Discombobulated Doggie

First, I would like to say that my goal is to blog more often this year and spend less computer time on other sites.

Yesterday was quite an adventure with one of our dogs. After trying to clean up the house from Christmas, we went outside to burn the tree in our fire pit. Keegan and I got a good fire going, and that's when the trouble began.

The dogs, as usual, were biting sticks off of the brush pile, in hopes that one of us would play fetch with them. So I grabbed a one foot piece of stick that they had broken, and I threw it out in the deep snow. Chester and Schnitzel both chased it, and they brought it back to me. I threw it again.

This time, things did not go so well. Chester bit the stick into pieces, and suddenly, he began to yelp and start scratching at his face. It looked like something had become lodged in his throat, and I waited for him to gag it out, like he usually does. The stick was not coming out. Then, I saw blood pooling on the snow. By now, he was whimpering and flailing all over.

I got down on my knees near him, and I slowly approached his mouth, hoping I could just reach in and pull it out. Not so. Chester snarled at me, and continued to flail. Blood is still coming out of his mouth. I wasn't about to try again, so I got Keegan and both dogs in the van, and we left for the Vet's office.

I called Jeff to have him meet me there, and take care of his dog, since Jeff handles him much better. I had Keegan sit up front in the van because I didn't know how Chester would react. Along the way, Schnitzel became frightened of Chester's desperate state as he trying to dislodge the item from his throat. So, she climbed into the front seat with Keegan. (She weighs about 100 lbs, and she's a BIG dog!) I asked Keegan if he was allright. He reassured me that he was fine.

Now, there is some blood in our vehicle. Sometimes, Chester would continue to work it out. At other times, he just would whine. At one point, he tried to climb into my lap while I was driving in heavy snow with Keegan and Schnitzel already in the front.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

We arrived at the Vet's office. I am thinking that we should go to the vet that is 1/2 mile away from our house instead of the one that is 7 miles away. We do like the service at our current one, though.

Jeff took Chester inside, and they soon sedated him. The stick had stabbed his tongue during the chaos, and that caused the bleeding. The stick was lodged between his teeth, so the vet easliy removed it. While he was out, they even cleaned his ears and clipped his nails. Yay!

When he woke up, he looked like a little puppy who could barely walk. He stumbled around a bit, and went back to sleep. We woke him back up, and Jeff took him to the truck. His legs weren't working so well, and Chester just looked at Jeff and made no attemt to jump into the truck. So, we took Chester to the van and got him settled.

At home, we laughed and laughed as he would occasionally wake up, stumble about, and fall back asleep in the most awkward positions. We are very glad that he is ok. I'm very glad that we went to an animal hospital instead of a human hospital this January.