Let me just start by saying...
...that it is impossible for my dog to injure herself in a normal way. Let's recap. We had the full thickness laceration to the cornea from a cat scratch on day nine of living here and needed every 2-4 hour treatments for two months, last month she tried to rip her dewclaw off and had cellulitis (not fat) on her foot and was limping and pathetic. This week she's had diarrhea, I think because we changed her food abruptly (which I never do because I know what it does to the GI) but we didn't really have a choice since the floors are being done and we can't get to her food in the dog room. She had an accident in her crate two nights ago and I had to throw away her baby bumper and fleece blanket. That night she woke girl up at 3 a.m. to take her out, pottied, but still had diarrhea on the floor when I woke up at 6 and girl hadn't seen it so she tracked it through the room (grr).
So yesterday we put her in her crate as usual (she used to have freedom but then she started hoarding random things like staple guns and gorilla glue and we had to put the kibosh on that) and she started eating her breakfast. I head to work and when I'm done for the night, I get a message from girl that says 'Don't dawdle getting home, Radley has her tooth stuck in her lip.' She sounded panicked. I called her back, 'Her lip is stuck between her teeth?' 'No, her canine tooth is stuck in her lip.' Having difficulty picturing this, 'Um, okay? What am I going to do about it if you can't get it out? Should you be in the car with her on your way here?' 'No, I'm gonna get the Oragel, I think with an extra set of hands we can get it.' Not seeing what was happening I got in the car and started to drive. A couple minutes later she calls, 'I'm gonna bring her in, it's really swollen.' I drive back to the hospital and alert my emergency clinicians that she's coming. Dr. W, thinking it's something trivial, is like 'Okay, I probably won't do much for it. Do you have antibiotics at home?' I told her I had some that were expired and she said that'd probably be fine.
I wait half an hour and girl pulls up. I walk to the car and raise the hatch. OMG. It looked so much worse than I imagined. First of all, she had had diarrhea in her crate and danced through it, so her feet were covered and she had bits on her belly and legs...Next her whole muzzle was swollen and she had gouges and holes in her face from pawing at it before girl got home. She also had blood all over her front feet and rust on her muzzle as well from rubbing on the bars of the old crate. Not the picture of a clean healthy dog that you'd like to bring to the vet, rather embarrassing when you work there. Sure enough it seemed that her tooth has become fused with her lip. Poor girl.
I bring her to ICU and the clinicians take a look, 'I've never seen anything like this. There is no reason it shouldn't just pop right off. I don't know how you prevent it from happening again once we do get it off...' For several minutes they try to get it off with cotton swabs, tongue depressors, hemostats, and their own hands. They rub some lidocaine jelly on it but she still really resents it being manipulated. One clinician gets some sedation and we give it a few minutes to kick in and put her on the table. She still flails around and screams as they try to flee her embedded lip. They try to inject lidocaine to numb but the initial injection stings and she doesn't allow it. We get more sedation, which helps a little. Finally after an hour, the clinician uses her fingers to pull the lip down and this time it pops right off. There was absolutely no reason it shouldn't have come off in the first couple attempts, but her hostage swollen lip was happy to be back in it's rightful place. While the clinician went to get us some antibiotics, I cleaned her poo feet. When I got to the front, I realized that she must have still had a pocket of abscess from trying to rip off her dewclaw weeks ago, because it had ruptured in two spots, thankfully she's now on antibiotics anyway. Then I cleaned the other foot. She came to us with just this little nub where her dewclaw used to be, and now it has changed orientation and has this little pustual under it. Poor girl must have been so frantic she ripped her own face open and hurt both her feet at the same time.
Guerneyed her out to the car and drove her home. By the time we got here she could walk. Pottied her and brought her upstairs where all she wanted to do was drink and then sleep in our bed, which she did all evening.
This morning she's back to herself, the kisses have returned :) My poor baby and her impaled lip.
So yesterday we put her in her crate as usual (she used to have freedom but then she started hoarding random things like staple guns and gorilla glue and we had to put the kibosh on that) and she started eating her breakfast. I head to work and when I'm done for the night, I get a message from girl that says 'Don't dawdle getting home, Radley has her tooth stuck in her lip.' She sounded panicked. I called her back, 'Her lip is stuck between her teeth?' 'No, her canine tooth is stuck in her lip.' Having difficulty picturing this, 'Um, okay? What am I going to do about it if you can't get it out? Should you be in the car with her on your way here?' 'No, I'm gonna get the Oragel, I think with an extra set of hands we can get it.' Not seeing what was happening I got in the car and started to drive. A couple minutes later she calls, 'I'm gonna bring her in, it's really swollen.' I drive back to the hospital and alert my emergency clinicians that she's coming. Dr. W, thinking it's something trivial, is like 'Okay, I probably won't do much for it. Do you have antibiotics at home?' I told her I had some that were expired and she said that'd probably be fine.
I wait half an hour and girl pulls up. I walk to the car and raise the hatch. OMG. It looked so much worse than I imagined. First of all, she had had diarrhea in her crate and danced through it, so her feet were covered and she had bits on her belly and legs...Next her whole muzzle was swollen and she had gouges and holes in her face from pawing at it before girl got home. She also had blood all over her front feet and rust on her muzzle as well from rubbing on the bars of the old crate. Not the picture of a clean healthy dog that you'd like to bring to the vet, rather embarrassing when you work there. Sure enough it seemed that her tooth has become fused with her lip. Poor girl.
I bring her to ICU and the clinicians take a look, 'I've never seen anything like this. There is no reason it shouldn't just pop right off. I don't know how you prevent it from happening again once we do get it off...' For several minutes they try to get it off with cotton swabs, tongue depressors, hemostats, and their own hands. They rub some lidocaine jelly on it but she still really resents it being manipulated. One clinician gets some sedation and we give it a few minutes to kick in and put her on the table. She still flails around and screams as they try to flee her embedded lip. They try to inject lidocaine to numb but the initial injection stings and she doesn't allow it. We get more sedation, which helps a little. Finally after an hour, the clinician uses her fingers to pull the lip down and this time it pops right off. There was absolutely no reason it shouldn't have come off in the first couple attempts, but her hostage swollen lip was happy to be back in it's rightful place. While the clinician went to get us some antibiotics, I cleaned her poo feet. When I got to the front, I realized that she must have still had a pocket of abscess from trying to rip off her dewclaw weeks ago, because it had ruptured in two spots, thankfully she's now on antibiotics anyway. Then I cleaned the other foot. She came to us with just this little nub where her dewclaw used to be, and now it has changed orientation and has this little pustual under it. Poor girl must have been so frantic she ripped her own face open and hurt both her feet at the same time.
Guerneyed her out to the car and drove her home. By the time we got here she could walk. Pottied her and brought her upstairs where all she wanted to do was drink and then sleep in our bed, which she did all evening.
This morning she's back to herself, the kisses have returned :) My poor baby and her impaled lip.