The Reaction

It's hard to tell, but the shiny is where his skin was dying

It's been a harrowing two weeks and a days.

It all started simply enough. Its summer time and with warm weather comes longer time spent out of of doors. With more time spent out of doors, comes more time to roll and play in things like garbage and poop; to put it bluntly.  On this particular Saturday Texas did both. Roll in poop and play in the garbage. So I did what any indoor dog mom does, and promptly bathed him. Both times.

It wasn't until early Sunday morning I realized something was very odd about Texas' fur. It was almost wavy ... as if perhaps the skin underneath was wavy.. but that couldn't be right. He must have gotten some grease on his fur, and if I rinse it of perhaps that will do the trick.

Fast forward to Monday night, when it finally came home to me that my dog's fur wasn't stuck together with grease, but something more serious was going on. This wasn't going away on its own. Tuesday morning dawned with Texas barely walking and his leg had swollen over night.

By the time I got to work I was hoping beyond hope that this was something simple, but when the doctor rushed to the front, telling me auctioneer style what was going on, before rushing back to the treatment area. My heart sank. I think I sat with my mouth open for ... a really long time.

What shampoo did you use? Don't ever use that stuff again! Your dog has a temperature of 105 that skin is (to paraphrase as I don't remember the exact words) dying and we're going to try and save it. HOwever I think we may actually have to remove that skin ok? I'm going to give him an steroid injection and some antibiotics to help his fever go down and we'll go from there.

We went home, sorrowful but with some hope. But by the time our scheduled recheck on Thursday appeared, we were grasping at straws. Wednesday had seen Texas trying to chew [the skin on] his leg off, which he almost did, prompting me to make a mad dash to Pets Supplies Plus for an e-collar and some gauze. Though I was afraid of that being the wrong course of action, I saw no choice.

The screaming on Thursday afternoon found me cringing behind the reception desk. Please don't let that be because of me? It was. Dr. R suggested we try soaking the skin in <insert technical term here> on a daily basis to see if that would help. However go ahead and prepare for surgery Monday morning.

Monday dawned with a very hungry and annoyed Texas as we made the 15 minute drive to work. Shortly there after I walk into treatment and see him out cold on the wet table, with his fur being shaved off. :(

Good news is, he doesn't look to bad without some of his fur ...Bad news his skin had to be removed. At that point the Dr. took about six inches total off his left side and sutured him back together with the remain skin. Since he didn't have enough to completely close the wounds, there were some holes. Monday we'd due to surgery again to close those holes, once the skin had some time to grow.

Since then we've been in for a bandage change on Thursday, in which they removed the sutures as that skin had died, and took some skin off the right side. Thus ensconcing him in bandages.

I now affectionately call him my little tootsie roll.
I don't think he enjoys it much.

Needless to say we've got a long road ahead of us.

He's can walk around, though doesn't like to do it much; and is eating and drinking regularly enough that I know he'll be fine. He's just miserable. He's struggled for about the last 20 minutes with his itchy bandages and not being able to itch himself; and it just breaks my heart.


So if you think about Mr. Texas, please pray that his skin grows back quickly and he can be back to his normal bouncy self!

Thanks So much.

Erin

Shampoo Used: Oster's Oatmeal Shed Control - 99% Natural

Visitors

So we're going to go out on a limb here,and say that Hope probably won't be coming back to our house,before she graduates. We'll miss her, but are excited to see her with her new family...in only five short days!
In the mean time, since we like to keep ourselves, exceptionally busy...our friend Bishop is here for the weekend. Bishop is a 14wo Bouvier (BooVeeAir) Des Flandres. Texas did NOT know what on earth he was, and it took all evening to calm him down. But they are fine now. :))

Bubbles however is not, physically anyhow, those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook, know that I came home to a dog in LOTS of pain. It seems that her back problem has flared up again, and she was could barely move yesterday; so I spent a lot of time, loving on her, and carrying her out of the way of the puppies.

I left her for about three hours for church, and when I got back, it seem with rest, she was better.

Thursday - 
Wow what a day this has been! It started bright and early around 7:00AM, waking myself up, and then getting Bishop out to potty; (which thankfully he is very quick about doing) then the procession of carrying Bubbles outside, then letting Texas and Victoria out. Feeding them, dressing me, and straightening my house (as the heating guy was supposed to drop by while I was gone) get Bubbles a heating pad set up in the crate, and load puppies in the car.

Wilderwood was one of three organization's chosen by a local radio station, to raise money for, and they wanted a dog to be there. My co-workers chose to take Victoria with them, so I dropped her off, and then Bishop and I went to Wal-Mart.

Those of you who have been following my blog since Midnight was around, you'll now that Wal-Mart + Me + Small Puppies = A Mess. I knew Bishop hadn't pooped before we left home, so I loaded myself up with cleaning supplies, and attempted to get him to potty before went inside. No. Such. Luck. 

Well, the only comfort I could find, was that the store is basically empty at 8:00AM.

Sure enough we made it to (HAH) the cleaning aisle, before he couldn't hold it.(Despite me sitting him at every stop). I was able to "catch" most of it on a paper towel positioned strategically. Cleaned up, thrown away, and we move on.

We check out, and I speed home, so I could burn some photo CD's for a co-worker, before we headed out to the kennels for a staff meeting.

Staff Meeting.....prep for Graduation......Met with another foster family, watched Bishop Play, reschedule a meeting, and fill out paperwork...

Began to head home, and realize, I forgot to leave the CD's!?

Turn Around

Drive Back, jump out, place items in a obvious place.

Get back in car and drive different way home.

The Loooong way.

But that gave me time, to call my co-worker and arrange to pick up Victoria on my way home. They gave her more rave reviews, said she did great, she was so excited to see me, when I opened the door to come inside, she dashed out the door, and refused to come back in!

We finally got home, got everyone pottied, lunch fed etc....Victoria has discovered that she can reach the kitchen table....and finished my lunch for me. *sigh* Just another thing for me to work on.


The spent the rest of the afternoon, alternating between sleeping and tearing around the yard. Victoria would find a stick, and taking off zooming around, with Bishop far behind, but doing his best to catch up!

BTW- If I ever agree to watch a small puppy, or decide to foster a puppy in the winter, please feel free to hit me over the head with a 2x4. Victoria has decided, since Bishop gets to go outside, every 30 minutes (Current Temp: 26) she should too, and has been going to the door, and sitting or standing and looking at me. *ssigggh* 

Times like these makes me really appreciate my dachshunds. Who are curled by the heater, and haven't moved for the majority of the evening. Speaking of dachshunds, Bubbles was up and walking around outside today, does that mean she's better? Not necessarily since she came back in, and hasn't moved from her spot on the couch since.  Prayers, Good Thoughts or whatever would be greatly appreciated for her!!!

Another Busy Weekend

First, we want to thank Stella and Roo for this Lovely blog award :D

The rules are:
1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
2) Pass the award to up to 15 other blogs that you've newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.


But guess what! I'll let whoever drops by has this award! YAY!!

Ben: Mom kept pretty busy this weekend, though she didn't take us...well she took us on a long car ride, then we had to stay at her mom and dads house while she went and did a bunch of stuff, for a really long time. That was very boring, and then it rained all day on Sunday, and we had to stay in the house, for another long time. And the trip home was no fun, cause we were all squished in the car!

It was another graduation thing I think, I didn't get to go cause it was at a Church, and churches are supposedly private places....dunno, but that's what I'm told!

Anyways today we woke up kind of early, and we ALL got into the car! ....well all means me, mom and Texas. Bubbles spent the night at her grandpups house.. ?

We drove out to this house, and mom went inside for a little bit, then she came back and let me AND Texas come inside. Turns out these people had a great backyard, and two other dogs to play with! WOWZERS!!!

I had fun, running laps around the yard!! I tried to get their Blue Tick puppy, to play with me, but she was scared of me I think. The Golden Puppy (who is a wilderwood dog like me) played with me for a little bit, and then she went to hang out with the people.

So I ran around the yard some more by myself! Texas was actually good for once, and didn't growl or bark at anyone! That's cause they ignored him before trying to pet him.
Mom says thats called "PRoGRess".

I'm just like "whatevs."

After that we drove to a store, and walked around there for a little bit, and then drove to another store. This store though was for dogs, cause they had all KINDS of YUMMY smells, I wanted to to run around the store, but mom was being all boring and just stood in once place looking at stuff.

So I just flopped down at her feet, until she was finished;

Mom took us home after that.

:: Thats Texas and me on the ride home!::

::We're Home now!::

Here I am moping, cause MOM DIDN'T FEED ME DINNER!?!??! What is UP with THAT!?!?
She said something like "Vet" and "appointment", well who cares about that? I'm HUNGRY!!

And than, this morning, she made us get up super early, and we drove, and drove, and drove, to we came to this place; she went in and wrote somethings down, and then gave me to the lady, AND SHE LEFT ME!!!!

For Diary Purpose: (My Weight is 70.8lbs)

Then i went to sleep.

When I woke up, mom was there again, with a bunch of stuff in her hands, boy was I glad to see her, cause my stomach had been hurting a lot, and stuff like that.
Unfortunately, I had a ......... ....... a ..........a a aa accident. in the car, mom wasn't mad, though she just had to stop at the store to buy stuff to clean up with.

Than finally we came home; and now I must sleep cause ....

I'm ge....

......tting......

ZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZZzz

P.S.( No Worries! Ben didn't go to the vet for anything serious, just to get his teeth cleaned and his hips x-rayed. They think the anesthesia cause him diarrhea, so he's on meds/ a special diet for that!)