When you've just spent a wad of dough unnecessarily?
Mutters (currently also known as Hopalong on account of his being unable to put any weight on the wounded paw) returned from one of his forays the other day with a significant slice out of one of the pads on his front left paw.
Right away Dr Doolittle (that would be moi) diagnosed broken glass as the likely culprit (fuckin' wee pisshead bastards breaking their bottles out in the bush!)
A deep slash leaving a thick sliver of flesh exposed with the other part separated flapping in the wind almost. So the professor (that's me too) got to inspecting the damage close up and discovered that if the "flapping" piece was simply pushed in its natural direction it settled into the gap perfectly.
And immediately remembered the time when I very nearly lost a finger due to an argument with a vicious dropsaw (I consider it a draw as I still have a fully operational finger). In that occasion also, I discovered that when I simply held the sides of the 35 millimetre slash together, they fit like the proverbial glove (Note: human flesh, before the blood gets to the area to do its work, is uncannily like cooked pork, i.e white - then the blood catches up and everything goes crimson...). So I pinched the sides together, slathered antiseptic cream, (the human equivalent of dog saliva) on it, wrapped it in a piece of toilet roll, and taped it up with masking tape. Changed the dressing twice daily and hey presto! Job done. Just a nice scar left.
Anyway, back to Mutters: As I said, push the flap back and do the same. Unfortunately for reasons known only to myself, I left it for 3 days before "operating" and the flap had become more wayward. I also had concerns about possible infection though on subsequent inspection the wound, by virtue of the aforementioned saliva, was clean.
Nevertheless, hesitate and you're lost as the saying goes and I felt I'd perhaps missed my window so off to the vet I went.
Who proceeded to do exactly as I have written, that is, to push the flap back into place and wrap the entire paw in a tight (ish) bandage and give him an antibiotic with a course of five days' worth to go.
Then about 3 minutes later - charged me like an infuriated bull. Kerching!!
Now I'm thinking, as I look at my empty wallet, I should have had more faith in myself.
Yep. I hate that!
I'm also reminded as I watch my wee man hopping along three-legged, of my contention that we all could learn something from animals with injuries, dogs especially. Not a whimper; not a whine, just a get on with it attitude. Us? We'd be bawling our bloody eyes out. "Boo hoo, I'm so sore/sad/upset".
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4 comments:
Hope he's on the mend. I know it's a cliche but it's better to be safe than sorry, especially when it's concerning your boys.
Time'll tell. I'll remove the strapping before I go out to let him clean it - more of that doggie saliva stuff - then wrap it again to keep the flap in place.
The intent is to let the body do the work and knit the two pieces together. Once that's done the strap can come off and he'll lick it until its healed again.
Then I just need to grab my gun and go hunting for pissheads.
You must have felt a visit to the vet was justified or you would not have taken him--so no "boo-hoo-hoos" now.
As to injured animals--my dog(which by the way is the same breed as your two only female) has undergone two major operations,was given up as hopeless and still survived.
She will never be the same as before but she goes on gamely--never giving up.
So called civilised humans could learn a great deal from animals.
My only concern was that as I'd left it for 3 days before dealing with it, there may have been a chance of infection.
So in fact the only thing the vet could do was prescribe antibiotics.
As far as the strapping goes...? The vet put it on once - I've been changing it since. (And Mutters, bless 'im, has been taking it off overnight).
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