My Dog Has a Hole in Her Side? WTF?

Last night, I had vowed to start posting some pieces I had been working on that actually A.) contained a story and B.) were not about my pets. I thought this was going well as I typed away, P. Diddlez by my side. She had been busy playing the day away at my parents' house, so she was quite content to curl up in her puppy ball and sleep. Very normal. She began to do some intense licking though. Again, no big deal, this happens from time to time, but with a snap of the fingers, she will chill. This worked for awhile, but then, more licking, same spot. I looked down at the little roll of puppy flesh behind the shoulder blade that seemed to be the problem. Nope. No blood or irritation, just puppy rolls. When once again licking ensued, I decided I should pull back the skin thinking perhaps a bug bite? A scratch? As I began to separate the skin, I was horrified to see that I was dismantling my dog! At first, it looked like a leach as I could see swelling and slick....stuff? Then I realized that, oh no, the Diddlez had a tear in her side. Not a small one either. She had a hole in her!

So, panic sets in: What happened!? How did I not notice this?! Why is there no blood or whining?! Shock!? Yeah, I freaked. She, on the other hand was just like, "Yeah, hole in my side. Whatever. Can I lick it and chill please?"

Now, mind you, Diddlez has a rather high pain tolerance. This is the same dog that I found as she was thrown out of a car, with every parasite known to man and beast, at five weeks old in front of a PetSmart. She stood in the dog catcher's truck wagging her tail and licking my fingers, just happy as can be. She had been called in to the pound immediately and it is illegal to intercept once they are documented FYI. I figured I would just go spring her from doggy jail, until I found out they can neither release an animal under 8 weeks old and/or with infectious parasites. "No kill" shelters can't even get to 'em. It became a bit of a battle that my vet had to be a character reference and give a full plan of treatment in writing. *I love my vet* I couldn't give up though. She had heart. She was a hard knock lifer and kindred spirit. She also smelled like raw sewage.(The also is intended to reflect her state. I do not have the sewage thing in common, to the best of my knowledge.) The first few days(sorry former patrons) she stayed in my car at work, AC on, so she could have meds/feedings every two hours. All her meds were in a bar cooler and each employee took breaks to go nurse her, followed by intense hand scrubbing as she was highly contagious. (Sorry health inspector. And to think people only worry about a roach or cross contamination!) It was a labor of love.

She is also notorious for a shock collar incident. We went on a cross country adventure a few years back and headed back to home sweet home to see Jesi. Jesi's landlord had this amazing garden with the invisible fence to keep the dogs out. The dogs had to wear a shock collar and the other dogs lived in fear. Sitting outside next to it one night, Diddlez comes to join us and sit down. Every couple seconds her face would contort from the electric current surging through the collar. She was above being shocked and just took it. In dog world, that's one hard ass bitch. She later taught the other dogs that if you just ran fast, you could drink from the serenity pool in the garden unfazed. It was a moment of pain. My Diddlez. Always with a plan.

Back to the matter at hand though, did this mean it was bad and she was just bein a soldier? I continued the path to panic, and called Syd. She would know what to do. She is my AKC dog whisperer. In cleaning it, we were not past the fatty tissue. No muscle. (sigh of relief) See, for po pet owners, the animal ER is scary. It is quality vet care at triple the price. Not that each one of these pets isn't worth it, but if it can be handled until morning, it is easier. I love my zoo, but as you can guess from Diddlez entrance into my life and the same for the others, I have about $10,000 worth of pet at this point. So, I now know that if she is calm, I have to be. Syd reinforced this and I thus spent the rest of the night keeping the licking to a minimum and comforting....well,....me mostly. Diddlez was still unfazed.

As the vet opened early today, we were there. It was odd. As I got her leash, which is normally a group signal for fun, Ike just layed there and Diddlez sighed, and then quietly walked over. It was as though she knew, "Here we go. Great."

I felt a little guilt relief as the vet techs came over to see their buddy (oh yeah, we know the vet quite well. Go figure) and said, "where is it?" Totally hidden until she wiggled to the side then BAM! Hole in the dog! It is frustrating to have no answer as to how or when it happened. I know it was at some point during her outside day, but neither her nor Ike were talking. It is a great mystery. No blood in the yard either. Just a hole in the dog.

At first, it looked like it would need to be handled surgically. As I had cleaned it the night before, it was a very clean cut though, so the doctor checked it out and agreed. Surgery wasn't the bad part, but I hate the idea of her being alone for the weekend in a cage. Very anti-Diddlez. She is part badger I think. The doc said I could go on about my day as it would take awhile, but I said I would stay for her comfort. He just laughed. Ok, for my comfort.

And, though it took three techs to hold her for anethesia, she was indeed a soldier. As the doc sewed the final stitch, he brought up that Diddlez would not work in a cone collar and would merely scratch what she couldn't chew. He recommended an amazing trick and sent me to the store for baby T-shirts. When bandages are a bad idea, use a snug T-shirt. Now, I am one of those people who highly believes that dressing up the family dog is ridiculous, although she will need a sweater once I move to the land of winter again, but Diddlez does look awfully cute in her sporty little red Tee. It is, however, rather hard to convert children's sizes to dog. Very hard.

We are resting comfortably now, and I have yet another pet post. Go figure. Now that Humpty is put back together again, we will try this again tomorrow.