Dottie Saga Continues

First Dottie created trouble for ffluffy by injuring her toe. (Dottie's toe, not ffluffy's.) No clue as to how it was injured but ffluffy began soaking it every day, applying anti-biotic, etc. Dottie felt like it was quite a drastic injury and hobbled around on three legs in the house, but once let outside always seemed to forget how much it hurt. ffluffy was concerned Dottie was licking it and that was not allowing it to get better so she put the "cone of shame" on Dottie but even with the cone being on nice and snug Dottie removed it less than a second after ffluffy let her go. Next ffluffy attached the cone to a collar, crated Dottie and went off to an agility class. She came back to find Dottie had "burst" out of the cone, and the collar, and chewed the collar to boot. I can't really imagine what the cone looked like but I'm imagining something like the Alien movie. Somehow she managed to do this without spilling the water in the crate.

Dottie was pulled from the Fiesta Cluster this weekend due to the toe and ffluffy began soaking it twice a day in Epsom salts. Over the weekend it made a quick recovery and is all better.

First mark against Dottie- mysterious injury that requires extra time and attention.

Sigh. But the next mark against her is worse. No sooner had the toe been declared fixed than Dottie was up to new mischief.

Here is an edited version of what happened.

"Story is that I gave everyone a bone after getting home from the gym and before bed. Dogs were all happy in their crates and chewing and I was in my bed reading and sipping tea and relaxing. I hear this whimper next to my head and look at Dottie who has the bone smashed onto her lower jaw. How did she get that on her jaw? It was actually over her lower canines. so I figured if it can go on, it can come off. I took her out of her crate and kiltman held her and we tried to wrench it off. It would not budge. Meanwhile Dottie is freaking out. I have never had a dog struggle like that before. She was not cooperative at all. Her mouth/lip was not bleeding so I couldn't understand what she was so upset about. If she was dripping blood I would have rushed her off to the vet but there was no sign of bleeding or anything. So we tried and tried, for half an hour, slipping it sliding it, got out some lubrication, etc. We were getting no where and I did not want to go to the emergency vet. So we thought, what would the vet do? Cut if off. So out comes the hack saw. I put a towel over Dottie's eyes and went to work. It took 2 hours and we had to cut the bone 2.5 times. Because when it was cut all the way though, she still wouldn't let us pull it off. So we cut it again and tired to pry it open and she freaked out. I put gloves on because of the gnashing teeth. And even then we had to twist it and wrench it off. Dottie had constant conniption fits, I was watching her for shock cuz she was being such a spazz. I have worked on a lot of emergency animals, horses, cats, dogs, and never seen one act like that. Usually they know you are helping them and calm down, plus, there was NO trauma to her lips, tongue, teeth, etc. Once it was off I gave her a drink of water and some cookies and a rimadyl and put her to bed. She slept the night and seems no worse for wear today. "

ffluffy said they gave Dottie a break after about an hour and sent her outside to calm down. Dottie wandered around, pawed at the bone once, went about her business... in a ho-hum type of manner. The trauma seemed to come from the fiddling with the bone and the being held down. ffluffy says Dottie has the lowest pain threshhold she's ever seen and wonders what she would be like if she was really injured. I wonder if for Dottie all pain is the same and a real injury would elicit the same response as a minor one? Hopefully we never find out.

ffluffy went on to say she felt bad but it is ME who feels bad. SHE was the one up until 1 in the morning struggling with my dog. SHE is the one sore from the sawing and the clawing and her hands hurt because she took the hacksaw blade off the saw and was just holding it. kiltman also played a big part because he held her the entire time. After Katrina he came down here to help with all the dogs abandoned and lost, so he has experience dealing with semi feral dogs. Dottie shouldn't be in that category but for some reason this situation put her there. So I feel bad for him also. By not taking her to the vet, ffluffy saved Dottie the sedation (which is always better to avoid, especially for Belgians) and as a bonus, saved me the emergency vet fee. I 100% know ffluffy would have taken her to the vet if she needed to go, but obviously she did not.

ffluffy dealing with a difficult Dottie at 1 am- another item to add to the ever growing list of why ffluffy is a wonderful person and my best friend.

Here is the "after" picture of the bone.


I have heard of bones getting stuck on dog's jaws as a danger of giving bones, but since it seems like pretty much anything you give your dog could be a danger, I've used them anyway. ffluffy has been giving her dogs bones for 10 years and it has never happened to her before. I think even if you examine the bone for the proper size, this could still happen. You think there is no way it will get stuck, but somehow it happens. Or it maybe it never does. If it would happen to one of my dogs I would expect Dottie because she has a small, narrow jaw. I like these little marrow bones because you can buy them at the grocery store. If I only buy the longer, thicker ones from the pet store from now on, does that mean Dottie will get that stuck, but in a different way? Probably a bigger danger from bones is choking or an obstruction. But again, that could happen with a lot of toys or chew toys... so what should a dog owner do? Probably- know the risks and be prepared to deal with them. (Always have a hacksaw handy. But if it happens when I have her she'll be taken to the vet since I have no one to hold her down.)

Thanks ffluffy and kiltman, for fixing Dottie. Really, really sorry about the trouble and lack of sleep.

As I was writing this some Mississippi thunder was shaking the building and I heard the raining coming down hard. Sounds like it might be over now.

Tomorrow it will be three weeks until I get to go home! I took another test today and scored 100%. Then we had the rest of the day to get started on the next Block and I finished answering the review questions and outlining the chapter. Next test in one week. I just finished another book putting me up to 15 since I arrived in Mississippi. That is one book finished every 2.8 days.

I may go to Florida on Saturday. It is about 2 hours away. Not sure what I would do there. But if I go there I would have visited 11 states during my trip (counting CA.) So it seems like I should go.

Leaving you with a picture of Dottie looking innocent.


It isn't really her fault. Does posting this story pretty much guarantee I won't be able to find anyone else to watch her next time? Oh wait- remember that best friend and most wonderful person ffluffy? She'll do it again, if I need her to. Because she is so super, here is a cute picture of her with Bob as a puppy. I wish Bob was a tiny bit lower so we could see a bit more of ffluffy...