Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Dog Woes


Now and again, for no reason I have been able to discern, my female dog attacks her older half-brother. Jude is twice as big, but Layla is determined, and it's not the nyah-nyah where one dog rolls and gives up, but sometimes gets bloody.


Last evening, it happened again. No food guarding, nothing like that, as we went out back to crank up the barbecue grill she bowled into him and started biting. I grabbed her and jerked her away, but there was damage done; a spot of blood on Jude's right foreleg, up high, and he hasn't been able to put any weight on it since. Some obvious swelling, hematoma, Appetite seems fine, and he'd pee if I haul him out back and put him down, but he's not getting around, save on three legs.


So, off to the vet this a.m. and the diagnosis is what I thought–doesn't appear to be any infection, no cracked bone, nothing in the ligaments, but a couple of holes and some crush injury. He'll gimp around for a while, on antibiotics to make sure there's no infection, some pain pills, and with any luck, be right as rain in a few days. 


My wallet will be lighter, but hey, it's only money; nothing compared to my furry boy's welfare ...

2 comments:

Dojo Rat said...

Gawd,
I've had dogs come home on the farm after two days shredded and bleeding. the worst was from fighting and killing Nutria, the Beaver sized rodents that lived in the river and irrigation ditches in Oregon.
I may have to do a post on that.

steve-vh said...

I have multiple dogs of one breed, this breed has a closer lineage to their historical use as large game hunters. Meaning they still have alot of those traits, they aren't heavily bred or civilized (yet they are amazing empaths).
It's quite interesting to see the pack mentalities and heirarchies play out constantly.
Sometimes for seemingly no reason at all, the dominant male will lay into a lower level female. Biting sometimes, just aggressive attacking other times. Two of the females cannot even take sight of each other or it's full on. There are cues these dogs give off that we are not privy to. I feel oftentimes it just a reinforcing of rank structure, our's are considered a "primitive breed", Japanese Kai.
I asked a friend once years ago, "why do dogs dig holes?". He had the best answer "it's a dog thing, man" we can only guess sometimes.