It was a really nice day to get in the woods to do some cutting and and a little brush chipping. Hooked up the chipper to the ATV, threw the 450 and the 572 with fresh square filed chains into the back and away I went. My wife followed in the truck with the pooch. We got out to the spot were we had cut some dead oaks about a month ago. Started with a plan, and suddenly we hear the dog yelp. Called him and about a minute later he comes slinking in to us, obviously not happy. We looked him over, other than a tuft a fur along his left front shoulder, he didn't seem any worse for wear. Was just about to write it off and decided I would give him a more through look-over. Good thing I did. He had opened up his left shoulder about three inches long and deep. He wasn't really bleeding at all, which is why I initially missed it when I ran my hands over him. Six hours later, emergency surgery and about 25 stitches (two layers deep) and 660 dollars later... He was stoned outta his gourd!! Now comes the fun part of keeping him mostly immobile for the next 14 days or he'll tear the stitches. Already this morning he was going nuts before I gave him his sedative. He gets better healthcare than I do.
I was telling a friend the other day about how my parents miniature poodles get better care than I ever did as a kid. Once in my childhood I got a professional haircut. The poodles go to the groomer at least before every holiday. Bowl cuts ftw! Sorry about your dog Joe. How do you think he got cut?
I care more about my dog's health than I do my wife.......and she would say "He aint fibbing". Like any lab, getting him to slow down will be the hard part, but take it easy on the pills. They don't get to live with us long enough already
Near as we can tell, he was running (like a lunatic as usual) looking for is ball and ran through a branch. The other (less likely) is he found a critter of some sort, maybe a racoon or one of the many stray cats that are around and they had a go at it and he came up short. He's already driving me nuts with his ball, wanting to play "squeaky". We are using a old t-shirt on him versus a cone and he just gives me the "really?!!?" look when I put it on him after going outside to do his business. Its gonna be a LONG two weeks.
Hope he heals up just fine! We have had our share of that type injury with our GSP’s and most times it was the result of some old barbed wire we had yet to find on our place. Best of luck
