Our Chris has been in the wars lately – some of which
has been his own fault and some of which can be put down to pure bad luck.
Either way, he has been getting some extra special attention, a few extra
treats and has been allowed to sleep in our bedroom (don’t tell Mila) while he
recovers.
It started about a month ago when I found Chris chewing on very
red, very swollen patch on his front leg. Being ridiculously patient when it
comes to being poked and prodded (…I wish Mila would learn a thing or two from
him in this department), I managed to get him to stop with the chewing and
inspected his wound. A visual examination and one trip to the vet later and we
were diagnosed as having an infected wart, which required antibiotics and a
regular clean. Sorted? Not quite.
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| Relaxing after our visit to the vet |
A couple of days later, Chris and I were sitting on the
couch watching telly when I discovered what can only be described as a hole in
his back. Excuse the description, but this was a perfectly round and very clean
hole (about the size of a 10 cent piece) through his skin that went quite deep between
his shoulder blades and into his back. Another trip to the vet and we
discovered that Chris had had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic injection
he had received when we were there to check out the wart.
Chris very patiently waited as the vet prodded around, cut
away his fur and then shaved a patch of his back to allow the wound to heal.
The vet filled out a heap of paperwork to report back to the medical company
and we returned home with a dog that looked like he had been shot, a new round
of antibiotics, a huge pile of swabs and instructions to keep the wound clean
and uncovered until it healed. We were told that if the wound didn’t heal on
its own, Chris would need stitches which meant more injections…not something that
we were really too keen on putting him through in the twilight of his life!
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| TV time with Chris |
For the next few days, Chris felt a wee bit sorry for
himself. The antibiotics made him a little bit nauseous and I’m sure the sight
of me coming towards him twice a day with a bowl of warm salt water caused him to
scream internally. He managed to scratch the top of his scab on more than one
occasion (who knew that a 10-yr old greyhound could get his back leg high
enough to scratch between his shoulder blades??) and several times he made a
point of ensuring that he lay with his back right up against something clean
and white!! But he always came up for
his regular appointment watching telly with me on the couch each night – which let
me know he was okay. A few (free!!) follow-up vet appointments later and Chris’
wound is healing nicely and it looks as though we are not going to be needing
stitches this time around.
As a side note, one very positive spin-off from this whole
thing is that Chris has, quite unexpectedly, made a new best friend…the Vet! Generally
speaking, new experiences scare Chris half to death but he LOVES going to see the
vet. He jumps out of the car very enthusiastically and pulls his way down the
driveway to the clinic (the only time he ever pulls toward anything!). Once we
are inside he is very animated – tail wagging, stamping, play bowing - and can’t
wait to get into the exam room. Then the vet arrives and it is as if all of his
Christmases have come at once. More play bows and lots of sidling up for pats
and treats. If the vet needs to leave the room for supplies, Chris tries to
follow her out back and then wonders why he can’t - he even endures the
thermometer in the backside without any trouble!! I’m sure he wishes we could
go to the vet more often…even just for fun…in his mind it sure beats that big
scary park!
Then yesterday, just when we were beginning to think that Chris’
troubles were behind him, he managed to lose the tip of his ear in a scuffle
with Mila.
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| Chris tells his new friend Nonu all about the drama |
There I was, tidying up the dog food cupboard (much to the
excitement of both hounds), when Chris rather clumsily got a little too wound
up and bumped into Mila, causing her to whip around and pull him into line. Unfortunately,
as she did so, she caught his ear and sliced off a decent piece of his lobe.
There was a great whimper and a trail of dripping blood as Chris ran away to
hide in the corner. Of course, his ear hurt and the best way to deal with that
when you are a greyhound is to shake your head furiously. Blood sprayed
everywhere and my lounge looked like a scene out of Dexter. I eventually managed
to calm Chris down and fashion a bandage out of a pair of stockings and some
swabs (although admittedly it took us a few attempts and several more blood
spatters to make something remotely effective). Several hours later (and just
as I was starting to research home-made Elizabethan collars), the bleeding stopped,
the floors and walls were clean, Mila had satisfactorily apologised to Chris
and he was sound asleep on the couch with his zig-zag ear sticking up for the
world to see.
Poor guy can’t seem to catch a break at the moment – but it
doesn’t seem to have affected his otherwise cheery disposition. He is still the
same goofy old Chris…scared of rubbish bins and the park but with a new-found
love for a good temperate check at the vet!
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| Checking if anyone has noticed he's on the couch |
