Guiness from day 1

Well there is no better place to start than at the beggining, so here we go.

Guiness is my 8yr old lab cross Staffordshire bull terrier, he defines the word fur baby very very well, as i am sure that he has no idea that he is a dog, were I go Guiness goes and vice versa.

Up until 31/2 months ago he had lead a very happy and unieventful(illness wise) life, when one day out on a walk that all changed. You see guiness has a pet hate, and that is other dogs, he loves his brother Cooper very much and wouldnt harm a hair on his head, but put Guiness on a lead and he would like to attack any other dog that he can lay his eyes on. I have taken him to several dog training groups and nothing but nothing will get him out of the habit. So we walk him with a full harness and a halti collar so that we have full control over him in any situations that may arise.  

We were out on our usual route on a Saturday afternoon 3 1/2 months ago when  saw two other dogs who were quite excited by the fact that Guiness was making his usual fuss, but i took a firm hold of his leads and walked him forwards in the brisk manor normally used to take his focus off the 2 lovely Red Setters across the road, when i felt his leads go limp…. in the split second it took me to turn round to see what had happened he had ran straight into the path of an oncoming car. My whole life flashed before my eyes completely powerless to do anything to stop what i could see unfolding in front of my eyes, the car ran straight over his hind. I closed my eyes and screamed at the top of my voice knowing deep down inside that when the car stopped my baby would be lay dead or dying right there in front of me in the road…… needless to say it was the single worst moment of my life.

Before the car could stop moving Guiness shot out from the underneath of the car and came and lay on my feet immediately, i literally couldn’t believe what i was seeing not only was he not dead but he had got up and moved. i lay straight on the floor with him, in complete shock that he hadn’t yelped he wasn’t crying and more to the point his tail was still wagging at the dogs sat across the road.

My first thoughts were to check him over i could see he was bleeding from several places on his body but nothing looked major they all looked like tiny flesh wounds, then i reached his hind and he snatched his leg right out of my hand, i knew then his leg was hurt and in a pretty bad way. I rang my hubby in the hysterical state i was in and he turned up in a matter of minutes with the car, we scooped him onto the back seat and rang the vets to tell them we were on our way.

By the time we reached the vets his hock on his right hind leg had swollen up to the size of a grapefruit, the vets examined him all the time the “ever wagging tail” as we call it continued to wag, the best course of action was obviously an x ray, but considering the trauma he had just been through they didn’t want to give him and anesthetic because of putting stress on his already very stressed out heart, so a massive dose of painkillers and a full examination later he was aloud home for the evening, to go back the next morning for an x ray.

He had a pretty stable night, and we took him to the vets at 8am on the Sunday morning he had his x rays and i would of bet every last penny on the fact that his leg would be smashed to pieces, oh no not Guiness not a broken bone in sight, he had however torn all the ligaments that held his hock in place which meant the joint wasn’t stable and was collapsing on him every time he put any pressure on it. After a lengthy discussion with the vet i was decided that heavy strapping would be put on his leg for a week and re-x rayed to see if the ligaments had started to mend.

One week on he still wouldnt put any pressure on the leg, sp the vet decided that pinning his joint would be the best option to help it stabalise and new tissue to form, he had pins put into his leg 1 week after the accident 7 in total with an extrnal fixator. The first few days after the pins were put in Guiness was in terrible pain, no matter what pain killers he had no matter what position he got into he was in agony 24/7 then after 3 days that all changed, it was as if he woke up with the attitude that day that this is not going to beat me. He put pressure on the leg he walked all be it gingerly on it and i thought my prayers had been answered. This was not to be the case.

On day 7 of the pins being in he started to pull the leg back up again and wouldn’t even try to put pressure on it, he seemed however to be paying the bandaged site an awful lot of attention, i rang the vets who advised to “see how he goes” . We did “see how it went” and on day 9 things had gone from bad to worse not only had he not left the wound site alone there was now an awful smell coming from it, I rang our out of hours vet who told us to bring him in straight away and nothing could of prepared me for the mess that lay under those bandages. His skin had turned to mush and was weeping a funny slimy fluid, the smell i couldn’t even describe to you if i tried.

He was admitted straight into the ward and put on IV antibiotics he was there a total of 4 days and then discharged on a huge dose of antibiotics and painkiller, with a special type of dressing that draws infection out of the wound. He attended the vets every day for his dressing changed and for the wound to be checked, after 2 weeks of this nothing seemed to be helping him at all, all the time my poor fur baby was in complete agony with nothing i could do to help. He was admitted back into the vets for the wound to be cleaned under general anesthetic and again spent 4 days in the vets with IV antibiotics. This went on like this for a total of 8 weeks when eventually the decision was made to remove the pins, there was no way his body could fight the infection any longer with these foreign body’s in his little leg.

The pins were removed and heavy strapping again was applied to his leg, and boy did we know he was on the mend he was slowly returning to his normal mischevious self, eating my mail, barking at flys and generally being a monkey, and this takes us to about Wednesday of this week.

I returned home to work to the usual loud mouth Cooper greeting me at the door, as i opened the door Guiness came running across the living room floor (wooden) and to my sheer horror slipped…. He screamed at the top of his little voice and gingerly got up pulled his leg right up and hopped towards me still yelping. My heart sank i couldn’t bare the thought of my baby having to go through any of this again.

My initial reaction was to rub it better give him lots of love hand some of his painkillers which i did, in the thinking he had sprained it, giving the tablets time to kick in i lay with him on his blanket and loved him till he stopped whimpering, i then took my chance to have a look at his leg, Balloon is the only way to describe what had developed on his hock. with my heart heavy in my chest i rang my yet again out of hours vet.

We took him straight down to the vets who examined him the “ever wagging tail” was no longer wagging and if i hadnt of held on tight to his head i think the vet would of been minus a hand. I knew then the prognosis wasnt a good one.

They let him home from the vets again on a massive dose of painkillers and anti inflammatory drug to be taken back the next morning to be x rayed, we dropped him off at 8am with the same heavy feelings in our heart that we thought were long gone. At 2pm the vets rang with some very sad news, the infection that Guiness had got with the pins had meant that the bone had not healed as it should, therefore there were still holes in his bones were the pins had been, and the slip had caused his bone to snap, much like snapping a polo in half as the vet described.

I was now left with the impossible task of deciding what future held for my baby, They had said that they could try re-pinning the bone in a different place, with a 30% chance of success, or we could amputate his leg.

There was no way in the world he could cope without his leg were my first thought, my poor poor baby would never adapt to life like that, then i thought back to the last 3 months of him hopping around on 3 legs how quickly he could get up the stairs, on and off chairs and my bed. The decision was made in my heart already it was just making those words come out my mouth that was going to be the hard thing.

And this brings you right up to date with my baby Guiness his leg was amputated on the 15/09/2010, he came home yesterday  17/09/2010 and is currently doing very very well, yes he bruised yes he’s sore but he is still my handsome beautiful Fur baby. I am sure we will have our ups and downs and adjusting for him will be hard but so far he is making excellent progress.

We live in the uk a little town called Kirkby in Ashfield.

Your very right my poor baby has been through so much, and dealt with it in such a brave and gentle manor, something i think any human would struggle with, but oh no not my Guiness.

He has tonight shown what a sneaky little monkey he is and been and eaten all of the cat food, something he wouldnt of dragged his poorly leg up to to, naughty but definatley progress in my book he he.

He he aside i really need to get an angle on his weight issue it is such a temptation to feed feed feed him, he looks at me with those sad eyes and i just cant say no. Well it needs to stop here i know what harm i will do my baby if i dont as soon as his stiches come out it is strict strict strict from me (i hope)