Dog Training & Health

[Jasmer]

My dog ran away almost two weeks ago. We were about to take him for a walk in the field out back and he took off. After days of searching, putting up posters, newspaper ads, craigslist ads, and pestering animal control and the humane society, animal control finally caught him and brought him home. My happy, healthy husky was thin enough to see his ribs, was injured, and just looked completely out of it. His collar is missing.

So we just got back from the vet. Shadow is on a diet of chicken broth, watered down chicken broth (for hydration), anti-inflammatory, and antibiotic. He's lost about 8 lbs since he's been gone, he's pretty thin. He's severely dehydrated. The vet wanted to put him on fluids but when I told him Shadow will eat chicken broth he said that would be fine. His left front foreleg is swollen and broken and he has an extremely high fever.

Shadow has two puncture-type wounds, one on his left foreleg and one on his chest. His left foreleg bows outward and appeared to be broken. Two x-rays confirmed that his leg has at least 3 fractures and a large bullet embedded in the bone. The bone is knitting together so resetting it would have been pointless (and painful) as the break isn't severe enough to cripple him. The chest wound is likely the original entry/exit wound of the bullet. There are small pieces of lead embedded deep in the skin but not into his ribs or lungs. Surgery is not necessary, the wounds have been there for at least several days and are healing very well on their own, and only need to be kept clean and otherwise undisturbed.

Somebody shot my dog. It's our fault, he's our dog and he was wandering loose, and if he was digging through somebody's trash or otherwise pestering them, or they thought he was going to be a nuisance, then I can understand. It's lame that they shot my dog, but I can understand. Wolf hunting just opened up in northern Idaho, so if somebody shot him because they thought he looked rather wolfish, well, I'm extending my middle finger as hard as I can at them. The vet said from the size and amount of lead embedded in Shadow's body the bullet likely came from a rifle. He believes it's a larger caliber than a .22, but we're thinking not, as anything larger could very well have mangled or removed the leg.

Shadow's enjoying a laid back recovery in the guest room closet in his bed. Luckily he has an appetite. I'm just giving him a little bit of nutro chicken oatmeal and rice wet food every now and then so as not to upset his stomach and feeding him some diluted chicken broth. He won't drink water right now because he's dehydrated and dehydrated dogs are stubborn like that.

I'm just wondering what else I can do for him other than feeding him and leaving him the heck alone. How should I go about cleaning his wounds? What should I use?

The poor guy went snooping about. I guess the fun ended pretty quickly. It's all fun and games until somebody gets shot, I guess. I'm glad he's going to be okay.

[meezermom]

The best think to use to clean his wounds is a half and half mixture of peroxide and betadine.... it will stain so be careful where you use it! Did the vet clip the hair around the injuries? If not, do so...soak a cotton ball or gauze pad in the mixture and gently clean the areas that are injured..... IF you see anything imbedded, you can carefully remove it but you want to be careful. If you think Shadow might snap from pain, fashion a muzzle for him out of a scarf or such and wrap it in a figure 8 around his muzzle. I am not so sure about leaving the bullet imbedded in the bone though. It will leave a weak spot possibly. If the bone is misshapen and bowed out, he will have trouble down the road. You might want to ask the vet again if he is absolutely certain this is the best path for Shadow. At least three breaks in one leg is not good. He may be better off getting it set. You might also want to try and see if he will drink Gatorade! Many dogs seem to really like the red one and it will do a great job of balancing the electrolytes and such....if he will drink it, offer he that, then water, then broth then back to Gatorade.....he needs to get the hydration up fast....The high fever is of course a big worry but most likely he has bad infection in the wounds. Hopefully the antibiotics will bring it down fast. Don't forget to give him a couple tablespoons of yogurt daily so his gut does not get all the good bacteria pulled out of it and he starts in with severe diarrhea which will make his hydration worse.

Jasmer, Shadow does not look like a wolf and I am sorry but there was no excuse for anyone to shoot him. Shooting over him or throwing something to get him out of the garbage is one thing but to deliberately aim to injure or kill, that is simply wrong. Where you live the vast majority of people own dogs. This was malicious and there is just no way to excuse it....nor understand it.....

[Jasmer]

I'm gonna walk down to the grocery store today and see if I can pick up a small bottle of peroxide and some iodine. I'll see if they carry betadine, though they probably do. They have a pharmacy so they should have just about everything I need. The vet didn't clip the injuries. They're both in areas where the hair is short and the punctures are clearly visible. If I see anything embedded and I know it can be easily removed I'll get a pair of tweezers, otherwise it'll have to stay put.

I was going to call the vet and see what he thought should be done. I think part of the reason he was so content to let us take Shadow home was because of our financial situation. The vets around here don't make payment arrangements nor do they work with financial aid in any form other than "my grandma will pay, we will pay her back" which is what we wound up doing last night. I can probably afford to have the bone reset but unless we find a vet that will accept payments removing the bullet isn't an option unless it's absolutely necessary. I asked them if they would make an arrangement, that it would be paid off by the end of the month, that my dog was in really bad shape and needed medical attention, and they flat out turned me away. I had to ask a relative to front the bill. I know the bullet will cause him discomfort down the road during cold but unless the pieces can be pulled out with tweezers there's little we can do. None of the vets will work with us.

He's on a once-daily antibiotic and twice-daily anti-inflammatory/pain killer. This morning he's responsive and will get up and move about on his own if asked (we have to coax him out of his bed to pick him up and take him down the steps outside). He still has a healthy appetite but still won't drink water, so I'm flavoring it lightly with chicken broth. I haven't checked his temperature officially but his ears aren't hot anymore. The fluids are working because his gums aren't so sticky and his eyes are getting nice and glossy again. Last night when we got back from the vet hubby laid him down on his bed and Shadow literally collapsed and went to sleep. Over night he drank a bowl of heavily diluted chicken broth. This morning he's looking around a little. Hubby carried him down the stairs to the front lawn and Shadow managed to poop and a good, long pee. He even wagged his tail a little while he was outside. So he's feeling a little better, which is good.

Shadow doesn't look like a wolf but the wolf was hunted to extinction in north Idaho and western Washington a long, long time ago. Most people hardly know what one looks like. I was walking Shadow down the street one day and a lady grabbed her kid and told him "be careful, that's a wolf". It irritated me, and I told her he's a husky. Now that the wolf is reintroduced (from Yellowstone yay!) and fish and game thinks the numbers are high enough to open them up for predator hunting people are wolf-happy, just want to shoot a wolf, everybody hates wolves, wolves eat babies and huff and puff and blow your house in and other crazy fairy tales. Ranchers are spreading anti-wolf hysteria because they don't like the idea that their freeloading off public land (they call it free-range) can be interrupted by native predators attacking one of their livestock. While Fish and Game can prove a wolf attack easily and will reimburse the cow for far more than it was worth apparently the ranchers are still quite upset about the whole thing. Their superstitious ideas spread to everybody else and a handful of people still shoot them on sight. Many hunters are resentful and blame the short Elk season and low elk numbers this year on the wolves even though the elk population has dipped over the last several years due to overhunting, encroachment, and mostly due to two very harsh winters killing too many calves. Wolves fail 9 out of 10 hunts. They are hardly decimating the elk population.

My husband is an avid hunter, though. The way he sees the injury Shadow was at a dead, full run and whoever shot him was likely aiming for the heart. The direction the bullet took skimmed his chest and hit his leg. He wants to think it's a pellet but it's too big. Pellets just aren't that big. The fragmented bullet looks about the size of a 9 mm. Hubby thinks that since Shadow was already running then whoever shot him probably fired at least once before at him and missed, and the dog took off. Not only that, but he thinks the shot was probably taken further away than any semi-intelligent marksman would take due to how minor the injuries are overall. So in the end somebody shot him for a laugh. Why would you shoot a dog? How is that funny? What's wrong with some people?

[meezermom]

Don't grab iodine!!! It will burn terribly really. Stay with the betadine and peroxide mix!! It's what they use in hospitals on humans and it is quite safe...It will clean out the wounds and get any foreign stuff out....the peroxide will bubble it out....After that, his tongue will do the rest...I know vets need to get paid and they deserve their money.....but it would help if there was a way to get this taken care of in emergency situations. I don't think many of us have thousands set aside to take care in situations like this.

I agree with you, it does sound like someone was just being a people. Shadow was running away and he was "fair game" to some trigger happy guy who thought he could deal with all his problems with a gun. There are better ways and too bad he was too ignorant to see a dog instead of some wild animals. We steal their land and then when they are starving, we kill them. Humans are such nice creatures..NOT!

[Jasmer]

I'm as 2nd amendment happy as the next gun-toting Charlton Heston wannabe but for crap's sake, some people just don't have any business owning anything more than a pair of children's safety scissors. There are plenty of people out there who shoot at things just for the sake of shooting them. Those people are the reason Idaho doesn't adopt a mandatory hunter orange law, they'd just say "OHTHATSBRIGHTANDPRETTY" and shoot it. I want to write a letter to the opinion column of the local paper if they have one. I'm going to call today and ask if they do.

To whoever shot my dog at Mullan Trail: I don't know who shoots a dog with a small caliber gun, or who shoots a dog at a full, dead run, probably away from another shot you fired in his direction because you are a terrible aim. I know he wasn't confused with a wild animal. Wolves and coyotes don't come in black and white husky markings, nor do they wear hunter orange retro-reflective collars. The only conclusion was that you shot my dog for laughs. I'm pleased to inform you that my dog is fine, all you managed to do in all your ineptitude is break his leg. Who shoots a dog for laughs? There are plenty of ideas out there but all of them agree on one thing: you have a deep, abnormal mental disturbance. You are not normal, and I don't mean that in a "you're a special little snowflake and you are unique" kind of way. Seek mental help.

Hope he reads the paper every morning at work.

I'll ditch the iodine. I've had it used a million times on myself at doctors and at the hospital and never noticed any real burn, so it didn't occur to me that for a lot of people it does burn.

I think by the time I find a vet that will work with us on payments his leg will be healed along enough that re-breaking it to reset it would just be cruel. I know of a few vets that will take payments but they're hours away and our truck is running questionably. By questionably I mean power steering goes out for no reason and the RPMs drop spontaneously for no reason. Due to a fear of transmission problems we aren't willing to push it and risk our only vehicle going to the shop for thousands of dollars in repairs. At least they would make payment arrangements, though.

[meezermom]

If your paper does not have an opinion column, send it in anyway and see about them putting it in as a guest column for an editorial. What you said is all right on the money....Whoever did shoot Shadow did it for enjoyment, not any other reason. They didn't think or care that he might be a loved family pet who escaped from his home and might be frightened. I would also put that in....that he was not a dog that is allowed to run but he escaped when the front door was opened and you have been posting posters and looking daily for him for however long he was gone......I do wonder how he got the collar off though....It should be snug enough not to come off easily however, I suppose it is a break away collar so he couldn't get strangled.....wish there was something safer to use! Just be sure to keep checking the pads on that foot. If they start getting cold, the circulation is damaged and he will need to be seen.....keeping fingers crossed he heals well....

[Jasmer]

His toes are still okay, he's still pretty out of it, and he's still very uncomfortable and painful. He still has a healthy appetite but he's stopped drinking fluids. He may be getting some from the wet food but I'm sure it's not enough. I have to go buy some more wet food today and I might buy a turkey baster or a large plastic syringe and start squirting some pedialyte or gatorade diluted with water into his mouth. Once it's in there he'll generally go ahead and swallow it. I found this out yesterday when I had to start him eating forcefully. Took a spoon of wet food and stuck it to the roof of his mouth after he absolutely refused to eat. Then he ate a bowl of food voluntarily. Unfortunately he seems to be under the impression that drinking water is his choice.

Since we live in an apartment we have to carry him down a flight of stairs to get to the front lawn. We do this three times a day, and all three times he pees until he's empty--which is partly why I'm not terribly worried about him not hydrating quickly enough, he always has enough for a good, long pee. He hasn't been eating much because I didn't want to make him sick, but since his appetite is still great and food isn't making him ill I'll be upping the intake today. Hopefully that'll see him pooping every day again. I'm gonna switch him to just some canned alpo or something since it's something I can buy a lot of at once and hopefully by this weekend I can start cutting out the rice and substituting it with his old food.

What concerns me (and I know it shouldn't) is that because we have to manhandle him up out of his bed and physically carry him down and then back up the stairs he's been shying away from us when he thinks we're moving to grab him. This isn't what worries me, what worries me is that he may carry that uneasy feeling and shyness with him for a while after he's well enough to move about on his own. He can hobble around alright on his own even though his poor little leg isn't splinted (the way it's broken I don't think there was a way to splint it that wouldn't have it dragging on the ground or bound around a break or the gunshot wound). He can't get up or down the stairs without putting some weight on the broken leg, though, and even though it's knitted together and he shows no sign of pain when it's touched (for cleaning etc) it obviously still hurts him, or he wouldn't be limping in the first place. I wonder if his pain medication numbs the pain a little too much and he forgets when he gets his mind on something else. At any rate he can't climb stairs on his own yet.

Another concern I have started this morning. When hubby put him down on the front lawn Shadow's hindquarters were moving really strangely. After he peed he seemed fine, and maybe he just had to go really, really bad and was just hurrying into position. I'm worried that we missed something, or the vet missed something, even though at the same time I'm sure there isn't anything there. I wonder if all the laying down is just making his legs stiff. Like I said after he peed he was moving as normally as a dog not used to only having 3 good legs can.

He needs his rest badly but I wonder if there's anything else I should be doing to make sure the muscles in his hind quarters don't atrophy. It's bad enough that the broken leg likely will, a little.

Is there anything else we can do, or anything we should do different?

[Jasmer]

Well, we just took Shadow out for his before-bed pit stop. When we got back up instead of hobbling off to the spare bedroom closet where his bed is he settled down in the living room. Hubby laid down with him and scratched his ears and nuzzled him. It was adorable, and Shadow just ate it up. He LOVES my husband, a lot more than he likes me, that's for sure.

Shadow laid out there, calm and relaxed, for quite a while. We both got up to get ready for bed. As soon as we left the living room Hubby stopped me and hushed me. We heard Shadow hobbling around the kitchen sniffing the area where his food bowls used to sit. I put fresh water down and a small amount of his dry food, which I've been mixing into his wet food, and he munched a little and then went to his bed for some well-needed rest.

He's doing better than I thought he would today. I think he's going to be okay, especially if he keeps going at the rate he is.

[Jasmer]

Well, minor update. We're working on a decision as far as his broken leg. We touched base with the vet today and it's looking like the leg will never, ever heal. Basically it'll be painless and virtually unusable hunk of dead weight. Since the bones are unable to knit together they form almost an extra joint-like structure in his leg that cannot provide stability. It'll buckle if he puts weight on it. All the leg will be good for is helping him stand so he can pee. Right now the decision is whether or not to amputate it or have pins put in. Since it's a decision that does not need to be made immediately, and since the leg is unusable and forever will be and therefore he isn't likely to actually hurt it again, we're going to go ahead and start saving the money now and in a few months he'll have one surgery or the other. I'm pushing for amputation since it's the most cost effective AND the most promising solution. He'll still have quality of life and still be able to run around with three legs. He does a good job of it already, but amputation completely eliminates the risk of him hurting the leg again and removes what is otherwise nothing more than a burden now. The vet can't guarantee that pins would be successful because of the nature of the break and whether or not there's enough room to actually work with.

In other news Shadow's become more affectionate since he came home. Today we went for a walk and he sat down in the grass. Hubby and I kneeled down by him and were petting him. When we stopped and said "let's go home" the dog just scooched closer to be pet again. He was in a pretty good mood all day until he went to the vet. After having his limp noodle of a leg manhandled by some guy he doesn't even know on top of the insult of going for a ride in the truck he decided to sulk for a while. But now he's happy again.

At least now we have a direction to head in. Somebody else had suggested that we may have to just euthanize him. I can't euthanize my dog for a broken leg, not when his overall quality of life isn't going to be destroyed by his current condition. I can, however, save up money and give him the best quality of life I can.

[meezermom]

I am so sorry this happened. I know we both wished for a different outcome but nothing can change the past. An amputation will most likely be the best option here for a full recovery. He will adjust quite well to the leg being gone and will probably be happier without it. As there is no feeling, it is a dead weight and is probably pulling him off balance. I think I would be writing an open letter to the newspaper though and putting it to the person who shot your dog....because someone had to take that collar off.....and then turned a gun on him with the intent to do harm. Hang in there and give him time and emotional support. And big hugs for you guys too....

[Jasmer]

Yep, he'll be our little Tripod in a few months. We're budgeting the money into savings. The amputation procedure itself is $760 but they also charge $100 for catherization and $86 a day for intensive care, which he may be in for up to 3 days. We're rounding the cost up to $1200. The fractures are not officially nonunion yet, but the vet is confident after his exam the other night that they'll never knit together and will not stay in place if they are reset. He said that there's a chance that the pain may even fade with time but I still want the leg gone as it's nothing but a hindrance and will be painful for some time. He also keeps trying to use it on the stairs and we can't carry him up and down the stairs for the rest of his life. Nor does he want us to. He's getting better at not using it, though.

I took him to my mom's this weekend because she wanted to see him. We caught him in the back yard peeing while standing on two legs. Despite the obvious discomfort his leg gives him he's in better spirits every day, more so than he was before he left. He still isn't happy to see hubby and I both leave for long periods of time and is generally very happy when we come back. He's got an obvious sense of pride since he's been gone, too. He's clearly insulted, offended, and downright bothered when he has to be carried down the stairs. He doesn't mind being carried back up, though, because after trying it ONCE he found it much too difficult. He also doesn't appreciate the help getting into or out of the truck. When we took him to the vet the other night Shadow tried to take a flying Superman leap past Hubby into the parking lot because by damn he was not going to be picked up again! Hubby caught him in mid-air. I wonder if that was part of Shadow's sulking fit while we were at the vet. It's not the ideal ending, nor is the fact that he'll have to have the leg amputated, but it's still a happy ending, even now.

[meezermom]

The happy ending is he is home and alive....and he will be better once the leg is removed....I just wish the person who did it would pay here instead of later on....did you look into any of the groups that help with financial situations?? I know most are geared towards spay/neuter but maybe there is something that would be out there. Does sound like Shadow is a very proud dog though!!