Midnight Run to E-Vet for stitches--Photos

[wems2371]

The quick story, is that my 9 month old got some stitches last night, and is doing fine.

The long story, is that I took my 3 dogs for a run off of the ATV yesterday around 2:30 pm. Got back home from the run and spent an hour in the house with them before we left for a Super Bowl party. As we went to get in the truck, I noticed my husband had some little blood smudges on the stomach area of his shirt. So I asked him what he did, as he's on a blood thinner, and I figured he must've nicked himself and wiped it on his shirt. He couldn't remember cutting himself or anything, but went back in the house and changed his shirt. About 30 minutes into the 1 hour drive to our friends house, he remembered that Brandi had been laying on his stomach while he was napping before we left. She had been acting fine at home and gave no indication that she was hurt, so we figured she must've ripped a nail. Got home from the party around 10:30 pm, and I let the girls out of crates and fed them. I could see Brandi's toenails were fine, so I went to run my hands along her belly. One touch and I said--@#$%, we've got a problem, as my fingers settled in some goo. So we got a good look and knew stitches were in order. The picture doesn't show it the best, but it started with a tiny surface scratch and ended with a 3" cut, that looked like a golf ball shot out of her. My husband calls our vet service, which forwards us to a dedicated Emergency Vet hospital (only open at night and on weekends), back in the city we just came from. Brandi looked absolutely fine in spirits, while I felt tremendously guilty about her being hurt on my watch and not knowing it. Due to the size of the injury and the bouncability of a 9 month old GSP, they put her under to stitch her up. She got 12 stiches before the drain tube, and then a couple more to hold the tube in place. We've also got some chewable Rimadyl for the pain, Cephalexin for an antibiotic, and a fancy Elizabethan collar to make her feel like royalty. Boy was she scared of that collar, while she was still out of sorts from the anesthetic. The injury site is a little swollen and the tube makes it bulge too. The tube can come out in 3-5 days depending on how much it's draining, and the remaining stitches come out in two weeks. So after 3 hours of sleep and $450 later--all is good today. Although she has no inclination to quietly rest...and she's going to miss out on a training day this weekend.

As for what caused the cut, we'll never know exactly. 99% of the run was in open fields, but they dashed into the timber for just 100'. There's the possibility that she ran through some fence or hit a sapling when I wasn't looking. Brandi is a tenacious pup, and will bulldoze her way through briars, brush, and even known fencing. All the more reason, that I should have had a vest on her--like I do every time we leave home. We take them out all the time for runs like this, without incident around home, so it never occurred to me to put her vest on when we were just running in the back forty. Wish we hadn't had to learn that no-brainer the hard way, but I'm very thankful that her injury wasn't more severe.

[kumate]

Wow, that is some Gash! Glad she is ok. What kind of vest do you use for your dogs?

Jerry

[snips]

Poor Brandi!!! But for future reference, I had been running the liver dog Maverick from ATV and 2 days later I took him into the vet for his shots......He was sitting there and leaned over to lick inside his rear leg...OMG!!!!!!!!!!! I saw a rip that hung open about 3 inches and was about 4 inches long!!!!! I freaked, he never even limped. The vet said it was too late to stitch and just keep it clean and put ointment on it...Healed with a scar so small is not even noticed....My thinking on stitches has completly changed..

[hustonmc]

I know the feeling of that panic when you see a nasty cut on the dog, but dogs are incredibly quick healing animals. My Cage pup, at 8 months hit a barb wire fence going full speed, flipped him completely over. He hit the ground with a thud and kept heading towards his objective. I brought him around with the whistle and could see a lot of blood. It was towards the end of the hunt and almost to the truck so I let him run since it didn't seem to bother him, actually found a single quail after that which he pointed beautifully. Anyways to make a long story short he had a 1 1/2in x 1 1/2, 3 corner tear on his chest. A chunk of flapping skin and bare flesh about the size of a poker chip. I slapped some super glue on it, put him in the box and headed home. I monitored it that evening, routinely applied some EMT gel, and within 3 weeks could barley even find the spot where it happened. I commend you for getting treatment for the pup and keeping making sure his health was a priority. I know your a knowledgeable person, I think you'd surprise yourself with some in home medical care yourself, keep that check book a little fatter.

[wems2371]

I like the Cabella's vest.

It was a painful decision when they came out with the cost estimate. I'll be feeling it for a while. On one hand I was thinking the cut might heal pretty well, but I had thoughts that there might be a huge proud flesh type of scar, and I've been taking Brandi to conformation classes (Probably be smarter and cheaper, if I just nix that whole idea. ) in hopes of maybe showing her. We were also wondering if it could wait until our normal vet could stitch her up, but I was afraid the ends of the skin would die too far back by then to be stitched. My husband mentioned one of those veterinary staplers, which we don't have anyway. I know you both are right about it healing on it's own, and we are both EMTs, so I know we were capable of watching it infection-wise. And the injury sure didn't stop her from finishing our ATV run, so she wasn't really feeling it (yet at least). When Roxi was younger she put 2 barb wire lacerations on her chest, and we did the superglue with excellent results, but the cuts weren't nearly as deep as Brandi's. Last night in the moment, I just wanted to get her fixed up, and probably did more than was needed. I am a pushover for the pups.

If anyone's curious about the cost, this is the breakdown from my bill.
Emergency Fee (before 12 AM) $37.00
Diagnostic Exam $48.00
Sedation Injection $53.90
Anitsedan reversal Injection $29.80
Wound Prep/Debride Minor $31.00
Laceration Repair Minor $69.00
Penrose Drain Placement $25.50
2 Suture Pack $31.00
Ampicillin Injection $32.10
Buprenorphine Injection $30.00
7 Chewable Rimadyl $26.35
21 Cephalexin $18.58
Elizabethan Collar $26.66
$463.90 with tax

[postoakshorthairs]

I love the new head dress she's wearing! Too bad for the girl. I guess if there's good news it's that it wasn't in a more visible spot. Maybe you could claim so sort of genetic defect for having thin skin and see if the breeder will foot the bill

[wannabe]

Your vet is going to be able to buy a new boat if you keep bringing your dog in for minor skin tears like that. The only time I get these stitched is during the hunting season when I need all of the dog power that I can get.

Last year my old dog hit a fence post in an abandoned farm yard in North Dakota, but she still pointed a limit of Huns while limping back to the truck. The skin flap was a triangle almost almost as big as the "L" that my finger and thumb make. I called the vet on a Sunday night and she told me that it could wait until tomorrow if it wasn't bleeding all over. The next morning, she stapled her up for about $200. That was the first time I have ever had one of my dogs stitched/stapled in almost 20 years of hunting over bird dogs. Most of the time I just clean up the wound and let it heal on its own.

[wems2371]

I would rather buy myself a duck boat! Unfortunately I didn't have everyone's experiences, not even my normal vet's, to access at 11pm Sunday night...so I erred on the side of caution. This was the biggest field laceration we'd had so far, and while I knew it wasn't going to kill her, I didn't want a potentially ugly scar and wanted it to heal asap. I will vest her more in the future, check the dogs over better after runs, and invest in a stapler for my first aid bag. A $19 stapler would have went a long way towards solving the problem, so I'll be ordering one asap.

The head dress came off way too easy. I looked over a few minutes ago, to see it lying on the living room floor, with her licking her wound. Went over to put it back on her, to discover she'd pulled that pretty $25 tube out a day early. So I had to wrestle her down and cut the 2 stitches still holding it in place. Would've liked to opt out on the tube, but they don't tell you every little thing they're going to do, before they do it.

Like anything, it's been a lesson.

[ddoyle]

Been there and done that! In fact quite possibly at the same E-Vet. Mine was on a Sunday morning run.... very hard to say no when you have vet and tech looking at you saying it was the best thing for your dog. Also, when you have 1 or 2 dogs your view of them is different. I would say you got off cheap when I took mine in she wanted to put her under and suture up the wound and keep for a couple days (somewhere around $800) I said "no, why don't you just numb the site and I will hold her while you stitch her up." She refused to do this so we got collar etc.... Upon talking with our normal vet said to just let them it go on shorter hair dogs rarely gets infected and heals itself. As you stated it is always a learning experience and everyone has there own ideas about how to handle the situation. Glad she is doing better!

[Georgia Boy]

My guy took a hit like that last year in SD but it took 36 took sew him up. No vet in 100 miles, we wrapped him up with gauze, vet wrap and duct tape. He hunted a day and a half afterwards and never missed a beat.We stopped on the way home in Mitchell at the vet, trimmed it back and stitched him up. I didnt want to have to worry about keeping it clean.

[wems2371]

I said "no, why don't you just numb the site and I will hold her while you stitch her up." She refused to do this so we got collar etc....

Yeah, I'm gonna guess we were both at the newer facility on State Street. While it was pricey, it was nice to know that place is available for those odd emergencies when no one else is. Clint said the same thing about just holding Brandi for the stitches, and got the same answer from the vet tech. Must be the standard answer there, and I guess I can't blame them for making it easier on themselves. Funny thing is, I saw that donation flyer for the clinic, where your donation goes to help pet owners who have no money. I thought boy that would be a nice thing to do for someone. Then I got the bill--and promptly put the flyer back.

Georgia Boy, that is the only alternative we had given thought to, is wrapping it up and trying to hold out 10 more hours for our regular vet. I'm sure that would have shaved an easy $100 off the bill. That's good to know that that worked out okay for you, and by the sounds of it, you had 2x the skin tear.

[ddoyle]

Yeah, I'm gonna guess we were both at the newer facility on State Street. While it was pricey, it was nice to know that place is available for those odd emergencies when no one else is.

Yes. I was actually in the old building but my vet said they do try to drive for the sale. But I agree great to have there when needed and I would imagine they get a lot of people to go along with it. I had one hit by a car this summer (jumped out of car at the park and was chasing a low flying bird) and it is hard when you have people saying "well this is what would be best for the dog" and you have to say "well that is a little more than I want to spend." They were talking about sending her to ISU and having a plate put in and about a $4000 bill. But my vet is great and said no and the dog is fine now.

[dawgmama]

Glad to hear your girl is ok! Man, those emergency vets are pricey! We took our Wirehair to one in Green Bay in Nov. and they misdiagnosed pyometra, wanted $7,000 to emergency spay her, gave her a blood transfusion because her platelets were so low, complete blood work, antibiotics for lyme disease(which she tested positive for) etc. We refused the spay, and they got her stable enough for our 'up north' vet to spay her the next day. We walked out with a $1,500 bill. The 'up north' vet spayed her, on their advice- her uterus was fine! That was the end of our 5 generations of Wirehairs. AND she was actually sick with Lymphocytic Leukemia, which ended up killing her in Jan.

While I appreciate that they have to charge more for the availability of vet care after hours, I don't really think they need to charge as much as they do! Plus, they were way off in their diagnosis. I have no computer up north, to check up on what they say, so.... we had to trust them. Sigh.

We like the Skidplate dog vest. My husband laughs at me when I put it on them for just a run, but, it is so easy to put on, and so much cheaper than a vet bill!

I think your Brandi is the prettiest Shorthair I have ever seen. I can see why you didn't want a huge scar, she'd do well in the ring!

Nan

[Greg Jennings]

Don't know about the show ring aspects, but on a field dog, I'd trim it close and staple it myself in a heart beat.

I did, however, make the same run when Gunner took a stick in the eye. Not cheap, but worth it.

[dog dr]

If anyone's curious about the cost, this is the breakdown from my bill.
Emergency Fee (before 12 AM) $37.00
Diagnostic Exam $48.00
Sedation Injection $53.90
Anitsedan reversal Injection $29.80
Wound Prep/Debride Minor $31.00
Laceration Repair Minor $69.00
Penrose Drain Placement $25.50
2 Suture Pack $31.00
Ampicillin Injection $32.10
Buprenorphine Injection $30.00
7 Chewable Rimadyl $26.35
21 Cephalexin $18.58
Elizabethan Collar $26.66
$463.90 with tax

the money you could have saved by waiting for your regular vet: PRICELESS

I think you could have spent the gas money to drive her over to western IL and let me stitch her up, and still have been money ahead on that one! glad it turned out well. looks like they did a good job.

[r.r.rouse]

Drive west I have a stapler! I learned the same way you both did however. Make sure you get a staple remover as well !

[Ditch__Parrot]

I'm glad everything worked out alright. I know that scary (Holy Cow where did that come from) fealing of finding bad cuts. I did the same thing rushed to the vet. I got lucky and was able to go to my regular vet. Seems like the right thing to do at the time. Then you get that buyers remorse of wondering if that bill was really needed. I figure better safe than sorry. That pic of the wound looked very similar to one Sadie had this year except bigger. I saw it happen. She hit a barb wire fence square on and caught a barb right in the chest. She backed out of it and it still left a skin tear a missing chunk of meat and had that same look to the wound just smaller and in the same spot. I was glad she backed out, if she would have tried to bull threw it would have been much worse. Probably would have looked just like that pic.

On one hand I was thinking the cut might heal pretty well, but I had thoughts that there might be a huge proud flesh type of scar, and I've been taking Brandi to conformation classes (Probably be smarter and cheaper, if I just nix that whole idea. ) in hopes of maybe showing her.

Of course I don't know anything about conformation....but.... It seems odd that you would need to worry about a hunting breed of dog having hunting related nicks and scars in the show ring. Sort of goes with the territory.

[stlgsp]

Judges are not suposed to penalize a dog for scars, especially from field injuries in the hunting breeds. A friend's bitch finished in the ring with a large scar from surgery to remove a seed she had inhaled and migrated to her side. The judges would ask about it when the went over her.