It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Ends Up In A Cone...

**I'm including images of wounds so if you don't like to see that sort of thing, you may not want to read this post**

The night before Miguel and I left for Hawaii Emma got into a terrible mess. I let the dogs out around 9 PM to go to the bathroom one more time before bed. We have a fence so I just open the door and let them run out to do their business in our overgrown backyard. Almost immediately we heard Emma yelp - loudly. Her distressed yelps continued (Miguel and I thought she was possibly in a fight with an animal) so Miguel and I ran outside to see what the problem was. It was pitch black and we couldn't see much until Emma ran towards us.

I honestly cannot describe how terribly gruesome a mess Emma got into. She ran over a rusty, metal shard and for lack of a better description scalped her chest open. She scalped about 8 inches of skin off her chest and belly and exposed her muscles and insides. When I first saw her skin hanging off her body, reaching the ground and her bloody insides, I was in complete shock and starting dry heaving. Thank God Miguel had just returned from LA that night and was able to take charge and spring into action! Miguel grabbed a towel, wrapped it around Emma and 'held her together'. We rushed to the only ER Vet in Savannah. Neither of us had shoes on and I was in my pajamas. We didn't have a very good experience with the vet here. Basically all they could do was bandage Emma up and suggested we go to Charleston for better care. Miguel and I ended up driving through the night to take Emma to Georgia Veterinary Specialist in Atlanta. The care Emma received in Atlanta was so much better than here in Savannah.

This is the piece of metal we believe Emma caught herself on. I took this picture after we had bent it down. It was originally sticking straight up. 

 Left: Some blood on my feet (I took this picture at the ER vet in Savannah while Emma was being bandaged up) Right: Blood stains on my car seat cover. 

Emma all bandaged up for the car ride to Atlanta

Long story short, Emma had surgery to remove the skin she scalped, to repair a torn muscle and to stitch up her belly. We were very thankful that she didn't end up needed skin grafts. Emma was at GVS for about 4 days and then a friend of my moms from Adopt-A-Golden Atlanta, Katie, picked her up and took her to my old vet in Atlanta, Duluth Animal Hospital. Emma stayed there until we got back. They changed her bandages and helped her during her recovery. I am so thankful for Katie and for GVS.

The first week Emma was home she was pretty pathetic and on lots of pain meds. I literally had to pick up her water dish to allow her to comfortably drink. She had to wear a shirt over her wound and the cone of shame to keep from licking. She even came to work with me one day!

Emma with her shirt and some of her meds.

Emma at work with me

After we had been home for a week I took Emma to the vet to remove her stitches. Emma did so well. They removed a ton! Poor puppy was torn up so bad! It was a little alarming to see how many stitches she had. They couldn't remove all of them because some were under a scab - when they removed the skin back in Atlanta they pulled extra skin on her stomach and stitched it together. However, there wasn't enough skin to completely cover everything so they had to leave a triangle area to scab over and heal itself. 

This is the first time I really looked at the scar. Kinda hard to see because the flash was so bright, but the wound is shaped in an upside down Y. The top of her chest where it is the brightest is also sewn together. 

Emma had been healing pretty well and getting back to her normal self. She was off pain meds after she got her stitches out. However, the past two days I've noticed Emma licking at her chest and when I checked her wound I realized it had started to re-open and had been oozing. I removed the little shirt Emma had been wearing and saw that it was wet with stuff and it removed some of the scab. I washed the shirt and we put Emma's Cone of Shame back on.

Emma, today, with her wound oozing. 

Miguel and I were really worried about Emma so I called the vet this morning to see if we needed to do something about the oozing etc. The vet said we had better bring her in just to check it out. Of course the vet didn't have an open appointment until noon, but what can you do? So we waited the morning out cleaning up after Jack who decided today would be an excellent day to get a stomach bug.

Haha, poor Emma trying to stick her head out the window with the cone of shame on!

I don't know why the vet made an appointment at noon, I sat in the waiting room for 30 mins because all the vets "went to lunch". Poor Emma was freaking out the entire time. She has reason to not like the vet I guess. Especially after the last month.

After we finally got into the examination room I had to wait again. That's when I noticed that there were cotton balls in a jar labeled Tongue Depressors. It bothered me so I took a picture. 

Emma began to freak out even more in the examination room and started trying to climb onto my shoulders and under my legs even before the doctor came in.

Pouts for Emma as she tries to get on my lap.

What dog? There's nothing to see here.

Somehow the vet managed to find Emma even though she hid herself so well!

I'm really glad I took Emma to the vet. They ended up cutting the scab off her wound. They said the flesh underneath looked good though. They gave us some topical medicine and told me that we have to clean her wound twice a day with Betadine. They re-filled her antibiotics and said we need to take her back in in two weeks to see how she is progressing. The wound looks a lot better after the scab was removed.

I am really ready for this whole ordeal to be over. As is Emma, I'm sure. We are over the expense of all this too. Pet Insurance would be wise. Oh well. I'm just thankful that Emma is healing and that we live in a day and age that we can help our fur-babies bounce back from an accident like this. 

I saw this picture on the internet the other day and thought it was funny and appropriate:

Late Night Trip To The Vet

Last night we had a bit of a crisis. Miguel and I had just finished dinner and we were watching a tv show when Emma came over to us and put her head on our laps. Thats when I noticed her right eye was almost completely swollen shut and the white part of her eye was completely bright red! I, of course, freaked out completely. I immideately wanted to scoop her up and take her to the vet. Miguel, being more rational, suggested we call the vet first. The vet told us to give her some benadryl and then wait 30 minutes to see if the swelling went down. After half an hour the swelling did go down some but her eye was still really red and her 3rd eyelid looked all funky compared to her left eye. 

I did end up taking her to the emergency vet around 9 pm. Emma was not too happy to be there. She was already feeling weird from being drugged with the benadryl and then the vet and vet tech started messing with her eye and she was having NONE of it! The vet pointed out the her eye was bloody and she even had some dried blood under her eye. So they started examining her right away. First the vet just looked in her eye with a light. Emma did okay with that since it wasn't invasive in any way. Next they put a bright, neon green dye in her eye to see if her cornea was scratched. Emma didn't take that too well. Luckily her cornea wasn't scratched. Following the dye the vet dilated her eye, rinsed and washed it out, and then attempted to lift up her 3rd eyelid to see if there was a foreign object in there. Well Emma put up a HUGE fight. She is sooooooo strong and determined! The vet and vet tech had to really struggle to hold her down. All three of us got injured trying to hold her still. After about 8 minutes of struggle the vet decided it just wasn't going to happen so they just rinsed her eye out again really well. 

The vet gave us some antibiotic eye drops that I'm supposed to give to Emma 4 times a day... too bad I don't have six arms to hold her down to do that... 

When we got home Emma was exhausted and didn't put up any fuss when we put the cone of shame on her. Jack was very interested in her cone and in how she smelled after returning from the vet. Miguel and I felt so bad for her that we let her sleep in the bed with us last night. She slept so hard. Poor thing! 

I didn't get a picture of her eye before we went to the vet because that was the last thing I was thinking of, but here is a picture of her when we got back home and she was sporting the cone of shame. You can see her right eye is all the way shut. =( 

This morning her eye is back to its normal shape and color! Thank God! Poor Emma doodle! I'm supposed to keep her from digging and playing rough with Jack for about a week... don't know which will be more tough, that or giving her the eye drops...

Here are some shots of Emma rocking her new look:

Visit from my Gramma, Uncle and Aunt, and the Cone of Shame...

My mom's mom came to visit and brought her dogs Luke and Bailey too!

I really love my uncle Luke! I copy everything he does! He was teaching me how to be a dog.

He also really loves my favorite toy: the duck

My Aunt Bailey doesn't like new members of the family very much and had to wear the muzzle of shame so she wouldn't try to eat me. She pouted in the corner most of the time.

Being a grandpup is really cool because my gramma spoils me and even plays on the floor with me!

Saturday night my mom took Miguel and me out to dinner at Jazz'd then we went to get ice cream. So happy she came to visit!!!

Sunday we went to City Market and got pizza. It was fun because we got to take Luke and Emma with us. Bailey had to stay home =(

My water bowl didn't work out so well....

Under is good! Emma hung out under the table most of the time.

After my mom went back home Emma slept pretty hard for a day. The next week I left to go to visit my grandfather in Florida. This was also the week Emma had to get fixed. I took her in Monday morning the day before I left for Florida. When I went to pick her up later that afternoon the vet said she wasn't recovering well from surgery so they had to keep her over night. I was so sad since that meant I couldn't pick her up the next morning. I was also really worried about her. Miguel took the next day off work (I have the best husband!) more to make me feel better than anything. Miguel sent me images while I was gone so I could have updates on how Emma was doing...

"I do not like the cone of shame"

New Cuddle Buddy!

Miguel started school this week and Emma helped dad study...

Other things that happened this week:

I am scared of my food dish and have learned to knock it over

Mom and Dad took me to the tennis court so I could run around leash-free!

My new Georgia Tech collar and pretty heart tag came in the mail!

Today I get to go to the park and have a play date with Dad's boss's new Old English Sheep dog puppy!