October 13 – “The Heidi Tail Tale Continues”

We took Heidi back to the vet yesterday for her one week check of her stump and to replace the dressing.  While waiting in the lobby we met a guy who was holding his 17 year old bulldog.  He was there to put the poor old fellow down.  I was afraid that the meeting with him might be prophetic.

The tech took Heidi back to a room so the vet could give her a quick check.  The tech returned a bit later and asked us to please follow her.  Seems the doc wanted to talk with us.  Uh oh.  We were expecting the worst.  After several very long minutes one of the vets came in with the news.  “We have maggots.”  Wait.  What?  Yep.  The small portion of the tail that remained was not healing at all.  The only recourse was to cut off more – well, ALL of her tail.  The only other option was to go ahead and have her put down.  But the vet kept commenting on how much energy she has.  So we left her with them for tail surgery – again, not sure what other bad news we might encounter later in the day. 

The vet called us back while we were in Sam’s.  He said he has never seen an old dog like this with such … amazing blood work (From the way he talked, I’m thinking of swapping some of hers for mine next time I need a blood test).  He said the surgery consisted of the same kind of tail clipping that they do to rottweilers.  But she did really well in surgery.  She would have to wear the cone for ten days, but there was nothing left for her to chew on anyway.  We could pick her up later in the day.

When the time came we went on down to get her.  The tech explained the discharge orders to us, got our signature, and went to bring out Heidi.  I took her in my arms, and … (nothing romantic here) she started bleeding like a stuck pig from the surgery site.  They hustled her back into the room where the vet was cleaning up for the day.  It took a while, but the vet on duty finally came out to talk to us.  The bleeding was stopped.  Apparently her blood pressure shot up when she was being transferred from the tech to me and a pool of blood under the skin kind of exploded.  He didn’t think there was anything serious, but he wanted to keep her overnight so they can keep an eye on her. 

So.  We haven’t heard any more yet, but for the time being we now have a rottweiler/dachshund.  A Rottschund?  A Dachsweiler?

Psalms 105:1-2 says, “Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.  Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.”

Father, be with that vet and his staff.  Thank you for the care they give to pups and such.  Amen.