We have the old Scout back, minus a leg

It is crazy how well dogs are able to adapt to being a tripod dog! Scout is back and feeling much better. She is able to run around the yard with Lucy (digging is hard for her) but she does all the other dog things.

She hates this stupid cone with a passion and so do we. She runs into everything and is always hitting you in the back of the leg with the cone while she follows you around.

She is back to her crazy sleeping habits of laying on her back with her feet spread out, now there is just one less leg. 

We are so glad that our little doggie lived. Some people like to pay a lot of money up front for a specialty breed dog, we on the other hand like to get a practically free mutt from the pound and spend thousands of dollars to save her life. She may be the most expensive dog yet! Thanks Robb for letting me save this little doggo!

 

Setback in Recovery

As the week progressed Scout started to act less and less like the Scout we knew. She wasn't playing with toys, wasn't eating (even treats) and just overall looked miserable despite the antibiotics, pain meds, appetite boosters and relaxing meds. Her groin area also had a very large and firm red bump that just kept increasing in size. When I talked to the vet Sunday night they asked that I bring her in on Monday morning. I worked that day so I told them we would see how it went overnight and maybe I could bring her Tues. As the night went on she got sicker and sicker and started to run a fever. By morning I had called in to work for a sick child (dogs count right) and we were on our way to Omaha to the vet. She ended up having a very large abscess from the surgical site. They thought it was due to the fact that it was such an extreme injury and they had to wait so long to do the amputation to make sure that she was stable. The drained it in 2 areas and sent us home with another antibiotic to give her. While the site looked worse overall the swelling and pressure had been relived by draining it and she looked like she felt better overall. We even stopped for a pup cup for her very bad day.

They opened it up in 2 spots to drain the abscess.

Poor doggie with little pink undies on to keep her from oozing in the car.

Back at home for TLC and sleep.

Finally feeling a little better and able to walk outside by herself.

 

Scouts Recovery

Scout was never lacking on people to wait on her hand and foot. Emmy would feed her the dog food out of her hand because she wasn't very interested in eating. She also read to her and brought her water bowl to her. Bryce spent a lot of his down time watching shows on his phone while laying on the dog bed.

She still loves being outside even if she can't run around so we carry her out to sit on the couch a couple times a day. Her surgical site is starting to look really red though which is concerning. The vet hospital has been great and has called daily to check up on her. For now they said to ice it and and see if that helps.

 

Scouts Recovery

Scout got to come home! We were so happy to have her home again! Lucy was thrilled to see her but now the challenge begins of getting her to keep her cone on for 3-4 weeks while her amputation site heals. She doesn't fit in her kennel with the cone on and runs into everything trying to hobble around with it on. She really is a pitiful site at times. She is playing with toys again and glad to see everyone though. 

 

Surgery was Successful

 This is the picture that I got from Scout's nurse after surgery. She looks great and surgery went just fine. If she does okay overnight she will get to come home tomorrow.

Day 2 of Scout being in the ICU

This vet clinic is more like a people hospital than a vet clinic! There was visiting hours when I could come see her so I made the trip to Omaha to check on our little pup. She was very drugged and sore but she still crawled up on my lap and fell asleep and gave me plenty of licks. It broke my heart to see her like this but they are taking great care of her. They plan on going forward with the amputation later in the day.

Lucy found a bag of bloody towels from when we had wrapped her up to take her to the vet. Lucy laid on the bag of bloody towels looking sad all day. I'm pretty sure she thinks that her best friend died. Right after Scout had gotten hit, she hid and Robb and Bryce weren't able to find her. Lucy was the one that found Scout in the prairie so she knew she was hurt.

 

Scary Day for Scout

Bryce had stayed home with a headache and Robb had decided to work from home, but I didn't know that either of these things had occurred because I had left for work at 5:30. I was sitting in my car eating lunch when I got a call from our neighbor Heather. I thought it was really odd that she was calling so I answered it. She was pretty shaken and told me that she thought our little dog had just got hit by a car. At this time, I didn't know that people were at the house, I thought everyone was at work or school, so I was scared that the dogs had gotten out of the house on their own. I ran back into work and told them that I had an emergency and I had to leave. I headed home as fast as I could. Bryce then called me in tears saying that Scout had gotten hit and they couldn't find her. I was heartbroken. I thought for sure she was dead. By the time I got close to home Robb had called and told me to meet them at the Hickman vet clinic. When I got there Bryce was there sobbing, covered in blood and not wearing any shoes. The vet brought me back and told us that they couldn't save her back leg that it would need to be amputated. Scout looked dazed and sad! She was still conscious and was excited to see me. Poor little pup! Her left back leg had been completely de-gloved and you could see all the bone and tendons. The next piece of bad news that we got was that the Hickman vet was not able to do the surgery because she was too unstable. They started to ask us if we were willing to take her to K State or Omaha. We told them yes and they started making calls. As it turns out, dog ICU beds are in high demand just like people ICU beds. Nowhere in Lincoln could take her and K State was full. I was starting to get nervous because I could tell that they were getting nervous. They finally found a place in Omaha that was willing to take her. The vet gave her sedation and pain meds and we headed to Omaha.

On the way to Omaha, I was worried she wasn't going to make it. We didn't really know the extent of her injuries and she was breathing fast and her gums were really pale, all signs of doggie shock. 

I was very relieved when we pulled up to the animal hospital in Omaha. They were great! Not like an ordinary vet clinic it was much more like a hospital. They brought a cart out to get her and took her right into the ER portion of the hospital. They evaluated her and brought us into a consult room to give us a cost estimate. Bryce and I were crying, and Robb was trying to hold it together and be realistic. When they discussed the cost estimate with us, none of us were ready for how expensive this was going to be! Robb looked at me and said I got to decided what to do. I knew that just realistically Robb would of just had her put down and that wouldn't have been unreasonable with the cost estimate that they gave us. Robb also knew that Bryce and I couldn't do that so we decided to go ahead with getting full body x-rays to see the extent of her injuries and sedating her to do that as well as cleaning up the wound and medicating her and stabilizing her. We decided to see what the other x-rays showed before we decided anymore. If she had broken her pelvis then we would need to go forward with putting her down. 

We had to go home sad and so nervous to hear what they found. They didn't feel like she was stable enough to sedate until late that night and they called to tell us that the leg was the only bone broken and they didn't see any extensive internal damage. At this point we made the decision to go forward to amputate the back leg to save her life.

 

Homecoming

Norris doesn't do a Homecoming Dance which is a little odd but they did spirit week at school where they dressed up and did fun things all week. The boys went to the Homecoming game and their friend Thomas and Bree were crowned king and queen of their class. It's hard to believe that these boys are in high school already!

 

Middle School Volleyball

Abby played Middle school volleyball this year. She made the B team which was very exciting because this meant that she got to go to the travel games. Her class has an abnormally high number of volleyball players so the competition was pretty steep for the A and B team spots. They practiced at 6:30-8 every morning of the week from the time that school started until the first week in October. Abby is not a morning person so the 6:30 practice time was a little rough for her, but she rarely complained and really enjoyed playing. She had a great time, and her team did well overall in the season. You could really see them improve as the season went on. They had most of their games on weeknights at 4:00 or 4:30. Luckily Robb and I were able to juggle our schedules a little and got to attend almost all of the games. The ones we didn't get to go to Grandpa Bob or Grandma Susie drove a couple hours to watch.