Rainy day blues

The rain makes me want to hibernate. I've been trying to get Sabrina out as much as I can when it's just drizzling out. I hate being cold and wet!

And unfortunate accident happened during morning's rainy walk. I never knew when it actually happened but I'm sure it happened at the park, now looking back. Sabrina must have gotten her toenail caught on something as she was chasing a ball. I didn't even notice until we had gotten home and there was blood coming off her paw. She had been acting strangely at the park, doing a lot of low to the ground sniffing, carrying her tail low, and then jumped right into the car when I opened the door. She *never* does that. She always wants to stay and play more. Or she wants me to pick her up. At first I had thought that coyotes or wolves had been around the night before as I have known that to happen before with Riley. In fact, Riley would be quite skittish and refuse to enter the park entirely. So I attributed that to Sabrina's behavior. After all, she was still happy enough to retrieve her ball.

Upon close inspection at home, I saw that only a bloody red stump remained where her right, front, left toenail one was. Eeew. She did not seem to be in excessive pain. I recalled times when Sabrina got her toes stepped on or caught under the door jam and she cried far more pitifully. This time, there was no crying. She seemed just a bit more freaked out by the smell of blood. As she left blood prints all over the house, she was also "tracking" the scent of blood with her nose and the smell was driving her crazy. I tried to keep her still and ice it with a bag of corn, but she wanted nothing to do with it. Feeling like I was going to do more harm than good, I just left her alone and hoped her bleeding would subside. And it did. I left for work figuring I would try to clean it when I got home and eventually the nail would just grow back.

The internet can be a scary thing. When I finally got a chance at work to get on the computer and Google, "my dog ripped her toenail out" what I read put me into a panic. People talked about the paw getting infected, dogs losing an entire paw, the toenail ripping out at the base of the toe, dogs bleeding to death, oye. I immediately got on the phone and called the vet. Since we are in the process of changing vets and Sabrina's visit isn't until next week, we have to go to our old vet. That's okay. I just want them to take a look at it, tell me she hasn't lost a toe, that the nail will grow back, maybe get some antibiotics, and that's it. I'm grateful they gave me an appointment for this afternoon. We go in at 4pm.

Meanwhile, I rushed home to make sure my puppy did not bleed to death and try to help her feel better. After all, if you ripped your nail off, wouldn't you be feeling pretty bad? I made up some yummy kong filled treats for Riley and Sabrina to enjoy. This is what I put in them:

1/2 can of Merrick's Campfire Trout
1 TB of peanut butter
1 diced package of string cheese
6 diced Zukes dog treats
a few small pieces of dried beef liver treats
a few small pieces of Merrick's dried lamb lung
a few small pieces of dried chicken liver
6 Jungle Greens wafers, crumbled
1 small carrot, chopped
1 tsp of fish oil
1 tsp of Raw apple cider vinegar
and I dug about a TB of marrow out of one of their beef marrow bones and added it to the mix.

I was able to fill 3 kongs and the centers of two marrow bones. They each got a marrow bone and all are content. I'll let you know how the appointment goes. It will be a tight squeeze as the only appointment they had was 4pm and Sabrina's older sister Little Li has an appointment at 4:30 at another vet's office. (we're trying out a new vet) Eeek.