Sunday Emergency Room.

Karma was running around on his own, and eventually as he came into my view, I noticed his tail was under his legs, and not wagging. I immediately went to him to see what was going on. He looked so vulnerable, and scared, and as soon as I touched his tail to try and raise it, he’d yelp out loud as it really hurt him.
That was about 3 years ago.

Yesterday I went on an early morning Trail run with Nedra and Karma. We ran about 6 miles. About ½ mile into the run, Karma, as he usually does was running around a little off the trail, chasing smells, and ‘watering’ the cedars. He then suddenly bounced onto the trail and was yelping in pain, his tail between his legs and trying to sniff his backside/hip/tail area. I immediately checked him out, and again, he had that fear in his eye. Something was not OK. I tried to lift his tail, but he didn’t like that idea at all. I tried touching his hip etc wondering what it could be. As I stopped holding him, he continued to run little spurts but his tail was way down, unlike his useful tall tail-a-waggin’ demeanor.

My "Holiday Inn Express" deduction was that he probably sprained his tail again, as he did 3 years ago, and he clearly showed he wanted to keep running, so I decided to continue running. Back in ’04 the vet said there was nothing much he could do but let it recover. They X-Rayed it and it wasn’t broken, so there was no threat that he’d never wag his tail again. Eventually, another 5 minutes or so later, his tail slowly came back up, and within a few more minutes, it was wagging again.

We continued our run, which by the way, showed me again that I’ve lost plenty of stamina, and hill climbing abilities. Karma ran along just fine, flying up hills, sprinting back and forth as he always does. A happy happy dog.

Upon our return he was dead tired, and took a big nap. About 3 hours later, he got up as I went to prep lunch, and he was limping severely. He was barely using his left hind leg for any support, and looked miserable. I hung out with him for 10 – 15mins, touching most areas of his thigh, hip, leg, checked between his toes, moved his tail, but there was no discomfort on his part from any of that.

He lied back down and continued his naps. I kept checking on him to make sure he was still breathing, and petting him. He wasn’t looking too good, but he would wag his tail when I’d scratch his neck or pat his belly, so he wasn’t dying I didn’t think. Couple more hours went by and he still would limp severly when he got up to follow me if I went to another room. Thoughts of snake bites and internal bleeding started haunting me, so I decided to take him to the Emergency Vet clinic to have him checked out. I lifted him into the car, which I could tell he was very gracious about.

As we sat in our solitary confinement for 20 mins waiting for the doctor, Karma eventually lied down, and that’s where I saw it. On the back part of his thigh, he had a big red spot and some dry blood. I could see one puncture wound. Uh oh… Snake bite? The vet finally showed up, and after shaving the hairs away, we found that he must have scraped his leg hard when jumping and got a puncture wound as well. Some Neosporin on the wound, antibiotics and anti-inflammatory pills is what he got. I got a $128 bill to pay.

All in all, nothing too major, and as the evening came he was walking better. This morning he was Gung Ho about getting to go outside, and when we returned from our poop walk he was his usual self, jumping around and acting like “bronco bill” - the toughest rodeo bull in town - as we went over to his cookie jar for his breakfast milk bone he always gets after our morning poop walk.


Snake bite lesson: I asked the vet about snakebites… He said the best ones are the ones they get to the face, as there’s mostly just fur, skin and bone, so not much venom usually penetrates. When it’s elsewhere, usually that area swells up super fast, but he said that out of the last 12 dogs that have been in for sake bites in the last 30 days, they’ve only lost 1, and he had gotten bitten twice. He said it’s expensive, but they are usually quite successful in treating it.
He also said, I’d pretty much know if it’s ever a snake bite, because the bite and venom is extremely painful for the dog.
He said they had 2 dogs being treated in the north facility this weekend from snake bites. (hmmm….)