I'm still shook up from this. Last night I let our two dogs out for a romp after hubby left for the YMCA. I had done my workout on the way home and opted not to go back for a second aerobic workout, I wish I had accompanied him.
The dogs had been outside for less than 15 minutes in the 2F weather. We have 18 acres of woods and they usually play in the woods, snoop near the creek and come back to play in the front yard. I hadn't seen them since I let them out so I opened the door and called to them then went back inside to wait in the heat for them to return. Three minutes went by and no dogs on the porch so I opened the door to see where they were and I heard this awful snarling/fighting going on. I thought they had cornered some woodland creature and judging by the sound of things they were losing. Suddenly I heard a strangled gasp and finally spotted them struggling just beyond of the glow of the house lights and realized what was going on. Katie our dainty 50 pound yellow lab was dragging Lindy the 70 pound Lab/Great Dane mix we had just adopted from the Lab Rescue Group. I KNEW Katie had her jaw caught in Lindy's collar and judging by the screaming and strangled gasping they were in trouble. I sprinted out to them through the snow in my flannel pj bottoms, sweatshirt and socks. Lindy was nearly unconscious and gasping horribly, the collar was wound tightly around Katie's lower jaw and was tightened like a tourniquet on Lindy's neck. Katie keeps trying to free herself by shaking her head which hurts Lindy and brings her out of the strangulation haze to fight some more. I can't get the release (looks like this) on the collar to let go even though I finally manage to pinch the mechanism with my quickly freezing hands. The collar is just too tight and I'm watching my dog dying before my eyes. I sprint into the house and grab my EMT shears from the first aid kit and bolt back to the dogs. Katie has dragged Lindy about 6 feet in the mean time and Lindy's gasping is sounding worse and worse and she's becoming more unresponsive. Katie starts struggling to free her jaw once more and Lindy "comes to" briefly and tries to bite Katie but gets my hand instead. Katie is tugging relentlessly and I'm screaming at her to stop it because I can't get my fingers under Lindy's collar. My hands are nearly frozen now, I'm covered in snow in the 2F weather and I know if I don't get that collar off ASAP the dog is going to die. I sit on Katie to hold her still so I can try to get my fingers under Lindy's collar but it's so tight I can't find any room. Desperate, I scream, "God just get my fingers under that collar!" I finally get a teeny bit of slack and slide two fingers under then it tightens down. I can't feel my fingers and I'm trying to get my frozen right hand to direct the EMT shears between them so I can cut the collar while I try to control the still struggling Katie with my legs, thank GOD for that bull riding class I took in September. I finally get the shears under the collar and start to cut but nothing is happening. I don't know if I'm cutting the dog, my fingers or the collar. I bear down on the shears hoping I don't end up lopping the end of one of my fingers off and I feel them start to tear through cloth then they stop cutting. I scream, "Cut the f-ing collar!" at the shears as Lindy makes an awful sound and starts to relax; I was certain she wouldn't be alive by the time I cut that collar off. I aggressively grind with the shears and they keep wanting to bend rather than cut. I FINALLY feel them slice through the collar (turns out I was cutting through the double thickness near the adjustment "buckle") and Katie backs out from under me and heads for the garage. Lindy amazes me and stands up, I really didn't think she would and I call her and she wobbles to the garage with me. I leave a desperate message on hubby's cell phone then call our vet, who happens to be a friend, at home in a panic. I explain what happened and ask if we should take the dogs to the emergency vet, Katie has blood all over her head and Lindy's nose is bleeding. The vet has me check their gums, Katie's are pink and she has nasty indentations and "rug burns" where the collar had been in her mouth. Lindy's gums are almost white and she's just sitting in the bedroom staring wide-eyed into space. The vet asked if Lindy was drooling or gasping for air but Lindy seemed to be breathing normally which she said was a good sign. The vet told me she couldn't believe I was able to get the collar off, the struggling twists it down so tight and the dogs are usually fighting so hard that it's usually nearly impossible to free them before one is fatally injured. She told me to call her back in 15 minutes for a progress report and to call Bruce and let him know he didn't need to get himself killed trying to get home. The dogs continued to recover and I found a puncture wound near the inside of Katie's ear that had produced the blood which had gotten on the flap of her ear and spread all over her head when she shook her head in the fight. The follow-up calls to the vet made me feel a little better since she said the dogs didn't sound like they were badly injured. Bruce finally came home from the Y about 45 minutes after the incident, he had never even checked his messages on his phone so had no clue anything was wrong.
I think he's going to take the dogs to the vet today just to make sure everything is ok. They were starting to show an interest in playing with each other again before we went to bed.
I have a bruise the size of a lemon and a nice lump to go with it on my right arm near my wrist and my hand is swollen as well. Luckily the bite I received was more of a graze than anything else and I have a nice bruise on my knee from the snow covered gravel pile we were on when I finally finished the wrestling match by cutting the collar. This whole experience will be fresh in my memory for a long time, I shudder to think what I would have discovered if I hadn't walked back outside when I did.
Ber
The dogs had been outside for less than 15 minutes in the 2F weather. We have 18 acres of woods and they usually play in the woods, snoop near the creek and come back to play in the front yard. I hadn't seen them since I let them out so I opened the door and called to them then went back inside to wait in the heat for them to return. Three minutes went by and no dogs on the porch so I opened the door to see where they were and I heard this awful snarling/fighting going on. I thought they had cornered some woodland creature and judging by the sound of things they were losing. Suddenly I heard a strangled gasp and finally spotted them struggling just beyond of the glow of the house lights and realized what was going on. Katie our dainty 50 pound yellow lab was dragging Lindy the 70 pound Lab/Great Dane mix we had just adopted from the Lab Rescue Group. I KNEW Katie had her jaw caught in Lindy's collar and judging by the screaming and strangled gasping they were in trouble. I sprinted out to them through the snow in my flannel pj bottoms, sweatshirt and socks. Lindy was nearly unconscious and gasping horribly, the collar was wound tightly around Katie's lower jaw and was tightened like a tourniquet on Lindy's neck. Katie keeps trying to free herself by shaking her head which hurts Lindy and brings her out of the strangulation haze to fight some more. I can't get the release (looks like this) on the collar to let go even though I finally manage to pinch the mechanism with my quickly freezing hands. The collar is just too tight and I'm watching my dog dying before my eyes. I sprint into the house and grab my EMT shears from the first aid kit and bolt back to the dogs. Katie has dragged Lindy about 6 feet in the mean time and Lindy's gasping is sounding worse and worse and she's becoming more unresponsive. Katie starts struggling to free her jaw once more and Lindy "comes to" briefly and tries to bite Katie but gets my hand instead. Katie is tugging relentlessly and I'm screaming at her to stop it because I can't get my fingers under Lindy's collar. My hands are nearly frozen now, I'm covered in snow in the 2F weather and I know if I don't get that collar off ASAP the dog is going to die. I sit on Katie to hold her still so I can try to get my fingers under Lindy's collar but it's so tight I can't find any room. Desperate, I scream, "God just get my fingers under that collar!" I finally get a teeny bit of slack and slide two fingers under then it tightens down. I can't feel my fingers and I'm trying to get my frozen right hand to direct the EMT shears between them so I can cut the collar while I try to control the still struggling Katie with my legs, thank GOD for that bull riding class I took in September. I finally get the shears under the collar and start to cut but nothing is happening. I don't know if I'm cutting the dog, my fingers or the collar. I bear down on the shears hoping I don't end up lopping the end of one of my fingers off and I feel them start to tear through cloth then they stop cutting. I scream, "Cut the f-ing collar!" at the shears as Lindy makes an awful sound and starts to relax; I was certain she wouldn't be alive by the time I cut that collar off. I aggressively grind with the shears and they keep wanting to bend rather than cut. I FINALLY feel them slice through the collar (turns out I was cutting through the double thickness near the adjustment "buckle") and Katie backs out from under me and heads for the garage. Lindy amazes me and stands up, I really didn't think she would and I call her and she wobbles to the garage with me. I leave a desperate message on hubby's cell phone then call our vet, who happens to be a friend, at home in a panic. I explain what happened and ask if we should take the dogs to the emergency vet, Katie has blood all over her head and Lindy's nose is bleeding. The vet has me check their gums, Katie's are pink and she has nasty indentations and "rug burns" where the collar had been in her mouth. Lindy's gums are almost white and she's just sitting in the bedroom staring wide-eyed into space. The vet asked if Lindy was drooling or gasping for air but Lindy seemed to be breathing normally which she said was a good sign. The vet told me she couldn't believe I was able to get the collar off, the struggling twists it down so tight and the dogs are usually fighting so hard that it's usually nearly impossible to free them before one is fatally injured. She told me to call her back in 15 minutes for a progress report and to call Bruce and let him know he didn't need to get himself killed trying to get home. The dogs continued to recover and I found a puncture wound near the inside of Katie's ear that had produced the blood which had gotten on the flap of her ear and spread all over her head when she shook her head in the fight. The follow-up calls to the vet made me feel a little better since she said the dogs didn't sound like they were badly injured. Bruce finally came home from the Y about 45 minutes after the incident, he had never even checked his messages on his phone so had no clue anything was wrong.
I think he's going to take the dogs to the vet today just to make sure everything is ok. They were starting to show an interest in playing with each other again before we went to bed.
I have a bruise the size of a lemon and a nice lump to go with it on my right arm near my wrist and my hand is swollen as well. Luckily the bite I received was more of a graze than anything else and I have a nice bruise on my knee from the snow covered gravel pile we were on when I finally finished the wrestling match by cutting the collar. This whole experience will be fresh in my memory for a long time, I shudder to think what I would have discovered if I hadn't walked back outside when I did.
Ber
