Updates: Where the Heck Have YOU Been?!

Oh my goodness, where has the time gone? It's May already and I do realize that I haven't blogged in over a month. Please accept my most sincerest apologies. This past month just flew by. With being sick for over two weeks with the flu and losing my voice, it hasn't been a very happy nor productive month for me. In short, a lot of things happened (mentioned later in this post) and well, to say the least, life is finally returning to normalcy, somewhat. Anyway, the good news is that I'm finally better, (believe it or not, not nearly 100% though) but way better than what I've been in the past couple weeks. So here I am trying to catch up with updates and blogging. So where shall I begin?

So aside from being sick, the main reason for my short hiatus was because of my littlest pup, Rogue E Bear. As you can see in these photos (a bit graphic, but necessary) our baby bear had gotten into an accident. It was really unfortunate that it happened to us, but shit does happen and I guess you can say that we were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. And trust me, it was the longest 2 weeks of my life. I've never been so upset and heartbroken over anything. If you know me, you know that these pups are my everything and literally just like my children. So to see something like this happen to one of my kids, it was very devastating to say the least.

In short, we put our pups in daycare every once in a while over the weekends to play with their puppy friends and exhaust that pent up energy built up during the week. It is a real treat for them and I've never seen them happier. We've been going to this daycare for over 2 years now and nothing like this has ever happened. I supposed you could say it was sort of just a freak accident, I'm not sure but we'll really just leave it at that. Anyway, on one of the Saturdays that we happened to be there, my baby bear got pounced on by a much larger dog (breed to be unnamed as I do believe that it was just an accident). When we picked her up that afternoon, we were told about the situation, but we did not realize how serious it truly was. Somewhere during the altercation, our Rogue E Bear was bit in the rump and the bite unfortunately had broken skin. We didn't realize this until much later that night, when we attempted to pick her up and she screamed like bloody murder. With further inspection, we did notice that there were some scabs and a lot of dried up blood.

The very next morning, we knew something was wrong. She seemed to be in a lot of discomfort and chose to hide under our bench for a majority of the time. She didn't want us to touch her side where she was wounded and avoided it as much as possible. Because of her discomfort and the noticeable swelling in her side, we decided to take her to the vet. Luckily we made the decision just in time. The bite wound (3 puncture holes in her rump) had gotten severely infected. Because the wound had scabbed up so quickly, the puss had nowhere to go and built up into a huge abscess. This abscess needed to be drained as soon as possible, so we opted for surgery right away.

A huge vet bill and 6 hours later, our baby was returned to us with some stitches, an e-collar on and  a shunt inserted in her rump. This was to help dispose of any puss and to avoid any build up of infection. We were also given pain medication and antibiotics as well. The shunt was to remain in place for 3 days and then removed on a follow up appointment that following Saturday.

Let me tell you, I wasn't prepared for this and seeing that tube sticking out of my baby's leg was heartbreaking. I went through so many stages of being sad, upset, heartbroken, outraged and ultimately unhappy. Honestly, we haven't even gone back to the daycare since. However, I do understand that this was an accident. I also understand that the daycare has taken measures and will no longer allow this dog into their facilities. Still, when something like this happens to your babies, you can't help but to feel a little insecure and paranoid.

After the shunt was removed, it took another week for the wound itself to heal. We were sent home with very specific instructions on how to care for the wound. We were not allowed to let it scab as that would cause another abscess. Everyday, we had to clean the wound with warm water and push out any puss that was building up inside. It wasn't fun, it broke our hearts, but we are glad that we still have our puppy and that she is getting better every day. Because of the surgery, she had to get her fur shaved off in that area and everyday that the fur doesn't grow back is just another sore reminder of what had happened that day. In all, I am hurt by what had happened, but this probably happens everyday. It just sucks to have to deal with it first hand.