When Chuey Became Chewy

 I briefly described our New Years's Eve incident with Chuey and the neighbor's dog. Here is more detail.

Poor little Chu-Chu. She couldn't stop shivering.  It was very cold outside, but I think she was still kinda in shock and definitely in pain. There was a tiny little spot on her hip that I thought was bothering her, so I didn't move her leg on purpose. She was just sitting on the couch, shivering. Somehow, about 6 hours after the incident, I found this hole.

The weird thing is, it did not bleed. Ever. She wasn't licking it either. So I was hoping maybe it was only a flesh wound. I texted the picture to my friend whose husband is a vet and they suggested I take her in right away, and they knew of a 24/7 clinic. It just so happened it was close to our house.

I was going in for what I thought was  stitches. The doctor took her back to take an MRI (or maybe x-ray, I can't remember at this point). He said he could see through the hole and into her stomach. They would have to do exploratory surgery to make sure her intestines were not punctured, as well. During surgery they actually took the intestines out of her body and studied them, then poked them all back in there. I kid you not, her incision wound is almost as big as my c-section wound. But I'm much bigger than her. The best-case scenario played out. Her intestines were fine; the doctor said often times they are injured even if there is not a puncture wound. We knew he wound went through her stomach at least. I think the doctor was expecting the worst. Whew! Thank you, Lord.

This is how we found her when we went to visit the next day.

This was the original booboo.

This is the surgery site.

 

 Bless her little heart. I don't even know if she knew we were there. She was pretty out of it.

When she came home she perked up a bit.

This is how she spent the first 4 days. 

She didn't want to drink either. I had to bring the bowl to her. She peed once in 36 hours.

I was beginning to worry. Magically, on the 5th day, she turned a corner. She was becoming herself again. She was walking, her tail was wagging, her ears were up, and she wanted to be with us. 

Her booboo was looking better, too.

After 12 days we got the stitches out and the cone off. A perk of being a quadruped surgeon as opposed to a biped surgeon is that you don't have to worry about keeping the scarring to a minimum.

 The incision site looks a little rough. This way when the next big dog comes along, wanting to attack her, she can just tell them to stop and check this out, and then tell them they should have seen the other guy.

 Frito Pie was so kind for those two weeks. She knew something was up, she just wasn't sure exactly what it was. But she was gentle and gave Chuey her space. This is the day the cone came off. They never sit side by side like this on the same pillow.

 And finally--snuggling up real close without the cone of shame!

Just two weeks after surgery we went out for a little jog around the cul-de-sac. Pretty amazing. I was definitely not up for a little run 15 days after my c-sections. Chuey is quite a champ!