Well, the last twelve hours have been exciting...and by "exciting" I mean "nervewracking and heartbreaking."
Rhett broke his leg this morning when I let him and Phantom out for their first morning potty break. My mom was staying overnight here, with her dog Zoe. Last night, Zoe played quite a bit with both borzois before bedtime, and all three dogs charged around the yard, running and chasing.
This morning, mom wasn't up yet and Zoe was still in her bedroom, but the instant I opened the door to the back yard, both borzois charged out in full-on "playtime" mode. Both charged out the door, across the porch and-- as usual-- leaped from the top step of the deck down to the yard, completely ignoring the 5 stairs in between.
Borzois are notorious for being crybabies... and Rhett is one of the biggest crybabies of them all. In fact, he earned the nickname "sissy mamma's boy dog" because of his general sensitivity. Many times he's taken a wrong step and tweaked something, then sat down and cried till I came and looked at it. Yelps, whines, and various distress noises-- yep, Rhett's just expressing himself.
But this time? I saw him land, and instead of a yelp, it was a
shriek. I've never heard a noise like that come out of a dog before, and when I saw his front leg dangling uselessly at the wrist, I KNEW with that sickening certainty that twists knots in your stomach that something was terribly wrong.
Rhett just cried and cried, shaking and screaming. I had to grab Phantom and drag him inside, yelling for mom as loud as I could. Phantom's a little over a year old and he's a good puppy, but he's way too enthusiastic and not at all empathetic. He did NOT understand why Rhett didn't want to play, and his friendly jostling wasn't helping. I hated leaving Rhett out there, but it had to be done.
It's hard to describe the feeling of utter helplessness you feel, when someone you love is hurting. Rhett shaking and crying with an obvious serious injury just rattled me right to the core.
The big stroke of luck? My mom was here! She's a infrequent overnight visitor as she's been back and forth between here and Omaha taking care of the Grandparents. She's a retired nurse, but more importantly, she was able to get the vet called, get our stuff ready, and pull the car around so we could get Rhett transported. As for getting a badly injured borzoi into a car? I have no idea how I managed it, but somehow I did. I cradled him in my arms the whole way there.
When we got him to the vet, the news was NOT good. Rhett had pretty much shattered both bones right above the "wrist" on his right leg. See the break, on the upper left part of the photo?
Below is another view of the injury, from the front.
This is pretty awful.
Once we had the Xrays in hand, the vet,
Companion Care on South 48th Street, here in Lincoln, Dr. Doug Oxley, DVM called an orthopedic surgery specialist in Omaha, to try to get Rhett scheduled for emergency surgery.
Dr. Oxley stabilized the fracture with a splint bandage and gave Rhett something for the pain so he'd sleep for the whole trip. It worked well... he snoozed in the back of mom's car, all stretched out with his hurt leg propped up on a handy box.
We arrived at
Midwest Veterinary Specialty Hospital in Omaha at about 1pm, on 97th and Mockingbird. They're right next to the Animal Emergency Clinic I've always used, so it was easy to find.
Good news: Surgery, complete with two plates to knit the bones together, went well. He should be able to come home tomorrow morning. It was tricky because of the location of the break, but the plates went in nicely and have stabilized the fracture so far.
Bad news: The cost. This initial surgery is going to be between $2500 and $3000. I've raised about half of it so far, between my savings and relatives kicking in. I hate even saying this, but honestly I could use the help. Any donations of any size will be gratefully appreciated.
Follow up appointment at 9am tomorrow. He should be able to come home... and then the healing can begin...
