Emergency Visit to the Vet

Well, darn it anyway. We couldn't even get through one week without having a moment of panic, resulting in rushing back to the vet's office. Sigh.

Before I go on, I'll let you know all is well. I'm still not quite sure what happened (I didn't see the exact moment), but here is my best guess.

Bailey was getting a little restless and bored (who can blame her?), so I decided it would be a good idea to reintroduce the Kong - a favorite among dog owners who need to keep their canines occupied and content. I stuck a treat in it and plopped it down in front of her (she was standing at the time). She had this look of "cool!", so I thought "great, problem solved!" and started to walk away. Two seconds later I hear a loud yelp and then she started crying and hobbling around frantically. It was definitely a my-heart-is-in-my-throat moment, as the first thing that entered my mind was that she did something to the internal repair done on her knee.

Once I got her somewhat quieted down and standing still, I tried to figure out what happened. Then I saw something shiny on the floor... a few of her staples. Oh crap. I looked at her incision and saw that it had started bleeding. Oh double crap. Lots of swearing occurred. I grabbed the phone, dialed the vet and explained the situation. They asked me to bring her in right away and me, being somewhat panicked, got her there in record time (yes, they gave me a look of surprise when I walked in).

They put us in an examining room right away and the vet was in right afterward (these guys are awesome). Dr. Keith immediately crouched down by Bailey to greet and try to calm her - and then reached over and put his hand on my arm... "you ok?". Poor guy must have known he had a panicky dog owner on his hands. He examined her and said he could not feel any damage done internally to her knee repair, which was a huge relief. He checked out her wound and thought it would be ok to leave it as is. So all is well and I can breathe normally again.


So what happened to cause this? My guess is that Bailey saw her Kong and momentarily forgot her leg was hurt and tried to lie down normally instead of being cautious. It maybe caused too much pressure on the incision and caused some of the staples to pop and the incision to break open some. She's been much slower and more careful since then, although it could be from soreness more than just being cautious.

This is her "sorry, Mom..." look:


My awesome vets: Crossroads Veterinary Clinic