Monday, July 16, 2012

weekend woes

This was going to be the weekend that i got things done!  I got up super early Saturday, i ran an easy 8.5 miles, picked up my veggie box, planned out meals for the week, baked zucchini-pineapple muffins (!?!?!)
And then committed myself to hanging around the home front this weekend and majorly cleaning the apartment.  We had Waffles spayed on Friday, so i wanted to hang around and make sure she was ok and monitor her.  


We were somewhat worried because her breed (Basenji) is super active - constantly running, jumping, and climbing.  The vet assured us she would be fine, and just to keep her relatively calm.  She seemed very confused as to why we weren't going on super long walks and we weren't aggressively playing with her like normal.  Aside from a few cries when she moved the wrong way, she had a voracious appetite, and was in good spirits.  We stayed in saturday night, and just as we were getting ready to head to bed, Matt noticed some blood on the blanket on the couch.  We rolled Waffles over, and she had somehow managed to open the entire length of the spay incision.  Gaping flesh wound on the abdomen of my dog.  I grabbed a towel, and we wrapped her in it, called the emergency vet (whom instructed us to come in obviously) Matt drove like a bat out of hell and we carried her into Vet ER where they took us into a room and examined the wound.


Luckily, it wasn't as bad as it looked.  (it looked pretty bad!  And Matt and i looked pretty bad as well carrying a dog in, wearing blood stained T-shirts!)  There are two layers of sutures in the spay procedure - the inner layer, which stitches up the muscle, and the outer layer which stitched up the fat and skin.  She only tore open the outer layer, thank god, so her internal organs were never exposed.  


There were able to stitch her up at the ER with a local anesthetic, but she started screaming while she was back there.  For a silent dog, she makes the most unbearable sound when she is in pain.  I just started crying when i heard it, my poor baby!  We were there for a couple hours before she was ready to go.  They gave her antibiotics and a cone to wear.  They later told me that she was a silent little angel the entire time they were stitching, and that all the screaming was from them putting the cone on.  She HATES it.


We went home and went to sleep, and my entire Sunday was spent hovering over her.  I am carrying her up and down the stairs every time she goes outside (strength-training?) and mostly letting her sleep in my lap.  She is incredibly mopey because of the cone - she keeps crashing into things, and is obviously disoriented.  We have to keep the cone on for 2 weeks!!  And now, the heavy duty sutures are making her itch!  I am terrified to leave her home alone because i don't want her to reopen the wound again.


The ER vet said we could try putting a little t-shirt on her, but that was a joke!
She just got all tangled in it trying to get it off, and i was worried she would do more damage than i was trying to prevent.  I'm mostly worried about what she might do while Matt and i are at work.  She is in her crate, AND wearing the cone, but i am still terrified that she might scratch the wound open, and create another emergency trip.  and at this point, i can't mentally or financially deal with that.  (we have spent well over $1,000 on her in the past week!!)


SO, that was my weekend.  Hopefully yours was not spent crying in a Vet ER?  Have you ever spayed a pet and had issues with them scratching the incision?  Have you ever seen an image so sad and so funny at the same time??

18 comments:

  1. Oh poor baby! Can just imagine how freaked you were to see all the blood. Hilarious though that the cone was what made her scream. Hope she heals up in a snap!

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    1. The whole time she seemed very calm, most likely because she couldn't see the wound! I couldn't believe it when they said the screaming was cone-based. She is so vain...

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  2. Poor Waffles! Her expression in the last picture says it all. My dog hates those head cones as well. He constantly rubs his head on anything handy to try and get it off. He had 10 teeth pulled in Feb and 5 teeth on Friday. He can't play with his toys because he might tear out his stiches in his mouth. So he must think that he has done something bad, since he can't do anything fun. I can sympathize with the high vet bills. It is always a punch in the gut when I see all of the $'s they charge for even a routine procedure. But then again, he is worth it. Here's to a speedy recovery Waffles!

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    1. When i take her outside, it's very funny because other dog owners smile and kind of nod in sympathy, welcoming me into the "cone of shame" brotherhood. Non dog owners look at my cone dog and make a gross face and cross the street to avoid her...

      I felt the same way, it sucks that it is so much $$$$, but obviously, i am going to pay it in a heartbeat

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  3. Awwww poor puppy!!! I can't help but think how cute she looks in the pictures though :)

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  4. Poor waffles!!! An extremely similar thing happened to my dog! She didn't fully open the wound, but she scratched and licked it until it was red and puffy. We took her to the vet and had it examined. It was slightly irritated so we had to give her an antibiotic, put on the t-shirt, and she had to wear the cone. She was so mopey the entire time while wearing that cone. I don't think any dogs like those dumb things. Our dog would sprint and lay down from room to room and just sleep all day. She would scowl at us for doing this to her. Shorter than the vet expected though, she was back to her old self. Hopefully Waffles gets her spunk back soon! :)

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    1. yeah, its hard to tell if she is just depressed from the cone, or something is wrong. They said to call if she is sleeping a lot, or acting strange, but it's very obviously because of the cone. She perks up alot when we take her outside though!

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  5. Wait, I know I'm supposed to be focused on the doggie story, but I can't get past zucchini pineapple muffins??!!?!?!? How were they? I am so intrigued!

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    1. they are SO good! perfect for a zucchini surplus. I might have to make them again next week! (if its not too hot to turn the stove on!

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  6. Sara I can totally feel for you and poor Miss Waffles. What a poor pup, I am so sorry that she had to go through all of that, especially her mommy & daddy! I am glad to hear that she didn't rip out both sets of stitches and that she should recovery. I recently had a friend take her Boston into get spayed and she died. What an awful thing to have happen. My first dog (Tia) got spayed when she was close to 18 months. We waited way to long because we couldn't decide if we wanted to let her have puppies. It is much harder on them the older they are and she had a lot of complications including an emergency trip to the pet ER at 2:00 am because she stopped breathing. Yep, I seriously peed my pants. My poor husband was flipping the f*ck out, I was flipping the f*ck out---it wasn't good. Thankfully she recovered just fine. Of course she has made 5 more trips to the emergency vet (TWO were last week!!!!!) and she isn't even 5 yet. She is very accident prone. UGH.

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    1. 5 trips! oh, how stressful! I think that was the worst part, was us being so upset. it's hard not to! All i could think about was how i could never EVER work in a vet ER and deal with people like me night after night...

      I am starting to think i have been blessed with an accident prone pup as well!

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  7. I really feel for you and Waffles! I hate the trips to the emergency vet and it's always so heartbreaking to see them in pain or just looking pathetic.

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    1. I have to will myself not to take the cone off her on an hourly basis. Even though i know its keeping her safe...

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  8. Hope Waffles can power through! It's rough but she will sooo happy when she can run free again! Ari has had to wear the conehead on a number of occasions (we have our own now ;)). Poor babies are pathetic and hilarious at the same time. Our emergency vet visit was to surgically remove a pair of tights and 2 pairs of socks he inhaled because he was angry. Moral of the story..watch where you put your socks.

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    1. oh no!! i have heard that having something foreign removed from the stomach is SO expensive!! The vet actually said we should just consider buying one that fits her really well (she has a very thin neck, so the stock one slides) I think they expect her to wear it often, haha

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  9. Oh I am so sorry..it is like a child..trust me. Heartbreaking!

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  10. Poor poor Waffles! LOL that she was crying more over the cone than the stitches. She just wants to play! I hope these two weeks go by fast!

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