The Sad Sad Dog

As you may recall from a previous post, I am currently the proud owner of a very sad looking mutt.  Sally Dog, once again, has been a poorly girl, but I am happy to report that after her day at the vet on Thursday, she is definitely on the mend.

From when she got in Thursday afternoon, up till I went to bed, she was looking very sad, her face was still a bit "oozey" and she was by no means a happy healthy dog.  During the night, I could hear her pacing up and down, trying to remove her head from the collar, trying her damnest to rub her face and itch herself through it.  I went down to check on her a couple of times, and she was pressed right up against walls and door frames, trying her hardest to scratch her face.

Thankfully, the collar stopped her shredding her skin.  The downside, of course, was that with a weepy, oozey face, all the gunge had smeared around the inside of the collar.  So Friday morning, that needed a good scrubbing out.

Friday daytime, I was in and out a bit with kids, and Kellie and doing various stuff, but she was clearly better than she had been for the previous week.  Still quite groggy, but that would be the anesthetic and stuff she'd had Thursday still leaving her system.  Friday afternoon, we headed over to Kellies, and despite her being sickened by the sight of her, Kellie DID pity her, and even treated the sad old mutt to a nice new fluffy bed.

Which took her an hour to work out how to get in it.  But I digress.

Saturday morning, we come down to find that Sally has NOT pee'd herself during the night.  The anti-incontinence tablets are excellent little things, so that's a plus.  She seemed a little bit sore, and it occurred to me that today was also the day she was allowed to start taking her anti-inflammatories - I had to wait till Saturday to give them as she was loaded with drugs from Thursday still.  So, with her breakfast, I added the painkillers to the no-pee-pills and the no-germs-pills...

Kellie and Myself headed out for a couple of hours Saturday - had to pay some money to the hall people, had to get some bits in town, and when we got in, Sally was up and about, wagging tail and everything else.  Gave her her next dose of antibiotics, and sorted out her special wash...

This stuff has to be applied once a week, 10ml in a 1000ml of warm water.  The vet had warned me to do it outside due to the fumes, so I was prepared for a little mushroom cloud to hit the atmosphere as I added it to the water, but no such luck.

I was most disappointed to be honest.

The plus side is, it smells like petrol.  Or creosote, or Jeyes Fluid...  I can't quite place it, but still, it's actually a really nice smell! I took off the Collar of Shame and proceeded to wash her down.  As usual, she stood there and accepted what was sent her way.  From the tip of her tail to the start of her nose, I washed her down, making sure the fur was saturated to the skin, and that her sore bits had special attention paid to them.

She then sat in the sun and dried off, though the smell dissipated pretty quickly.  She still smells a bit weird from the infection and that, but still...

So, Sunday morning (still dry through the night!) I check on her to see how she is, and she's so far down the road to improvement it cracks me up.  The previously weepy oozey face is now drying right out and is probably more on the road to being "scabby" which, while still hideous, is better than being pus-filled.  It's drying and cracking and while she still wants to itch it, I consider that a plus too - let's face it, scabs itch and are bloody annoying.

So the Collar of Shame is remaining firmly in place.

As further proof that the painkillers are doing their job too, I peeked in on her earlier, and she was up on the trampoline once again... The vet had said that doing such a thing might make her shoulder sore, but then, how do you stop a dog doing that?  And don't say "Be strict, tell her no" because A) she doesn't listen, B) she's a stubborn old woman, and C) if it were that easy, I'd tell her to not itch too.  Not to mention, she's like a kid, and is female.

I am pleased to say that Miss Sally Dog is definitely on the road to recovery, and while she's still smelly, and while she still looks like a zombie, she's is improving.