Dover takeover

Hello all and welcome to the second "Dover takeover".

Life as always seems to be a blend between doing what you need to so that you can eventually do what you want to. Then there is the unexpected weird things that don't seem to fit in anywhere. My brain seems to function quite well in the random and unexpected category.

On the unexpected line we have two inside dogs now. The dogs had an amazing last hunt for the season. Allie (our female English pointer) was acting like her eye was bothering her. It is not uncommon for dogs to get weeds in their eyes when hunting. I washed her eye out with bottled tears and didn't think much more of it. After a week of being very busy and feeding the dogs in the dark the weekend came. Melinda went to get the dogs out to play with the family. Allie's eye was swollen shut.

I called the vet and rushed her in before they closed. Her eye had an ulcerated cut on the cornea. That is the clear section in front of the colored section. One of the medicines causes her eye to dilate with increased sensitivity to light making her an inside dog.

After a week of her being inside I thought it would be nice to take the dogs for a walk. That way she could stretch her legs a little more and get some exercise. I hooked both dogs up to lead ropes and drove the 4 wheeler down the driveway. Rocky (our male English pointer) started jumping around the 4 wheeler like he does when he is excited and somehow he ended up under the 4 wheeler. I don't quite know how it all happened. I was just barely moving.

I ran over to him and checked him out. He didn't seem to have any broken bones. He was missing a large patch of fur exposing his ankle bone and tendons. I walked both the dogs back down the driveway, locked up gimp number 1 and Melinda and I bandaged gimp 2. Superglue and antiseptic ointment was key. By morning his foot was swollen huge. I cut the bandage off, thinking that I bandaged him to tight. Either that or I broke his foot. I told Melinda that if the swelling didn't go down in a couple of hours to take him to the vet. He did improve through the day, however, we felt it best to take him in the the vet.

Lesson learned: I guess that you can't wrap a dogs leg in the middle because they will swell up almost every time. Trip two to the vet went well. I was embarrassed to be there with yet another dog. The vet said he looked fine, complemented me on my patch job and gave us some antibiotics and pain medication.

Now we have come full circle to two inside dogs.

Following up on the dogs, Allie is not healed yet and the vet said that they may need to sew her eye shut to help it heal. He is going to give her 10 more days of medicine and eye creams before we decide what to do next.

Rocky has become the Houdini of escaping his bandages. Now he is the proud owner of a clown collar. It is one of those things they put on dogs to keep them from bothering injuries. He is so sad. Allie hates it. She runs away from him if he even looks at her. Personally I think she thinks he is contagious.

OK, I am done for now. I hope you are all wonderful. Benjamin