Anvik Again!!!!

Anvik has lived here since the end of August and I swear he's spent more time at the vet than any other dog in the yard! He's at the clinic right now, been there all day and if we're both lucky he might get to come home tomorrow!

Last night, I was getting ready to head with a team for a little mushing by moonlight.

The run went really well, once we got out of the yard. Prior to this fun(pic was taken last night), the dogs had a little scuffle. Waiting to be hooked up + a full moon = brain dead dogs! Anvik, who could not fight his way out of a paper bag, ended up on the bottom of a dogpile. The fight looked pretty minor and didn't last long. We've certainly had much, much worse fights in the past. I got the instigators isolated and checked everyone over. No blood, no obvious wounds, within a few minutes almost everyone was back to their usual little canine selves.

Except Anvik, he was whiny and upset, but I couldn't find anything wrong with him. So I put him in the porch, where he eats and where one of his crates is kept and went for a run. After the run, he ate and drank like he always does. Still couldn't find anything obviously wrong with him, but he squealed in pain when he tried to jump up and give me a hug. He gives the best hugs! So I gave him a dose of Metacam and put him in his big crate beside my bed. I thought he'd just pulled a muscle or was just stiff from the fight.

This morning, he was not terribly interested in getting out of his crate, but when he finally did, he whined and was moving very stiffly. As he drags his little butt out of the crate, I notice a lump on his left side about the size of both of my fists together! It feels like it's full of fluid. So I figure I missed something and he's got the start of a big abcess. Call my boss and tell her I'm going to be late. Take Anvik to the vet clinic. Since he was a drop-off, they just squeezed him in whenever they found time, which turned out to be about two o'clock this afternoon.

It's not an abcess, not an infection, the vet can't find any wounds either. He attempted to do an x-ray, but Anvik freaked out when they moved his legs. That's when they noticed the lump changes size and moves a lot. Because it's a HERNIA! Two inches long and an inch wide!!! That's not fluid in it, that's Annie's intestines sticking out!!! That's a much bigger problem than a missed puncture wound. This requires emergency surgery or it can quickly become life-threatening! Oh, and apparently it's not quite as simple of a procedure as it was when Stuart had his hernia repair. Stuart got to come home in a couple hours!

Thank God Annie likes his crate. The recovery period is extended and will require long stretches in his crate. He is going to be a miserable creature when he figures out that he's getting left behind all the time! I've been told to expect six weeks of recovery before he can pull again! Could be less, could be even more! Wah!

This little happy face likely won't be seen for awhile!

But I expect there will be a whole lot of his patented "Anvik Death Howl" going on! I suppose I should try to enjoy the quiet tonight!