So here is the bad news. When Meric and I left to spend a week with his family we left the dogs at my parents house. They have stayed there before and my mom and everyone are familiar with them and their unique personalities.
The day we were going to head back to Spokane I got a frantic call from my mom. Apparently that morning Emmy had had enough of us being gone and took it out on Lucy. She started a fight with Lucy and with Jasper in the way, Lucy had been hurt. Lucy has a lot of loose skin and Emmy had torn a good sized hole in her armpit. They took Lucy to the vet and it was decided that with antibiotics and a daily cleaning the wound would eventually heal on its own. Also since she is getting older and the location of the wound she would need to be knocked out for the surgery.
That night Meric and I got back to my mom's house and took a look at the wound ourselves. It was a lot worse than I thought it would be, larger and deeper. I was worried about how long it would actually take to heal and it getting infected because it was so deep. Also we had to start travelling back to Kentucky in a week. We decided to take her back to the vet and have them stitch it up.
Lucy handled the surgery well. She had several sutures in her armpit and a couple of tubes for drainage purposes. To help protect the sutures and absorb the draining, Lucy wore a T-shirt for the next week. (It was a good thing my mom hadn't take her pile of clothes to Goodwill yet.)
The night before we left Meric and I removed her drainage tubes. We then started the trip to Arizona. Since she couldn't jump we let Lucy ride in the cab of the truck. At our first stop we let the other dogs in the cab too since the temperature outside was getting down to 8 degrees.
She handled the trip well and by the time we reached Arizona I was a lot more relaxed about letting her jump and play. We even took the dogs to the dog park and let Lucy really run for the first time since the incident. She got some funny looks for wearing a Tshirt but she had fun and did well. (To my surprise so did Emmy, who usually picks fights at dog parks.) Lucy also loved my 3 nieces and they loved her. Alyce, the oldest, called Lucy her "friend that wears a shirt".
For the drive home Lucy rode in the back of the truck with out any problems. Jumping in and out at that point was no problem. As soon as we got home Meric and I removed her sutures. Also she no longer has to wear a shirt.
Lucy has actually healed a lot better than I was expecting. She will have a scar but once her hair grows back you will not be able to tell. We really do love Emmy but there are times we wished we hadn't picked her up off the street. Also Emmy and Lucy love each other and made up after we got Lucy home from the vet. We love visiting family but next time I think we will go in the summer and bring our house. It would be a lot easier on the dogs and nice for Meric and I too.
The day we were going to head back to Spokane I got a frantic call from my mom. Apparently that morning Emmy had had enough of us being gone and took it out on Lucy. She started a fight with Lucy and with Jasper in the way, Lucy had been hurt. Lucy has a lot of loose skin and Emmy had torn a good sized hole in her armpit. They took Lucy to the vet and it was decided that with antibiotics and a daily cleaning the wound would eventually heal on its own. Also since she is getting older and the location of the wound she would need to be knocked out for the surgery.
That night Meric and I got back to my mom's house and took a look at the wound ourselves. It was a lot worse than I thought it would be, larger and deeper. I was worried about how long it would actually take to heal and it getting infected because it was so deep. Also we had to start travelling back to Kentucky in a week. We decided to take her back to the vet and have them stitch it up.
Lucy handled the surgery well. She had several sutures in her armpit and a couple of tubes for drainage purposes. To help protect the sutures and absorb the draining, Lucy wore a T-shirt for the next week. (It was a good thing my mom hadn't take her pile of clothes to Goodwill yet.)
The night before we left Meric and I removed her drainage tubes. We then started the trip to Arizona. Since she couldn't jump we let Lucy ride in the cab of the truck. At our first stop we let the other dogs in the cab too since the temperature outside was getting down to 8 degrees.
She handled the trip well and by the time we reached Arizona I was a lot more relaxed about letting her jump and play. We even took the dogs to the dog park and let Lucy really run for the first time since the incident. She got some funny looks for wearing a Tshirt but she had fun and did well. (To my surprise so did Emmy, who usually picks fights at dog parks.) Lucy also loved my 3 nieces and they loved her. Alyce, the oldest, called Lucy her "friend that wears a shirt".
For the drive home Lucy rode in the back of the truck with out any problems. Jumping in and out at that point was no problem. As soon as we got home Meric and I removed her sutures. Also she no longer has to wear a shirt.
Lucy has actually healed a lot better than I was expecting. She will have a scar but once her hair grows back you will not be able to tell. We really do love Emmy but there are times we wished we hadn't picked her up off the street. Also Emmy and Lucy love each other and made up after we got Lucy home from the vet. We love visiting family but next time I think we will go in the summer and bring our house. It would be a lot easier on the dogs and nice for Meric and I too.
