# £500 and a bandaged dobe later...



## littlenell (Aug 1, 2008)

Had rather a hectic evening after noticing bloody footprints on the kitchen floor. Our dobe has torn open the webbing/flesh between her middle toes on her rear foot- no idea how but there it is. 

After the debate about how bad is it and will it mend, to which the large gaping hole said NO...we contacted the vets.

Had to travel about 30 mins- vet seemed miles away as Out of hours service- vet examines her and hums/haws. They jab her with allsorts and then decide to operte. I am not allowed to stay in building whilst they operate on her, and then imagine all sorts, sat outside in my car, as she would not come round from the anaesthetic for nearly 2 hours!

She spent the evening shivering and whining, before we hauled her into bed to try and warm her up. She is sporting a big pink bandage, and have to arrange review at our own vets for further painkillers, antibiotcs etc etc....blimey- am so glad we can claim this back! 

Just need her to realise she is not invincible and all will be well :wink:


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## rraf (Jul 11, 2009)

Oh that sounds painful.Poor thing!Thank heaven for vets eh?
You're lucky you can claim your charges back.We've got gun dogs and no-one will insure them.Hope she gets better soon and nice that they've given her a pink bandage too.I didn't realise vetinary care went that far.


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## littlenell (Aug 1, 2008)

I am a nurse and will usually manage most things myself but this one was beyond me and my first aid kit!

She also has a heart sticker saying "get well soon" wondering how much that cost me?!

here she is trying to warm up


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## rraf (Jul 11, 2009)

Awwww!Quite the heroin isn't she?Bless!Our lot milk any ailments for all their worth...limping for weeks after when they remember but not on the right paw!!!


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Hope the wound is healing nicely littlenell. Out of hours vets are not cheap!! Ok if insured though :lol: 

I think I read that NFU will insure gundogs, rraf. Worth a look?


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## josieb (Jan 20, 2008)

lovely piccie you just cant mistake a Dobe with a little hurt can you ahh bless

I hate out of hours problems when my vet is not available. He always lets me stay and only gives enough anaesthetic to do the job and they are usually coming round by the last stitch. Dobes just dont do well with lots of anaesthetic do they.

Give her a hug from us and hope she gets better soon


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## littlenell (Aug 1, 2008)

Thanks, she has taken a while to get over the anaesthetic for sure- and did a lot of dobe talking and whining her annoyance! She was like this when she had to have her baby canines removed. Our vet knows and makes allowances for her sensitivity, but this was a completely different vet surgery...and I think they thought I was an overanxious owner!

She is off to our own vets tonight for a review, as I am keen to lighten the dressing. Not used to not seeing toes etc to check if all is well under the bandage...so hope to see the work the vet did. She is picking at it so I think she is wanting it off too! Or could it be she is just feeling better and decided that pink is just not her colour?!


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## Rapide561 (Oct 1, 2005)

*Dog*

Hi

Get well soon from us two!

Russell


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## littlenell (Aug 1, 2008)

Quick update.

Stitches out last night, healed well, no antibiotics. Vet did a good job of stitching it back together, and the vet was impressed with her recovery and my use of honey on her dressing. It has done a great job! She had a spoonful of the manuka honey every other day, as a treat and loved licking the spoon! 
Needs to have a bandage on when out running just to ensure there is a little support to the area, but otherwise fab.

She had a terrible time with her rabies booster though, it really knocks her off and I had not got round to getting her homeopathy stuff through in time....bad mom. She has it now and I will ensure I am better organised next booster.


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## zulurita (May 9, 2005)

So pleased it all healed up nicely. We do worry when our pets are ill or injured.

Whats this re honey on her dressing?

Jabulile doesn't seem to have been affected by her recent anti rabies booster (unless being hyper counts).


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## littlenell (Aug 1, 2008)

She was really off colour, sunday was a nice day about 26C and we were at a companion dog show. she spent it asleep under two layers of blanket near the wagon, as her ears, and paws were icy cold and she looked really melancholy. She is normally a 100mph girl, so this was really unusual for her.

As for honey, we use it a lot in dressings in community nursing, so presumed it would work the same for her. I don't like putting on anything that might make her ill if she licks it etc. I did a quick search about it for pets, and found these articles.

 HONEY1   HONEY2 

It really is amazing stuff, and as we know, much of the old remedies has a great deal of substance to back up their use.


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## lindyloot (May 20, 2007)

Glad to hear all is well. Those two articles on honey are really interesting.Lin


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## tonyblake (Apr 4, 2008)

Hi and having read the plight of little Nell, I must say that Mollie suffered the same problem.(and about the same cost although insured)

This is her relaxing with some friends and she says hi to little Nell


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## Hintonwood (Mar 21, 2008)

Glad everything worked out well in the end!

Just don't let the vets know about Honey or they will start prescribing it and charge £ 60 a jar! :wink:


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## carolgavin (May 9, 2005)

Awwwwwwwwww, poor wee scone!! Glad all is well though!

rraf what kind of gun dogs do you have???? I have an english setter and a curly coated retriever.


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## littlenell (Aug 1, 2008)

Another bed loving dobe :lol:

She had her first big run today, and all was ok until the motorcross bike appeared out of nowhere. She has opened a small part of the wound but the rest has held.

Found these boots which meant she could go out with the bandage on. Fitting them size wise is a pain, and I now have three sizes from donkey to midget dog!! Anyhow

Here she is last week










Zonked after a busy weekend doing some fundraising at a companion dog show










AND finally melancholy after her rabies jab


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## littlenell (Aug 1, 2008)

It had healed beautifully, but today I noticed she was licking her paw really intently. On checking, she has split open the healed area scar completely. No point going to vets, so have cleaned and bandaged. According to some new info from a friend, it is a common injury in racing greyhounds...

So it's back to the drawing board, and lead walks, and regular cleaning. BUT I have discovered a new use for rings cut from a pair of marigolds, to act as toe bands and keep the area together but allowing some "spread" of the toes...


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

[quote="BUT I have discovered a new use for rings cut from a pair of marigolds, to act as toe bands and keep the area together but allowing some "spread" of the toes...[/quote]

Great tip!

Hope it all heals. Lead walks are no fun! I should know as I am off to spend c£1500 to try to get to the bottom of Gypsy's lameness 8O

Pat


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## Rapide561 (Oct 1, 2005)

*Dogs*

These dogs are sometimes more stress and trauma than they will ever know about, but we love em none the less.

Russell


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## sallytrafic (Jan 17, 2006)

*Re: Dogs*



Rapide561 said:


> These dogs are sometimes more stress and trauma than they will ever know about, but we love em none the less.
> 
> Russell


Tell me about it, when we got Jake back on Thursday night he had had blood tests and x-rays and although some of the nastier things like tumours had been ruled out there was a good chance that on the next day pending further x-rays he would be having fairly risky surgery to the small intestine for foreign object removal.

What we hadn't realised, as he had been in all day, was that he was only sedated for his x-rays an hour or so before I collected him and had only just had his reversal injection. So an hour or so later he was out for the count and we were talking to the Vet on the phone about how to prepare him for the (potential) operation no food after 8pm whilst giving him a big meal as advised by the surgeon when he appeared to stop breathing altogether - a scary moment.

Luckily the object was not visible anywhere on the X-ray the next day so presumably had passed through thanks to the big meal (full of bran) that we eventually persuaded him to eat at 7.50pm.

Next day my wallet almost stopped breathing as I collected him. £400 but at least it was spared the further £800 that the surgery would have cost. We don't have insurance but the dogs have a building society account and are currently several £1000s ahead of the cost of premiums.

and they most definitely are worth it


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Glad to hear Jake is ok now.

Just dropped Gypsy off at referal vet's in Fakenham.
Signed the consent for MRI scan £1200. If nothing found then on to Arthroscopy (looking inside joint with camera) circa £1500 8O Although I have insured her now this condition is not covered as it was pre-existing  

Trying to rationalise it by saying that if we find the problem then not only will she (and therefore we) be happy (the main thing) but we will save on Metacam, Acupuncture and Physiotherapy.

We too have savings but they are shared between the dog and us. Looks like she won :wink:


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## littlenell (Aug 1, 2008)

Bless them all.

Vet says no point in trying to stitch again, will likely happen again. Did suggest an alternative but no good for that either- involved stitching the tear edges together rather than trying to mend the split.

SO we are back to manuka honey, and letting her get on with it. Will try the bands once she has got more healing going on...and have some vetwrap on order... 5r

Have read some interesting stuff around serrapeptase and have been a fan of it for a while now.

Serrapeptase


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Sounds great!


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Well we finally have a diagnosis!!

Gypsy has a tear in her medial collateral ligament in the shoulder joint.

In humans, I am told, they go in and stitch it. I am a bit perplexed as to what they do in dogs though. The referal vet told me all about this radiowave wand thingy that they use to shrink the ligament and encourage it to heal. He is researching the best place to go for treatment as they are bone specialists and so will not be treating her for a ligament repair.

The bill was over £2,000 8O and there has been no actual treatment yet. My usual vet was very impressed at the diagnosis though which means it will probably cost a fortune to treat.

On the subject of vet bills - a friend took her 18 month old Labrador to the same referal practice. The dog has the worst hips her usual vet has ever seen and she was expecting to be advised to have them both replaced at a cost of £9,000. 
Instead they told her that hydro-therapy was worth a try first to build up the muscles surrounding the hips. The dog is insured so no problem with paying. She, naturally, is delighted. Vet told her that he is treating the dog and not the "condition". What a nice man. :lol:


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