When I came home from work on Friday, I noticed Jazzy was limping and holding up one of her front paws. I was immediately worried. Jazzy hates when anyone touches her feet, so I knew this was going to be an ordeal to figure out what was going on with her little paw. I was able to trick Jazzy into showing me her paw by rubbing her belly. Once she was on her back with her feet up in the air, I could get a closer look at her foot. That's when I saw that her dewclaw (apparently that is what the toenail that is on a dog's leg is called) was bleeding a little.
My first thought was to call Adam and make him come home from work early so we could rush her to the emergency vet hospital. But then my freak-out ended and I started thinking more clearly.
After I stopped rubbing her belly, she jumped right up and pranced to the front door. She was ready for her afternoon walk. I figured she had just snagged her dewclaw on something or bit it or some other random thing. If she was willing to go for a walk, I figured nothing was broken or in need of a trip to the emergency vet hospital.
So, I kept an eye on it over the weekend. She was okay on Saturday. But it seemed to really start bothering her on Sunday. She was holding her paw up more and it would bleed randomly. Adam and I decided we would take her to the vet after work on Monday. I told Adam he would have to come with us, as I am a wimp.
Adam kindly obliged and we made it to the vet yesterday evening. Jazzy figured out where we were going and started shaking rather violently. She was a trembling mess on Adam's lap in the vet's waiting room. Poor thing.
As soon as the vet looked at her paw, she said Jazzy's dewclaw would need to be snipped off. Luckily, it wouldn't need to be surgically removed. Thankfully they took her in the back to snip it off. I'm glad Adam was there to keep me from turning into a blubbering mess. I was worried Jazzy was scared back there all by herself.
Of course, she was fine. She was in good hands and well taken care of. When they brought her back out to us, she had her leg all bandaged up. It made it look a lot worse than it was. We were sent home with instructions to keep the bandage from getting wet and to encourage Jazzy to take it easy. In other words, no nightly run with Adam.
Jazzy was not thrilled with the bandage. She wouldn't even pose for a picture with it on at first!
The little stinker! Jazzy kept holding her paw out in front of her, as if to say, "What is this thing doing on my leg? Get it off!"
Luckily, she didn't mess with it or try to get it off. She eventually came to terms with it. She was treated rather well. And she even got to eat her dinner on the couch.
The vet had told us we could take the bandage off later on in the evening to make sure it wasn't still bleeding. That was a challenge. First of all, we had to touch her feet. Secondly, the tape holding the wrap on was all stuck in her fur. It took us awhile, but we eventually got it off of her. Jazzy was rather stressed out by the situation. She ran to her crate after that ordeal. I don't think she's spent any time in her crate in about 5 months, so she must have really been stressed out to go in there.
I felt so bad that Jazzy had such a traumatizing evening that I convinced Adam to let her sleep in our bed last night. I told Jazzy she had to stay on my side of the bed so her daddy could still get a good night's rest. Boy, did she listen! I spent my night sleeping on the very edge of the bed with a tiny corner of the sheet on my legs. Jazzy sure hogged my side of the bed. Oh, well. She's worth it.
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