We can't even do boring during a quarentine
So do you long time readers remember when our last dog, Gretel, was a puppy and she tore (somehow, we still don't know how) the skin off of her entire side, ending up with a long trip to the doggy ER followed by another surgery by our vet because her skin had become necrotic? She spent weeks wearing old toddler sized t-shirts because the cone scared her too much. Good times.
I felt as though I was in a bizarre Groundhog Day version of that scenario this morning, except with a horse. Somehow Java caught herself on a piece of wood that we didn't think was a problem, and did the same thing except on her back end. (I'm going to post a funny picture of Java first, so that the injury image is not the one that is shown with the post.)
After the vet visit, Java is not all stitched up with 50 stitches and a drain. I have a pharmacy full of pain killer and antibiotics to give her. Even better, I get to take a syringe and irrigate the drain twice a day for two weeks. Do I know how to have a good time or what? Here is what she looks like all stitched up. The vet did a fantastic job sewing all the skin back together.
My story doesn't end there, though, because I have to tell you that I didn't notice this huge gaping wound on Java when I went out this morning to take care of the horses. That's because I noticed that Bristol was just standing in her stall, shaking all over with her head lowered. This was not good. I called P. on the phone and told her to get out to the barn, and then texted the vet. At first we thought she was colicking again, but it seemed different this time. We gave the appropriate medicine and kept her walking. That helped a bit. It was as we were taking care of Bristol that P. happened to look up and saw what was going on with Java. It was that kind of a morning.
It turns out that Bristol wasn't colicking. When I had taken her temperature it was normal, but by the time the vet arrived it was running high. The vet gave a little more medicine to bring the fever down, and Bristol has been acting more normal. There was a chance that she had a tick borne infection, so blood was drawn to start to figure out what was going on. Later, the vet texted to say her blood work looked normal, so no tick borne illness. The best guess is that she is fighting the beginnings of a bacterial infection. We are keeping an eye on her for the next twenty-four hours and checking her temperature. It's kind of a mystery at this point.
I went out to the barn first thing this morning and never made it back into the house until around 1:30. Needless to say, not a lot got done the rest of the day. Who knew that my mad syringe and saline skills would come in handy again?
I felt as though I was in a bizarre Groundhog Day version of that scenario this morning, except with a horse. Somehow Java caught herself on a piece of wood that we didn't think was a problem, and did the same thing except on her back end. (I'm going to post a funny picture of Java first, so that the injury image is not the one that is shown with the post.)
After the vet visit, Java is not all stitched up with 50 stitches and a drain. I have a pharmacy full of pain killer and antibiotics to give her. Even better, I get to take a syringe and irrigate the drain twice a day for two weeks. Do I know how to have a good time or what? Here is what she looks like all stitched up. The vet did a fantastic job sewing all the skin back together.
My story doesn't end there, though, because I have to tell you that I didn't notice this huge gaping wound on Java when I went out this morning to take care of the horses. That's because I noticed that Bristol was just standing in her stall, shaking all over with her head lowered. This was not good. I called P. on the phone and told her to get out to the barn, and then texted the vet. At first we thought she was colicking again, but it seemed different this time. We gave the appropriate medicine and kept her walking. That helped a bit. It was as we were taking care of Bristol that P. happened to look up and saw what was going on with Java. It was that kind of a morning.
It turns out that Bristol wasn't colicking. When I had taken her temperature it was normal, but by the time the vet arrived it was running high. The vet gave a little more medicine to bring the fever down, and Bristol has been acting more normal. There was a chance that she had a tick borne infection, so blood was drawn to start to figure out what was going on. Later, the vet texted to say her blood work looked normal, so no tick borne illness. The best guess is that she is fighting the beginnings of a bacterial infection. We are keeping an eye on her for the next twenty-four hours and checking her temperature. It's kind of a mystery at this point.
I went out to the barn first thing this morning and never made it back into the house until around 1:30. Needless to say, not a lot got done the rest of the day. Who knew that my mad syringe and saline skills would come in handy again?
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