7 trips in 4 days to the Emergency Vet
by admin
That would be a total of nine hours in the waiting room… by the way.
I am finally ready to talk about what happened three weekends ago… it was hard – really hard. My emotions about it range from heartbreak to embarrassment to sorrow to regret… throw in there any other emotion that results in nausea and makes it hard to wake up in the morning… and then you might have an idea of how badly I feel about it all. It took me several days just to decide whether or not to write about everything that happened. After some very deep thinking, I decided it was important to share my mistakes and the magnitude of the things I learned the hard way… things that will forever change the way that I live and foster.
Saturday, Scott and I spent the day cleaning out the attic. (It is amazing how much stuff two people and two dogs can accumulate!) By Saturday evening, we were exhausted and starving. As we prepared to go out to dinner, we received a call that Duke (mentioned here) had been in a serious dog fight and his foster mom was currently waiting for him to see the Vet at the Emergency Clinic. That happens to be right next to our house and directly in the path to our planned destination, so we decided to stop by and keep his foster mom company for awhile.
Duke with a baggie over his bandage (trying to keep it dry)
When we finally saw the Vet after hours of waiting, we found out that Duke’s injuries were going to require some serious follow-up care, including several bandage changes and medications. His other foster mom would have to try to treat Duke by herself, with the other dog still in the house. Furthermore, he needed several more trips to the ER Vet for bandage changes, which is right next to our house. It took about thirty seconds of discussion before Scott and I agreed it was best for us to take him home.
As for how he got there… Duke is a 100-pound goofball. He is a happy-go-lucky guy that gets along with everyone and greets the world with lots of slobbery love. But, for some reason, he just doesn’t mesh with his former foster brother, a 100-pound German Shepherd. His foster mom worked hard to keep them separated at all times. However, she came home from the AARF Fair, let Duke out in the backyard and then found out her roommate had let her dog out earlier. Boom! Chaos erupted! With the help of her roommate, his foster mom was able to separate the two. The Shepherd suffered some abrasions, but overall was okay. Duke suffered one large cut across his chest and several very bad wounds to his leg… leading to the trip to the Vet. He ended up with four staples, pain medication, antibiotics and a hefty bandage that would need to be changed daily.
Duke came home with us that night and nestled right into his bed. The next day, we took him for his bandage change at 6:00 PM… at the start of his Vet’s shift. Things went smoothly and we were home by 7:00.
By 8:15 we would be back at the ER Vet.
To be continued…
Glad that you are writing about this. I found it helps to put things down on paper or other such media format.
[…] Continued from here… […]