TRANSITIONS: THE RUMBLE

Part 4: April ends with our home turning into a hospice care unit for Vinny and Sneezy.  I spend some moments in gushes of tears, but solider on to give them the best quality of life I am able to give.

May 3^rd was a beautiful spring morning. The spring warmth was giving way to summer heat early.  Six of our seven dogs were out side trying to catch squirrels that elude them by running across the roof of the house then jumping through the trees. 

Our neighbor was baling our oats and wheat out front. Our dogs were busy barking at him to show their authority as guard dogs.  A great deal of activity was keeping our dogs barking outside that morning.

My husband went out back, where the dogs were, to work on the cat lounge (screened porch). He no more went out when he came in upset and angry.  He came into the kitchen, where I was feeding Vinny. He began running water to warm it up and make a bath in the sink.  When I questioned him as to what was going on, he told me Amie was hurt.  “What?”  I went into the living room to find her, sitting on one of the dog pillows trying to clean her wounds. “Oh NO!”  I yell at my husband to forget the sink bath, I was taking her to the Vet right NOW!  What I saw when I found her was this: her neck was torn open more than two inches long and wide.  She was sitting and trying to clean. Her tummy was torn open and her leg was torn open too.  This was just one side of her.

As I dialed the Vet I told my husband to find a beach towel or a couple of towels and wrap her up.  As I talked with the receptionist at the Vet office, I pulled the Suburban out; I told them I was on my way with an emergency.  “Amie our dog was mauled badly!” 

 This is Dora on the left and Amie on the right. This was taken in 2008

My husband brought Amie out wrapped in a beach towel.  I took off. I flew.  I talked with Amie all the way to the Vet office.  She did a curious thing, curious to me.  She kept licking and cleaning her left front paw. It was not hurt, but she just kept cleaning it.  She reminded me of our old lab Molly, now deceased. She was mauled by a couple of neighbor dogs. He neck was torn open three quarters of the way around.  She had many other torn areas as well.  I put her in the car speeding off to the vet. She did exactly what Amie was doing, cleaned this one paw all the way to the vet.  I could see Amie was heading into shock.  I admit when this type of incident happens, I am NOT a nice driver. I become very assertive and have no trouble pushing you out of the way, (I feel little remorse at the time).  Thankfully the road way was clear.  I did speed. I know time is critical with these types of injuries.  Normal driving, the Vet’s office is close to 30 minutes away.  In emergencies, I can shave off almost half of that time.  

Dr. John, our usual Vet was in surgery.  Dr. Stefani had a couple of clients, but she would take care of Amie. They were ready for me at the Vet’s office.  The current patients were kind enough to wait until Amie was seen to. I so appreciate them!  They took her to the back and did a quick assessment of her. They put her on some strong pain medicines and started an IV. Meanwhile I am pacing back and forth in this exam room waiting to hear. Dr. Stefani comes in and lays it all out for me.  Not a pretty picture. They may have to scope her to see if the bites penetrated the stomach.  The top of her neck looked like the muscle was involved, which is not good.  Yes, she was in shock.  She took me in the back to say good bye to Amie.  She looked so horrible.  Tears stung my eyes, but I quickly sucked it up for her sake. I told her to do what they asked. I told her they will fix her up. I promised her I would be back later that day to visit her.  I gave her a little hug.

Dr. Stefani could not assure me that she would make it though the surgery but they would do their best for her.  They would call when the surgery was done.   I got Amie to the Vet’s by 11:00A. The surgery lasted until 3:00P.  One of the techs that came on duty, after I left, commented that this is like Molly’s beating.  She was the tech on duty when I brought Molly in after her mauling.

Amie has a gentle spirit and a fighting spirit.  She pulled through the surgery.  She had stitches along her neck and back of her head. The stomach was not compromised. The muscle was not compromised on the upper part of her neck.  She had drain tubes coming out her everywhere.  She looked like Frankenstein’s dog.

 This is day two after the surgery. She kept walking around looking for the exit to go home.

I went to visit her that evening. She was a mess.  She just laid there and let me talk with her. She did not want to be touched, understandably.  I let her know she was loved and missed. I told her to get better so she could come home.  Dr. Stefani warned me that Amie may not be the same dog she was before. Her personality and temperament might change.

                    These are the drain tubes in all her major wounds.

You are asking yourself, or your computer screen, what happened?  Three of my female dogs beat the snot out of her. Yes, you read that correctly. Actually they tried to kill her. What stopped them, we do not know.  WHY? I cannot tell you. I do not know.  Jealously possibly, or there was one dog chew outside and Amie had the misfortune of picking it up.  We just do not know what trigged the rumble.  

                   She was not happy to learn she was not going home.

While I am flying to the Vet’s office with Amie, all I could think about was getting home, getting the shot gun out and killing the dogs.  When the Vets asked me what happened I told them what I told you. But I told them I was heading home to end their lives. They stopped me and reasoned with me. I drove home slowly and took a longer route home to cool off.

I mentioned jealousy.  Here is the back story: A little over a year ago Amie was very ill. Her immune system turned on her.  Her immune system was killing all her red blood cells faster than she could produce them.  This causes a yellowing of the white of the eyes, inside their ears and their gums get very pale in color.  They grow very weak, vomiting, weight loss, loss of appetite, rapid breathing and lethargy.  Scamp one of our rescue cats, died from this.  This is very rare in cats. With Scamp, we tried a transfusion, but it nearly killed him. He got a little better, and then crashed. It comes on gradually you do not see it until it is too late or nearly too late.

I took Amie out front one morning and noticed she was having trouble standing and walking. She was stumbling. She fell the night before off the ottoman. I was afraid she hurt her hip. I took her to Dr. John. Her gums were colorless, her eyes were yellowing, inside her ears were yellowing.  Dr. John did the blood work; she had Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia (IMHA). This is the same disease Scamp had.  I was immediately upset. Scamp’s ending was terrible.  What if anything can be done for Amie?

                            This picture was taken in 2008

She was at an early stage of the disease.  Dr. John did not feel it necessary to do a blood transfusion at this point.   I did mention some of the symptoms.  The red blood cells carry oxygen to the tissues.  The animal cannot survive without oxygen.  What happens is the body will begin to shut down the organs that are not vital, meaning everything but the heart and brain. Death is imminent.  What causes this disease is unknown. The best guesses are: cancer, infection, and even vaccinations.  This disease happens during middle age of 3 to 8 years old. Amie was 4 years old.  It can happen to any breed, but it does seem to hit these breeds more often: Cocker spaniel, Springer spaniel, miniature poodle, Finnish spitz, Irish setter, dachshund, bichon fries, old English sheepdogs and German shepherds.   Amie is a mix of shepherd, dachshund.

                   Amie and Dora, from the rear, look like Me & Mini Me.

What treatment is there?  Amie responded really well to Prednisone and Azathioprine.  She was on these drugs for six months.  She made a complete recovery.  This disease aged her, as you can see from the photos in the Vet hospital. We do not vaccinate her.  They could trigger the disease again.  We are hopeful she does not have a recurrence.  Needless to say, she was spoiled. She slept with us so I could monitor her. She slept on a heating pad and covered up.  She was carried outside to do her business and carried back in. We did this for a month. She began to recover, but she was monitored and given special treatment.   Jealousy is a cruel master.   

Back to her getting ripped and rolled in the back yard.  Amie did not put up a fight when she was attacked, which according to Dr. Stefani probably saved her life.  She just took the beating.  The dogs that attacked her were females.  You know the type of females I am talking about.  It starts in grade school then follows through high school and sometimes even into college.  You know them; the mean girls. The girls that had good looks, talent, possibly came from money. They were popular and always had an entourage of girls hanging on every word and command.  They traveled in a pack. They were mean and cruel girls. They picked on the weak ones, the girls who were poor, the girls with buck teeth, the girls with homemade clothes, the girl with the thick glasses and the geeks.  This is my pack of female dogs. There are three of them, they are the youngest dogs.  Amie is the weak one. I believe they were jealous of the special attention she gets.  This was a golden opportunity to even the score. Like I said, jealousy is a cruel master.

The dogs rolled her in feces, which got into the wounds.  She was covered.  The staff cleaned and irrigated the wounds to the best of their ability.  Amie came home after three days at the Vet resort.  I visited her every day, twice a day.  Each day I could see her little personality slowly coming back.

She came home with the “cone of shame” on.  Now the title, the cone of shame, comes from the movie “UP.”  If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it.  Along with the cone of shame she came home with claxamox, baytril,(antibiotics), Carafate for her stomach, rimadyl and a pain medicine.  Everything given every 12 hours, except the Bayril administered once a day.  She was on these antibiotics for 30 days.

When dogs go into shock the blood settles in their intestines.  Their stools are black as tar, which means blood.  We monitored her, administered her pills, well, tried to administer her pills.  Remember she took two pills twice a day for six months.  She no longer accepts anything from me unless everyone else was eating it!  Smart girl.  We managed to trick her for a few days, but the jig was up.

Dr. Stefani gave me a 60cc syringe. These have a nice large hole. My science project was mashing pills, adding just a little warm water, mash some more until dissolved, then add just the right amount of beef baby food, mix thoroughly, suck it up the syringe, then give to Amie. Sounds simple right? WRONG-O!!  She resisted, my husband held her and I got it all over her but mostly in her mouth. After the second dose of this, she knew this was the routine, she sucked it up and tolerated it. 

On top of this, we had Vet visits every week, sometimes I went as often as three times a week!  Why? Remember she was rolled in feces?  Her skin would not hold the stitches! As you can see in the photos. The skin just let go.  Dr. Stefani tried cutting the skin back until there was fresh blood, then re-stitch.  We did this twice. 

To add insult to injury, since her wounds would not hold stitches or staples any longer.  The next form of treatment for the wounds is hydro therapy twice a day.  Hydro therapy is standing her in the tub, using a gentle spray of water moving back and forth across the wounds for 10 minutes.  Sounds simple right?  Not so simple.  Amie is a dog. Dogs for the most part do not like water. 

To help her with this fear, I would get the water at the right temperature; turn the hand held shower on, then I would get Amie and stand her in the tub on a towel.  My husband held her as I treated her.  She accepted this after a few treatments.  She did not like it, but she accepted it.  I no longer needed assistance.

My days went something like this: Morning, feed Vinny for as long as it takes to get enough food in him.  Administer thyroid medicine and pepcid.  Amie, take outside to get her business done.  Give her some food.  Put together her medicine concoction, administer, get the shower ready for hydro therapy, towel her off, and put on fresh t-shirts. The t-shirts were to keep her from breaking open wounds that were healing, when she scratched.  By this time, Vinny is hungry again. While feeding Vinny, put Amie’s dirty t-shirts in the wash.  Change Amie’s t-shirts after a couple of hours. Her wounds were draining heavily.  I changed her t-shirts 3 to 4 times a day. I washed her shirts 3 to 4 times a day.  Vinny needs feeding many times in between. Meanwhile the rest of the animals all took a back seat to Vinny and Amie.  Sneezy so far is doing just fine, thankfully.  

Evening was a continuation of the morning, except on Monday’s and Thursdays. Those evenings Vinny got thyroid medicine and calcium supplement. Somewhere in all of this, the dogs and the other cats got fed; very little attention and I did manage to get the bird coop and pools cleaned.

What did not happen are meals for me.  I tried one morning, while feeding Vinny, to eat a piece of toast. It took me half and hour to eat it. It was cold. I am not partial to cold toast.  I decided to wait until I was done to eat.  By 11:30AM, I had Vinny fed twice or three times and Amie fed, medicated, therapy, and clean t-shirts done.  I was not showered, dressed and had not eaten.  Vinny at this point was ready for yet another stretch of eating.  By the time I got showered and dressed it was usually 1:00P.  At which point, I needed to get the bird coop and pools cleaned. They needed food too.

Usually at 2:00 or 2:30P I finally got something to eat.  Well, I would have a warm meal ready, but Vinny was hungry, Amie needed to go out and a change of t-shirts. By the time I finished, my warm meal was cold. I ate it anyway.

From May 5^th on our home was a critical care/hospice environment.  I went only to the store for more baby food and to the Vet clinic for Amie’s visits.  It is amazing how small and isolated your world can become.  I did not socialize, did not go anywhere other than the store and the Vets.  This wears on you after awhile.  I think they call it cabin fever. Whatever it is it was taking it toll on me.  I felt drained, exhausted and so very alone, with all this misery surrounding me.  Not good for one’s mental health. 

After a month or more, Amie improved.  Vinny was holding his own. Sneezy shows no signs of cancer slowing her down.  I decided it was time to step out a little.  A friend sent me an email and asked me to join her for breakfast.  I almost declined, but decided I needed to go.  It was the life boat I needed.  I accepted. My husband was home that day. I hesitantly left him alone with all the kids. He does a good job, but not like me.....

It was good to have adult conversation!  It was good to sit down and eat a warm meal without any interruption.  It was good to have a friend to talk to!  This recharged me a bit. 

Amie has one spot on her left leg just above the knee, where there is a lot of movement, which is still healing.  The cone of shame did not stop her from figuring out how to get that area of her leg to her mouth to clean!!!!  This so slowed the healing process way down!!!

Dr. Stefani and I both tried different things to keep Amie from cleaning and keeping the wound fresh.  I bought boys boxers and cut a hole for her tail to keep her from cleaning the wound. She walked out of the boxers after five minutes.

Finally the doc figured it out.  She now has a cone that is way too big for her.   There is about 3 inches of cone past her snout. She cannot reach the wound.  We have to take the cone off for her to eat and drink.  But this smart little cookie figured out how to drink, and yes, eat with this long cone on!  She helped herself to the cat’s wet food one day. How? She used her cone as a scoop!  She is just too smart for her own good. 

          Oreo and Amie share our bed. It does not stay made for long. Amie     is wearing the BIG cone of shame.

Amie got a chigger bite, where else but right in the area of her wound. Because she was cleaning it and cleaning it, it got infected and now we are back on antibiotics and prednisone making sure there is no infection and stopping the itch.  She is also on Valium. Why? Her leg itches so much she was not sleeping. This knocks her out and we all sleep better, except for the nights she is dreaming and running. The new cone and the therapy are getting the job done. She is healing.  I believe in two weeks or at least by her appointment on July 18th, she will be out of the cone of shame.  I will be happy because she walks right behind me and bangs the back of my legs with the end this cone. Oh that smarts!

Once she is healed, we will begin the integration process.  She is still isolated form the others unless we are there with her. Some how we need to get Amie back into the pack population.  This will not be easy and may not happen.  She will never go out with the other dogs alone again.  My husband or I will be with her. 

She no longer needs to wear t-shirts. She wore them so long that she seems naked without them now. Her fur is growing back.  It is looking lighter in color.  Her fur around her wounds may come in white, yet more aging on our little girl.  

Her charming, personality did not leave her. She is still sweet. Forgot to tell you, Amie weighs 31 and a half lbs.  Not a big dog.

As for the mean girls, I need to work with them.  It is all a process: Hopefully one that will have a positive result. As I explained to the mean girls, you created this situation, deal with it.  For every action there is an equal and greater reaction. Jealously is a cruel master...

I am very blessed to have two great Vets that are compassionate, supportive and have the expertise!  Their staff is also supportive and compassionate. They never know what I will be bringing through their doors!

Ready for part 5?  Transitions: Feathered Follies