I Don't Get It...I Ate Blackeyed Peas!!!! Where's My Good Luck??

So....I am 15 days into 2013 and let's just say that it has gotten off to a rocky start!!

Everything seemed okay at first, but then Saturday the 5th rolled around.  I picked up a shift at the Hunter because another bartender needed off and Lucas and I didn't have anything going on.  The wedding was small and the shift was slow (not the biggest drinkers on the planet) but overall it was fine.  I was home by about 11:45.  That's when the night changed drastically.

Lucas had texted me earlier that evening (around 9pm) that when he let all the dogs in, our dog Massai was a no-show.  He said he called for him but he didn't see him or hear him anywhere.  I told him to wait a few minutes and try again, so he did.  He even took the baby outside with him to look in the shed.  Nothing.

At this point Lucas needed to feed the baby and put him to bed.  And OF COURSE this particular night, Delano didn't want to fall asleep.  So it was quite a while (after 11pm) before Lucas was able to put the baby down for the night and go look for Massai.  Did I mention it was also raining?

Around 11:20ish, I get a text from Lucas that says he found Massai and that he had a cut on his leg but that's all he saw, so I sighed a big sigh of relief.  I said I would check on him when I got home before I came to bed.

The second I walked into the dog room, flipped on the light and saw Massai's face, I knew something was TERRIBLY wrong.  His front left leg was out at an awkward angle, the back of his neck was abnormally matted down, he was shaking and he just plain looked terrified.  When I went to lift his arm to investigate, he yelped and I saw what appeared to be a hole in his armpit.  That's also when I noticed the circle of blood on the blanket.

I went upstairs to tell Lucas I was going to the emergency vet and then emptied out the back of my car for Massai.  Then I had to figure out how the hell I was going to get him in the car without hurting him.  I took a sock out of the hamper and tied it around his mouth and nose to muzzle him just in case I accidentally hurt him and he snapped at me.  Then I had a talk with him asking him how we should go about this.  I asked him if he could sit up (he could) and I asked him if he could stand up (he could, but he was wobbly and didn't want to walk).  I ended up moving his back legs for him while he hopped on his good front leg, then I had no choice but to lift him into the car, trying to stay more around his back end for his sake.  Then we were off.  I called the vet on the way to let them know we were coming and that I might need a gurney to help get him out of the car. 

Fast-forward to my conversation with the vet, who verified that Massai had been attacked (and not just injured out in the woods).  I knew he had a major gash in his armpit....what I didn't know was that there were through-and-through punctures in his arm as well as punctures and teeth scratches all over his neck.  The vet took me back to see him while he was sedated and they were shaving him in preparation for surgery....he was covered in bite marks.  I left him there for the night and they told me they would call me first thing in the morning with an update.  It was 2:30am.

I brought Massai home Monday morning but couldn't get him to take any of his meds Monday afternoon.  I tried for four hours, and I'm no newbie to forcing animals to swallow pills.  He just wasn't having it.  And he wouldn't eat a bite, so I couldn't slip his meds into a treat.  So back to the vet he went.  They kept him until around noon on Thursday, which is when he started to eat. 

The night before I brought him home.  I went to visit and see if he would eat anything from me.

Poor guy was pretty sedated and out of it!

He wasn't a fan of the giant cone AT ALL......

He wouldn't even walk...he just kept backing up.

So I made him a T-shirt to cover his wounds.

Stylin' and profilin'

On Friday, his injured arm was SO SWOLLEN and his wounds were leaking fluid so we ended up back at the vet to see if there's was anything that needed to be done. 

Poor swollen, leaky leg!

They took a look at it, did massage therapy on it to squeeze out some of the fluid, re-wrapped it, gave me instructions on how to care for it and sent us home.  The long-sleeved T-shirt I made him had gotten wet and nasty and stretched out during the trip, so I hooked him up with a short-sleeved shirt that he wouldn't step on.

He looks better in black, anyway.

Saturday morning, I wake up to a dog who has managed to strip off his shirt (I should have put the other shirt back on him!!), yank off his bandages and pull out the stitches from one of his leg holes!  He was the happiest dog EVER Saturday morning.....with a GIANT open wound on his leg.  So back to the vet we went AGAIN.  This time, they gave him a more fitted cone with softer edges and orders that it stay on permanently for the next ten days.

He thinks I brought that out for him.

Overall, he's doing really well.  His wounds are healing and his hair is growing back.  He's just totally bummed out about the cone and that he can't go outside unless I take him out on a leash.  He's definitely not used to having an audience attached to him while he poops.  But since he ripped out some of his sutures, he can only have part of his stitches and staples removed tomorrow and not all of them!

This whole fiasco has cost and arm and a leg....around $2,000....but that's not the most disturbing and heartbreaking part about it.  What's totally heartbreaking is that it was most likely one of my other dogs that attacked Massai.  At first this thought didn't even cross my mind.  My dogs have been together for YEARS and have never fought.  And none of my dogs are prone to fight, either.  I can take any of them out and about to a public event and they all get along with other dogs, kids and people.  Sure, they each have their little quirks, but I never in a million years thought that any of them would attack another one.  But the vets and technicians said they see it pretty frequently.

Do I know which one did it?  Not a clue.  I checked all the dogs the next day after I visited with the vet and saw NO evidence of fighting.  Massai's the type of dog to throw up the white flag when overpowered, so I wasn't looking for bite wounds - I was looking for blood stains.  Nothing.  I haven't had any meet-and-greets between each dog and Massai yet to see if I sense any hostility.  But the bottom line is, even if everybody acts perfectly normal, I can't put Massai back out in that yard in case it ever happened again.  He may not live through it a second time.  So of course this situation had me all stressed out and I couldn't sleep at night worrying about the fate of my dogs.

However, a possible solution has presented itself.  After Massai is completely better (no more stitches, staples or cones), he will be headed to my parents' house to live.  I've been taking him over there periodically to get used to being there as well as around their cats (we have cats, but theirs are "new" cats that don't currently have to deal with a dog).  I am SO grateful to my parents (aka my mom) for offering to take him in, and hopefully it will all work out smoothly.  If it doesn't, I'll worry about it then!