#cone collar

We took the dogs for their first river swim of the year, didn't even stay long because the water level was too high, and then while we were packing up to leave, noticed Juni was floating her back left paw in the air like it was hurt. Discovered she had a pretty big gash in her foot above her paw pad. No insignificant amount of blood. Took her home, cleaned it up... determined it definitely needed professional cleaning and probably stitches.

So Juni had to go get stitched up at the emergency vet--a vet she's never been to before, and has never met anyone there (and normally, Juni has trazodone + gabapentin on board for anxiety when she goes to the vet, but of course she didn't this time since it was an emergency and we didn't have time for meds to take effect.) To their credit, they were wonderful with her, very kind, patient, and knowledgeable on dealing with anxious dogs with Stranger Danger, and let us do most of the handling (everything possible) so she was comfortable being examined. To Juni's credit, she was very brave and very good, and I'm so so proud of her. She was quite nervous, but she did a great job relying on all her training and seeking comfort in us. She even did much better with the emergency handling by strangers than I anticipated.

Unfortunately, when it came time to stick her to sedate her so she could be stitched up, they had a hard time finding her vein with the needle. Poor Juni was shaking, had to be stabbed over 10 times before they successfully got her, and by now she had freaked out, struggled, sprayed anal gland juice, the whole nine yards. Legitimately, I think this was probably the worst day of her life. :(

Everything else went fine, and we even took advantage of her being sedated anyways to get some routine bloodwork done. Everyone at the ER loved her despite her wanting nothing to do with them. She's a scared doggie, but she's a good doggie.

Took her home, she sulked about her predicament all night. She had a normal "happy visit" appointment scheduled at her regular vet, and we chose to keep the appointment to let her experience the usual routine and nice doctor she's used to. It went well, I think it was good for her to have that experience to contrast with her scary one.

Later, overnight, Juni somehow managed to get around her cone and rip out all her stitches, and so the next morning she had to go back to the vet for the third day in a row, to get stitched up again. This time at least, she was able to see her regular vet and did MUCH better with her. We take her for regular happy visits there and practice cooperative care handling with our vet that she's familiar with, and this appears to have paid off even in the case of emergency handling where cooperative care was not feasible (she's not up to the point in her training where she will accept an IV stick from the doc.) No struggling this time, they got her vein on the first try, and they fixed her up, re-stitched the wound, bandaged it for good measure, and got her a cone collar that fit her better (long snoot, tiny neck...it's surprisingly hard to find!) While sedated, she also got the last two vaccines she needed done this year (lyme and flu.) Still, even though it went really well, I'm sure that was quite stressful for her.

Poor Juni has been pretty sad, she's really not happy having to wear the cone, and it is breaking my heart every time she stares at me with her sad face asking for my help to free her from being "trapped" and being unable to help her. She is gradually getting used to having to wear the cone, adjusting to it, but man. What a week. And no swimming, and reduced activity until her foot is all better...just sad :(

We are considering getting her spay done during her recovery for her foot so we can overlap recovery times, reducing the Total Suffering Time for her. We'll see.

Pics above are as follows:

1. Juni right after her injury, when I discovered she was hurt

2-3. Juni seeking reassurance at the ER vet

4. Juni practicing putting on + wearing the vet muzzle while we waited for them to come sedate her

5-7. Zonked Juni, waiting for her to wake up from sedation

8. Juni being sad after her ER vet visit

9. Juni being sad after having to get her foot re-sutured