[Ag-eq] Dover Update

[Susan Roe]

Dover is still hanging in there, but has suffered a slight set back as of last Thursday.  At the base area of his staples, he developed a pus pocket that openly drained and had a horrible smell.  Matt took him Thursday to the vet and they had to do surgery on his neck because the infection was not being cleared by his antibiotics.  The infection had gone down through his torn and seperated neck muscles all the way down to his neck bone.  If it were to penatrate into his spine, then it would turn into miningitus (sorry for the spelling) and we would have to put him
down.  They x-rayed his neck and decided he had actually broken his neck, but not bad?  How can braking your neck in a beaver trap not be bad!  It seemed
that it chipped a piece of bone.  They sewed the muscles back in place as best they could, scraped away the infection, sewed him up with stitches not staples
and put in two open drain tubes.  These open drains were no fun with him inside and we had to wash his neck with antibacterial soap once a day.  Once he's back outside, I'm gonna really have to scrub my floors.

So, with all of his new medications including pain pills that had to be given every 8 hours, he had to be brought inside out of the elements and insects.  Someone was up with him 24/7 because there was no place inside we could close off just for him and he was not crate trained even if I had one big enough for him.  All of this was done while Matt still had to pull his four 12-hour work shift.

Matt took him back to the vet Tuesday morning and they removed the drains and were extremely surprised how well he was doing and that he was able to lift
his head up above his shoulders.  The stitches still stay in one more week.  I do believe that the novelty of being inside is starting to ware off for poor Dover.  LOL  He is not an inside dog and has never delt with a leash until he came here.  

We have been keeping strange and difficult hours because
of being up with the dog 24 hours a day/night.  I have been doing Matt's hours, going to bed with him at 9:30 a.m., getting up at 4:00 p.m., and staying
up all night in order to wake Pattie up while she dozes downstairs, whenever Dover may need to go outside.  He is just way too much for me to handle him
outside, so I keep watch and nudge the others when I think he needs to go out.  Hopefully, this will only be for one more week.

It is not easy getting all of us on a schedule that works for each of us and bennifits Dover as well.  He'll take his last pain pill at 2:00 a.m. on Thursday.  I have a feeling he's gonna get a bit more wrestless without the pills chilling him out.  If he wants my attention, he just basically puts one paw on my knee, then my stomach and then proceeds to look at me nose to nose as though he's looking into my eyes saying, "Hello in there, can't you see I want your attention!"  LOL 

Susan 
dogwoodfarm at verizon.net