Monday, January 22, 2018

Monday, January 22, 2018


Tonight's picture was taken in February of 2003. Mattie was ten months old and to me he looked like a "little man" here. He was dressed up, ready to go to a birthday party. When I see this photo of Mattie, it is clear that he looked nothing like me at that age. But that changed very quickly. 










Quote of the day: If you don't own a dog, at least one, there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life. ~ Roger A. Caras


Sunny went for a walk later on today and when Peter brought Sunny back inside, he noticed his paw was bleeding. So Peter called me onto the scene. We couldn't deduce how Sunny did this, and frankly we don't know enough about dog anatomy to handle this issue on our own. We could see a lot of blood oozing everywhere and we only saw a bloody fleshy tissue hanging from where a nail once was. I quickly called our vet, since it was close to 6pm, and our vet closes at 7pm. Unfortunately our vet had back to back appointment until 7pm and even if she squeezed us in would not be able to do any procedures today. 

So I called Friendship Hospital for Animals in DC. Peter and I are very familiar with this hospital since we had to take Patches there years ago. The beauty of Friendship Hospital for Animals is it is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They have an ER and ICU. We whisked Sunny on over and waited for about 90 minutes to be seen. The wait time is long because it is a popular facility and they triage problems. 

Nonetheless, the vet who saw us was lovely. He is a Boston fan, so he got along swimmingly with Peter. I would say Sunny made a name for himself at the hospital as all the humans who came in contact with him, absolutely loved him. 

So here is a visual lesson on dog nails! Under each nail is something called a QUICK. The quick is a blood vessel and nerve of the nail. If a nail is trimmed to short, near the quick, the nail will bleed. In Sunny's case, the entire exterior part of the nail was ripped off (most likely while running a chasing squirrels) exposing the blood vessel and nerve. It is very painful. 

I guess the equivalent would be like someone ripping one of our nails off and having the skin exposed. 

This isn't Sunny's paw, but you get the idea. This is what the quick looks like when a nail has been ripped off. 

They put Sunny on an absorbent cloth while we waited for Dr. Matheson. I am not sure what Sunny disliked more.... having his foot pain or being at the hospital. Sunny was anxious, pacing in the exam room, and making all sorts of noises. 

Sunny managed through the ordeal, but ranged between unhappy and anxious. 

Sunny is now home. His hind legs were bathed in a special cleansing solution, then his leg was wrapped (very tightly), and was given pain meds. The pain meds are truly helping him, but he is not going to like his reduced walking routine for the next week. 

In case you are curious, it takes about two months for a dog's nail to grow back. Meanwhile Sunny will be bandaged for two days and then we go back to the vet to check the healing process.