Pigs and pills

Pigs and Pills

Age 2

One evening playing darts out on the lanai, Leia came bounding up with a big gash under her eye.  It wasn't bleeding too badly, but it looked pretty deep.  As we watched her, it swelled up quickly, really quickly.  I got a bag of frozen peas and she laid there, letting me hold it to her face. Surprising, since she's never been one to stand still.   From time to time she'd lift her head but then let me put the soothing, defrosting bag of peas back on her face.   I washed the eye well, but it was starting to get infected.  Of course, this was over the weekend.  Emergency vet fees, you know!?   We thought we'd watch it overnight.

In the morning, the side of her face was swollen like someone glued a half a football  with fur on her face.  Her eye was crusted shut with puss.  It hurt to look at her.  I'm sure it hurt her more, to look at us.  We went to the Vet as early as we could on Monday morning.   Luke was left at home.  Duh!

We got in to see the vet fairly soon. Leia looked pretty bad. I'm sure it freaked out the other owners waiting.  His first statement was, "  I hope we can save the eye."  Great.    A one eared owner and a one eyed dog. There's my country song.  In addition to her eye, we noticed her right side was swollen.  There was a puncture wound, the diameter of a pencil but deep.  Like she was gored

(See Kili encounter.) The wound under her eye was like a very thick claw, or a pronged hoof. Two pronged.   Pigs!  Wild pigs are very destructive here in Hawaii.

Leia is puppy annoying.  She likes to tease Luke, or any dog, by nipping at their hind legs.   When they turn around, she is fast and darts away.  She does this to Luke sometimes to the breaking point, and then he turns on her.   ferociously, sometimes.  Scary, ferocious.   Teeth bared ferocious.  At 1/3 x larger than her, he can do some damage.  He is still learning how big he is. 

Here's my take on this;  Upon spotting  a pig she thinks.   "Look at this funny looking dog.  Think I'll nip his hind legs."  One hoof hits the eye, and turning, he gores her in the side.  We never heard any noise, but we were partying, so...She didn't seem traumatized or even stressed, but as it progressed, it was obvious she was in pain.  In spite of her deformed face, she still seemed to be smiling.  She loves attention. Any kind of attention.

They take her away and I wait.   When she comes back, her entire side is shaved and there is a tube going in  one side and out of her side.  It is to drain out the infection.   She has one of those silly cones around her head.   It's driving her crazy, but she is happy to see me.    Whatever that multiplying, foul bacteria was from that pigs hoof and tusk spread quickly.   They gave me one bottle with 2 weeks' worth of anti-inflammatory/pain pills, and one bottle of antibiotics.   One twice a day until gone.

When we got home, Luke was gentler to her than usual.  The ever, effervescent Leia  was sadly subdued. He understood this and lay by her, watching when she slept.   I gave her her pills that night.

The next morning, we went outside for her morning dose.  They were easy to give.  They make them like little yummies dogs want to chew.  So, I gave her the first one, then stopped.  I heard the pesky neighbor pups coming and I wanted to chase them away.  She should rest today.  I ran down the stairs and chased them off. Walking back, I saw Luke, proudly prancing around the yard with a prescription bottle in his mouth.  An empty prescription bottle.  Yes, the yummies!  He got them all.  Two weeks' worth of pain killers and anti-inflammatory pills.  He is a big boy, but that's a bit much.  Called the vet.  Yes, of course, bring him in right away.

We get in the car.  He is in his usual back seat.  He's very un-dog like in many ways.  He never sticks his head out the window, wind in the face.   Leia loves it.  All my dogs have loved it.  Every dog we see driving down the road has his head delightfully, droolingly out the window.  Not Luke.  He lays with his head on the seat.  He takes up the entire seat anyway.  

The vet is about 20 minutes away.  It was one of the longest 20 minutes drives I have had.  It's pretty funny, now that I look back on it.   I'm driving and reaching around, slapping Luke in the face saying.  'Stay with me. stay awake Luke.   Don't leave me.   Hang in there!   15 minutes!  Open your eyes.    10 minutes.  Oh my god, Luke are you breathing?  Yes, yes,  He's breathing.  He looks up at me with his big pale, dopey eyes.  Ok, Lukie   Almost there.    5 minutes.   Good.  Breathing.  Eyes open but pretty lifeless otherwise.   We're here.  I come around to his side and open the car door.  He comes bounding out like a 100 lb Tigger, bouncing, leaping, full of life.   I have to chase after him to get the leash.  Stepping on it is, of course the best way.  He doesn't go far from me anyway so it was easy.   It's like nothing happened to him at all.  Well, we did catch it early .

Into the door, on the leash.  We're here.  Emergency!  They know we're coming and take him immediately.  It's a long wait.   2 hours.   After about a half an hour, they assistant comes out and says they pumped his stomach.  It was hard to tell if the pill's had been completely digested because...  are you ready for this one?  There was an entire chicken in there.  A small chicken, but a whole chicken never the less.  That probably saved him.  The problem is not immediate, but poison effects the kidneys.  It takes a little time to see if they or the liver were affected.   But, he should be fine.  They gave him large amounts of charcoal and are waiting for it to be eliminated from his system.  After 2 hours, they said he was find to take home, but he might have some  "drippage."  I was given absorbent pads to put on the back seat under him.   As soon as we drive off, he starts  turning around in circles, making a bed-in-the-grass motions, clawing at the pads until he is sitting directly on the seat.  Um,   until he is "shitting" directly on the seat.  It seems there was plenty more charcoal passing through him.  At least it didn't smell.  But it went everywhere and I mean everywhere.   On the back of the seats, the windows, the ceiling, the floor.  Black splotches everywhere.   This was the 2nd longest drive of my life.  I pulled over and tried to get him to sit on the pads but it was useless.  It was too late as well.  How much more charcoal poop could be in there?   Well, he's a big dog; big bowels, large intestines. Turns out, quite a bit more.   I was grateful that I took Dard's car.

He was waiting when we returned, happy to see that Luke was okay.  He's not a very observant man usually, but this was quite obvious.  Immediately, he took out the hose and hosed down the entire inside of the car, upholstery, ceiling, (also carpet like), floors, doors.  That seemed to work, but now the car was soaked inside.  Puddles.  He got out the wet vac and hosed out as much as he could.  There was still so much left.   For weeks after that, the car smelled like mildew.  Our poor photographer, Angy, had to ride in the back with the moldy fumes for a road trip .  At least she didn't know what was there before.  We didn't have the heart to tell her. Some days and deodorizers later, the smell was gone.

Luke suffered no ill effects at all.  Leia had a long road to recovery.  The swelling, both on her side and her face took days to heal, the side, oozing all the time. We had to put a t-shirt on her to keep it from going everywhere and to keep her from pulling out the drainage tube.   We went through a lot of t-shirts.  Lucky we have more than most people ever imagine.   Dard participates in triathlons and marathons,  6 Ironman triathlons.  With every race, he gets a t-shirt. Plus he has them from many other places.  I've never seen a man with so many t-shirts.  The man has more clothes than I do.

 After  a  week, we were able to take off the t-shirt.  She never wore that humiliating cone.  That was one of the few times she looked sad.  The swelling around her eye also subsided.  She could now open it.   We had drops to put in several times a day and she was so sweet about it.  Like I said, she will do anything for attention.

On our checkup at the vet, he was amazed at how quickly she had healed.  He pronounced that the eye could be saved.  Yea.   But, she might need reconstructive surgery in order for her eye to close properly.  $$$$

As it turned out, that wasn't necessary.  The lower lid is uneven but the eye can drain and close.  Now, it looks like she has a clown eye, with a couple streaking tears, like one of those decorative masks.  It becomes less obvious with time.   It just looks like that's the way her eye is.  

It wasn't long before she was annoying again.