to get a new crate. While we were there, and realizing how much a new crate was going to be, hubby thought of seeing if the vet at PetsMart could look at his foot and see how bad it was. They could, and we would see how bad this vet bill would be.
After an assessment, and finding out Dunan is 84 lbs, Charlie was 34 lbs, turned out is wasn't just his webbed skin part, but also part of the bottom pad and oh yeah, the skin between the toes is a pressure point for dogs so they are super sensitive there. Youchy waawaa! They could keep him a bit, clean it out, get him antibiotics, we were concerned with not just his mouth, but also the 11 year old metal through his foot, a pain killer, and of course a lovely Elizabethean collar (yes, a lamp shade thing for his head:).
We were off again, Duncan staying with the repair team, Charlie to the playdate and me to the fundraiser. Duncan was fixed up shortly, and we picked him up that night. Bandaged foot, happier spirit, and the "idiot hat", as it has come to be known. It's now three days later. He has destroyed the original wrap they gave us to keep the bandage dry outside, destroyed 2-3 other wrappings we have done, taken off the "idiot hat" and bitten it up in the new crate, but his foot looks considerably better, although reddish. I take him tomorrow to our regular, and much preferred, country vet that is great and charges reasonably. Hopefully it will be a good visit, good report for Duncan, and not much more than some car sickness on the way there. Please see the pictures of him, too funy, and sad looking at the metal that was through his foot.
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