Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Continuing misadventures..

It's not Tehya this time, but there's more trouble! Kayleigh is one of our first dogs; I think she was number five when she arrived a little over five years ago. She's a malamute mix, big, beautiful and troubled. She had a pretty awful start in life and had some pretty major issues when she first arrived. "Get any closer and I'll take your hand off" kind of issues, along with an out of control prey drive and extreme dog aggression. If I had known then what I know now, I probably wouldn't have adopted Kayleigh, but all I saw was pleading brown eyes and those gigantic white paws trying to reach me through the chain link of her shelter cage. I loved her immediately.

Kayleigh has always been a handful, but she's come a long way. She no longer shows any aggression towards any humans, although the dog aggression is unchanged. She has her own pen, attached to the shop. She can't come in the house as she hates the other dogs and likes the cats way too much in all the wrong ways! So she gets her inside time in the shop, which is often a busier place than the house!

Last night she slept in the shop as she does most nights. We thought all the potential hazards had been moved out of her reach or out of the shop entirely. Kayleigh isn't a chewer. With the exception of a couple porcupines, she's never chewed up anything that was off limits. Last night, she found a package of toothpicks. I have no idea where they came from or what they were doing in the shop. She found them and ate many of them!

Stuart found Kayleigh this morning covered in blood, lethargic and still vomitting up more disgusting stuff! So off to the vet again at 8am! Kayleigh is still at the vet and will be until at least tomorrow evening.

X-rays and bloodwork showed some abnormalities so an exploratory surgery was done. Turned out to be the right call. Kayleigh had a bunch of toothpicks in her intestine and stomach along with a small shard of metal. I have no clue where that came from, but it was about to cause a major problem! Fortunately, it was removed before her intestine was fully perforated. That would have only further complicated things! As it is her recovery will be quite long and potentially complicated! The incision on her stomach is at least a foot long! That's a lot of stitches!

She also has a massive laceration under her tongue. That's where most of the blood was coming from. I'm actually fairly impressed that Kayleigh let anyone look in her mouth. A few years ago, that wouldn't have happened on a good day and trying it when she was in pain back then would have led to loosing a finger or two! She has come a long way!

She will be on crate rest for a couple weeks. Anvik is loosing his giant sized crate. It's the only one Kayleigh will fit in!

There will be no killing innocent tennis balls for awhile, but if all goes well, she should be able to indulge herself again!

Whoever had cursed my dog yard lately, could you please stop now?

3 comments:

dogsled_stacie said...

I hear ya - I feel for you and your dog yard woes! Sorry to hear about all the misadventure (and vet visits!!).

Maybe it's something in the air, 'cause I came out of this weekend with one ripped toenail (Octane leaping over fence), and one toonie+ size gouge out of Sage's side. That was most likely due to a hyper Sage running by someone (most likely his sister) who decided to gnaw on him as he sped by. There were no fights, so that's all I can think of. It looks suspiciously like one of those "on-the-run" bites...

Knock on wood - I was able to deal with these in-house!

Anonymous said...

More Prayers for Kayleigh!

Poor Tamara!
You & Stuart sure have had more than your fair share of Trials & Tribulations recently! We *prayed* up a storm over on Pet Talk last night, and now it's time to Thank God and Dr. Candace for their "teamwork" in the Hospital last night.

Wonder If?
Wonder If her near-death experience and recovering from major surgery *MIGHT* change Miz Kayleigh's "attitude" towards the rest of the Animal Kingdom? Let's Hope so! A more "critter-friendly house guest may be more enjoyable than a "Hunter" looking at the housemates as "lunch on the hoof"!

Good Luck to ALL on the recovery process!

{{{Hugs}}}
/s/ Phred from Ohio

Khady Lynn said...

I sure hope Keyleigh pull through. Sounds a lot like what happened with Kelsey (kelseyandsmokey.blogspot.com) when he ate some of his mom's purse and had to have over a foot of his intestines removed.

Sending prayers and some good karma signals your way that things start to get better around there!

Holly