Taz

Well I will be working a lot of overtime in the next month or so.

Taz bolted out the door in the endless pursuit of a rabbit yesterday evening. Actually they all did and went running behind the shed. Suddenly I heard one of them screeching in pain and before I could walk over there Taz came out from behind the shed hopping on three legs, his left front leg dripping in blood. I put a pressure dressing on it and could immediately see it was a bad wound. I could see an artery was torn in half, could see tendons and muscle.

He is undergoing surgery at this moment to close the wound. They wont be able to close the wound entirely so he will have to wear a clown collar until what remains open heals up. They can't repair the vein but he will enough remaining circulation to the leg so that he's not in jeopardy of loosing his leg. They will give him IV fluids and IV antibiotics today, give him an injection of antibiotics and send him home on pain meds.

Near as I can figure when he went flying back there he caught it on some protruding object perhaps a nail or piece of wood from the fence or shed. They didn't think he'd been bitten by a meat eating rabbit.

Bottom line is he will be fine. I will pick him up this evening and am looking at a $600 vet bill. Sooooooooo looks like I will be working about 10 hours overtime this week to cover that. Fortunately for me since my schedule is 9:30 to 6:30 I can just get up and start at 8:00 each day, take a half hour lunch and get in 2 hours each day without having to stay late. Will make for long days BUT I am blessed to be able to have the option to earn the extra cash to cover the expense. I may clock in later this afternoon and knock out an hour if I get back from running some errands in time.

Now I'm trying to call my sister back and tell her the nephew that is in surgery is one of the furkids and not my son. I had left her a message telling her my son was in surgery and she called me back telling me to call her and let her know what was going on with Phillip. Hopefully she will be relieved and not mad to know it was one of the dogs and not my son.

Update: Taz has been home a little over 24 hours and has slept most of the time. Part of that is the pain medications I'm sure and part of it is natures healing. He gets a pain pill and antibiotic every 12 hours. Today he ventured out of his crate to under my bed where he remained all day. I was able to get him to eat half a can of dog food this evening and drink some water so he's feeling well enough to eat and drink. I had been carrying him in and out of the house but I made him walk in on three legs this evening. He's really playing on that "I'm an invalid, carry me" routine. Slick little rat ate around his pills that I had hidden in his food this evening so once again I had the unfortunate task of shoving the pills down his throat. God I hate that. Think I'll keep him on a full dose of pain medications until he goes back to the Vet on Tuesday for a dressing change. He has left his bandages alone so far so hasn't required a clown collar. I had them go ahead and do his teeth while they had him under. He's ten years old so his teeth needed cleaning. Now his teeth are so white and shiny they look like puppy teeth. I think she said they extracted one. So the old man, as I call him, is on the mend.