[Bob Pr.]

This afternoon (12-6) I was volunteering at my favorite Nat'l Public Radio's semi-annual pledge drive**, answering phones, taking pledges. Puff accompanies me as usual, resting in the car, waiting for me to come out 2X every hour to let her out to pee or potty & play; the side windows are cracked, the moonroof is slanted open to provide chimney venting, and a pan with water is inside. If it's too sunny, we park in the shade.

On my visits, we do about 5 minutes fetching to take away her bordeom. I throw (or more usually "bowl") a softball in various directions across the paved parking lot which she chases and brings back. When it hits a curb, the ball either bounces straight up in the air, or up and over and down hills, or back towards me. Great excitement, fast reactions are needed. Puff enjoys this and enjoys her sleeps inbetween my visits. We've done this twice a year for over 6 years.

This afternoon, after about 6 visits, Puff made a quick turn and came back limping and much subdued. I thought she'd sprained a joint at first but, after she started licking a rear paw pad, saw that a small area of the skin (maybe half the size of a dime) was torn away.

Puff's been a different dog ever since -- quiet, subdued; she hasn't even eaten her supper. Right now we're having a thunder/lightning storm which doesn't improve her attitude -- she alternates between going into the nearby bathroom that has reinforced concrete walls, floor, ceiling that's also a tornado shelter, and coming back to lay down next to me.

Poor girl.

Tomorrow we have the same schedule but I'll skip the 5 minute periods of exercise and just visit her.

If she doesn't improve markedly by Wednesday, we'll visit K-State's CollVetMed Tchng Hospl and get her fitted for an Elizabethan collar and a dressing for her paw.

_____________

** In the USA, we have NPR (National Public Radio) a non-profit, government founded radio (primarily FM) provider of a choice of programs [news, current events, music (e.g., classical/jazz), magazine & interest features] to individual member stations. See www.npr.org or also http://kansaspublicradio.org/index.php

The member stations are mainly run by universities (in our case, KPR/KANU is run by the U of Kansas) although occasionally other entities may run them. Funding come from many sources: grants from foundations, corporations, local businesses, and very slightly from the universities, but over half of their operating budgets come from listeners like me during their semi-annual pledge drives.

 

[amazongold]

Poor Puff!

 

[RangerMom]

Aww, poor Puff. That will curtain her fun. I hope she heals up quickly and you don't need the e-collar.

 

[Di]

Poor girl, now thats a bad day!!

 

[Samson]

Get well soon Puff !

 

[patm]

Awwwwww - poor girl - hope it heals quickly for her.

 

[blacklabparent]

Poor Puff =(

 

[Labradorable]

Aww poor Puff. I hope she heals quickly.

 

[Aim]

Poor Puff. I hope she is feeling better soon.

 

[HersheyK's Dad]

Is it just the pad torn off leaving tender skin exposed, or was there bleeding. If the former, my vet says a little bit of neosporin creme or whatever antibacterial you have, and try to leave it open to dry. They usually heal quickly.

Poor Puff! Hope she is back to her fun self soon.

 

[dweck]

Hope she's okay.

I'd'a been tempted to bring her in and let her lie next to you while you were on the phones. Pass her off as a service dog or something.....

 

[Princess Zoe]

Poor Puff. Hope she is better soon.

 

[Clanceycanuck]

Poor Puff. Get better soon girl.

 

[Bob Pr.]

Puff walks on her left front paw kind of gingerly. A thick flap of skin is ripped back so the underlying flesh must be pretty sensitive. This morning, we started out on our usual 2 mile early walk in the nature preserve but she was limping so badly, I curtailed it in less than 100 yards/meters.

Right after -- before going back to the radio station for my 6+ hr volunteer stint -- I applied a generic Neosporin triple antibiotic cream with pain reliever on a gauze pad to her pad, wrapped it with vet wrap and then used a paper adhesive tape over that. The extra padding seemed to help her walking a bit and I suspect the anesthetic quality also may have helped. She tolerated my doctoring much better than I expected her to do since she puts up such a WWF (World Wrestling Foundation) struggle over any attempt to trim her nails -- it was almost as if she appreciated the concern and help. (She was so constantly licking the paw, I didn't want her ingesting the ointment, that's why I bandaged it.)

Didn't try to take it off and she tolerated it quite well for a couple hours before I went in the station. When I came back out to check on her an hour later, all the layers of bandages were missing except one bandaid, next to the wound, so most of the ointment wasn't swallowed, thank heavens. I don't know what happened to all the other wrappings -- I have a lot of papers on the floor of our Honda so, hopefully, they're somewhere down there and she hasn't swallowed them!! I worked late and couldn't leave until about 6:40 PM so haven't been home long.

I had Puff hop up on the bed and just rebandaged her again and am not letting her out of my sight until sleeptime tonight.

Thanks for your concern and good wishes for her. If she leaves the bandage on overnight and will tolerate my home nursing care, I think we'll skip making the trip to KSU's CollVetMed Tchng Hospl. And restrict the amount of walking she does on it for a week or so -- which neither of us will be happy with.

 

[Garth]

If she leaves the bandage on overnight and will tolerate my home nursing care, I think we'll skip making the trip to KSU's CollVetMed Tchng Hospl.

And if not, you might want to put that e collar on her. I made one from a plastic wastepaper basket. Total cost, about $8. There's pics of it on here somewhere.