Today we have a really scary and thought provoking guest post from Lisa at Rainy Day.
I rescued a beautiful Weimananer that I named Rainy Day (though she hates them) and she is the light and joy in our day. Having been in the “dog business” for over 25 years I thought I had pretty much seen everything or at least enough to rarely be surprised at Dog Accidents. But I am here to tell you a true story that everyone must read because I never saw this one coming…..
Rainy Day is a very rambunctious Weimananer which is not surprising because I was warned that is a trait of the breed when I rescued her. Until Rainy I had happy couch potatoes. I mean they loved to play but when we had played they were just as happy napping. Not Rainy…..she is all business and likes to stay on the move so it is not surprising that she can be a bit accident prone. For example; we were just days away from a pretty intense move from Utah to Catalina Island, California and she ran into some barb wire I had no idea was on my property.
My husband Ron took her to the store with him because they are inseparable. When they got back home he opened the car door and she bolted across our property to go after our neighbors cat Sissy. They kind of have a love/hate thing going on. Rainy came back a few minutes later and she obviously had run into some bar wire that literally peeled the skin from her leg. Twenty-three stitches later she was okay. I KNEW about barb wire however so I wasn’t surprised what it did to her, just surprised there was any on my property. What I want to tell you about is the dangers of sticks today because this was not something I had ever seen or given any thought to though I should have. We were on a trip in Salt Lake City and to get some of her energy under control we played “stick”….one of our favorite games. We had been playing for a while when I threw it again and she raced to get it. The next thing I knew she was reeling back from the ground and was yelping and running for the entrance to the hotel we were at. I was baffled because though I was watching her I never saw what really happened. Once I got her upstairs my husband and I gave her a good once over and I could see some gashes at the back of her throat. She didn’t move all day and was in tremendous pain. The next day we drove to Santa Barbara and by now the whole side of her face was swollen and she was drooling uncontrollably on that one side. Santa Barbara has some wonderful 24 hour vet hospitals so we got her there and they thought it would be a good idea to put her under anesthesia and have a look with their endoscope. They found nothing however. They gave her pain medication and antibiotics and sent her on her way. We arrived home on Catalina Island and I followed up with my vet, Dr. Denny. He thought it would be prudent for him to sedate her and have a look see as well because it didn’t seem that the antibiotics were working. He found a lacerated area in the back of her throat and behind that was a pocket of a huge amount of infection. He cleaned that out really well and sent her home with pain medication and 7 syringes of a heavy duty antibiotic. He felt she had cellulitis with a particularly antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Giving her these injections was brutal because they burned but we did it and she took the “abuse” because she is absolutely the sweetest dog in the world. After the 6th day Dr. Denny said what I knew I was going to hear…”I don’t like it”. The swelling was still significant which meant she was not responding the antibiotics.
Wednesday morning I brought her in and he did the surgery and the following is what he found. The minute he opened her up he knew we were in trouble. The infection was incredible. The bacteria had encapsulated itself behind fibrous tissue preventing the antibiotics from reaching the infected areas. He also found that the stick had impaled the back of her throat going through the mandibular salivary gland. After removing the gland he kept following the suspicious looking tissue until he found two huge pieces of wood chips imbedded deep in her neck tissues.
The surgery took two and a half hours and while had her on the table he called me via speaker phone and explained his concerns. You see, the area the surgery took place is an extremely difficult area for surgeons to work on. It is loaded with nerves, vessels, glands and lymph nodes so it is a very tedious process. Because he almost missed the wood chips he was concerned he didn’t get them all but the fact that she had been under anesthesia for so long and because of the delicate nature of the surgery he just didn’t want to risk any more probing BUT he wanted us to be prepared she might have to go through this again.
This has been one of the worst ordeals I have ever gone through. It has been three days and she still won’t eat, I cannot get antibiotics or pain meds into her and the one pain med I do have that is liquid makes her throw up. She is weak, in pain and has no energy whatsoever. Dr. Denny gets back today from his Thanksgiving break and the first thing he is doing when he gets home is to look at Rainy.
The good news is the swelling is way down today, the drainage from her drain tube is much less and she is resting easier.
Dr. Denny has seen many, many stick accidents and injuries and he had one piece of advice…..get a ball!!!
To read more on this story visit our blog, Rainy Day.
Don’t let Rainy’s awful experience be in vain. Please be aware of the dangers out there to prevent horrible accidents like this one and if you get nothing more out of our struggle at least put the stick down and start playing Frisbee, ball or whatever as long as it is not covered in bacteria or fungus, isn’t sharp and pointy and doesn’t invade the oral cavity like “Shrapnel” (to quote Dr. Denny).
We would like to thank Lisa & Rainy for sharing their story with us.
I rescued a beautiful Weimananer that I named Rainy Day (though she hates them) and she is the light and joy in our day. Having been in the “dog business” for over 25 years I thought I had pretty much seen everything or at least enough to rarely be surprised at Dog Accidents. But I am here to tell you a true story that everyone must read because I never saw this one coming…..
Rainy Day is a very rambunctious Weimananer which is not surprising because I was warned that is a trait of the breed when I rescued her. Until Rainy I had happy couch potatoes. I mean they loved to play but when we had played they were just as happy napping. Not Rainy…..she is all business and likes to stay on the move so it is not surprising that she can be a bit accident prone. For example; we were just days away from a pretty intense move from Utah to Catalina Island, California and she ran into some barb wire I had no idea was on my property.
My husband Ron took her to the store with him because they are inseparable. When they got back home he opened the car door and she bolted across our property to go after our neighbors cat Sissy. They kind of have a love/hate thing going on. Rainy came back a few minutes later and she obviously had run into some bar wire that literally peeled the skin from her leg. Twenty-three stitches later she was okay. I KNEW about barb wire however so I wasn’t surprised what it did to her, just surprised there was any on my property. What I want to tell you about is the dangers of sticks today because this was not something I had ever seen or given any thought to though I should have. We were on a trip in Salt Lake City and to get some of her energy under control we played “stick”….one of our favorite games. We had been playing for a while when I threw it again and she raced to get it. The next thing I knew she was reeling back from the ground and was yelping and running for the entrance to the hotel we were at. I was baffled because though I was watching her I never saw what really happened. Once I got her upstairs my husband and I gave her a good once over and I could see some gashes at the back of her throat. She didn’t move all day and was in tremendous pain. The next day we drove to Santa Barbara and by now the whole side of her face was swollen and she was drooling uncontrollably on that one side. Santa Barbara has some wonderful 24 hour vet hospitals so we got her there and they thought it would be a good idea to put her under anesthesia and have a look with their endoscope. They found nothing however. They gave her pain medication and antibiotics and sent her on her way. We arrived home on Catalina Island and I followed up with my vet, Dr. Denny. He thought it would be prudent for him to sedate her and have a look see as well because it didn’t seem that the antibiotics were working. He found a lacerated area in the back of her throat and behind that was a pocket of a huge amount of infection. He cleaned that out really well and sent her home with pain medication and 7 syringes of a heavy duty antibiotic. He felt she had cellulitis with a particularly antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Giving her these injections was brutal because they burned but we did it and she took the “abuse” because she is absolutely the sweetest dog in the world. After the 6th day Dr. Denny said what I knew I was going to hear…”I don’t like it”. The swelling was still significant which meant she was not responding the antibiotics.
Wednesday morning I brought her in and he did the surgery and the following is what he found. The minute he opened her up he knew we were in trouble. The infection was incredible. The bacteria had encapsulated itself behind fibrous tissue preventing the antibiotics from reaching the infected areas. He also found that the stick had impaled the back of her throat going through the mandibular salivary gland. After removing the gland he kept following the suspicious looking tissue until he found two huge pieces of wood chips imbedded deep in her neck tissues.
The surgery took two and a half hours and while had her on the table he called me via speaker phone and explained his concerns. You see, the area the surgery took place is an extremely difficult area for surgeons to work on. It is loaded with nerves, vessels, glands and lymph nodes so it is a very tedious process. Because he almost missed the wood chips he was concerned he didn’t get them all but the fact that she had been under anesthesia for so long and because of the delicate nature of the surgery he just didn’t want to risk any more probing BUT he wanted us to be prepared she might have to go through this again.
 |
| Salivary Gland |
The good news is the swelling is way down today, the drainage from her drain tube is much less and she is resting easier.
Dr. Denny has seen many, many stick accidents and injuries and he had one piece of advice…..get a ball!!!
To read more on this story visit our blog, Rainy Day.
Don’t let Rainy’s awful experience be in vain. Please be aware of the dangers out there to prevent horrible accidents like this one and if you get nothing more out of our struggle at least put the stick down and start playing Frisbee, ball or whatever as long as it is not covered in bacteria or fungus, isn’t sharp and pointy and doesn’t invade the oral cavity like “Shrapnel” (to quote Dr. Denny).
We would like to thank Lisa & Rainy for sharing their story with us.
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