Thursday, July 24, 2008

Only 7 toes to go!

Today I was over at C's house to give her a ride to the airport. While C finished getting ready I had let the dog loose to run around the fenced back yard.

Once it was finally time to go, I wrangled the dog who gave little yelp when jumping into the back of the car. A quick examination revealed a little blood on on of her toes.

Airport shuttle was completed and the dog was taken back to the house for a more thorough examination.

Seems that one of the toenails she had cracked doing a superman impersonation had been filled with blood and weakened. Somehow during her romp this morning she managed to peel the toenail back off the regrowing toenail stub so it was only connected by a thread.

The toenail underneath was, of course, grody and covered with month old rotting blood. However thorough cleaning revealed healthy nail and flesh beneath, but I'll still be keeping a close eye on it.

This would be the third toenail she's lost in 4 months... so only 7 more to go to complete the set!

Here's a bonus picture of her enjoying the afternoon sun.

Dumb Dog in Sun

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Dumb dog part... 3? 4? 5? I've lost count...

So miss Cin has finally been showing sign of being on the mend, moving without any particular difficulty except when she's being lying/sleeping in one spot for some time. Even then the creakiness goes away pretty quick.

The toe on her front paw that she had over-chewed and then split on her recent swan dive appeared to have been healing well and miracles of miracles she stopped chewing them without me having to cone her.

However, tonight I was at ye lasses house for Kenpo review and afterward when we went out to visit the dog and she noticed dried blood on Cin's face... a quick inventory showed one of Cin's right rear toenails was twisted 180 degrees and covered in blood as was the portion of the deck she was lying on.

All I can figure is that she got the toenail caught between deck slats and did not extract in particularly graceful manner.

It still to well attached to hope it will just fall off like the dewclaw she chewed and the snagged on the rug when I first moved in here, but loose enough that it doesn't stay put when rotated back to where it's supposed to be.

I would take her to the vet if I had more then exactly $53 to my name, instead all I can really do is hope.

Oh and did I mention she reeked of manure? Apparently the local deer have been browsing on the much over-grown vegetable garden and Cin took this as an opportunity to apply some doggy perfume.

So she's got a serious limp again, and having trouble jumping; which meant I had to lift her into the claw-foot bathtub for her feces removal bath...

This is exactly the sort of stress I crave in my life right about now. No. Really.


*Update* Screwed up my courage and cut the nail off. Poor wee beastie would flinch and whine at every step and the nail caught. Looks like the nail was only held on at that point be the blood vessel which was thoroughly evacuated.