Things were going too smoothly in the past month or so: the Manning family was due for a comeuppance.
On Friday, August 30 a neighbor (Deanna) came to the front door for Charlie. I answered, cracking the door open just a bit so my pack of Bostons wouldn’t rush out and trample her. Deanna began to ask for a “key” or something, I couldn’t quite hear what she was saying, so I opened the door just a bit further.
Out slipped Bonnie into our enclosed courtyard, and started jumping on Deanna’s legs, wanting some attention.
Deanna bent over and picked up the 7 lb puppy to give her some love. And then, as Bonnie squirmed, Deanna lost control of her and the little dog fell headlong toward the walkway pavers. I dived to catch her head and Deanna grabbed what she could…which was Bonnie’s right ankle.
It all happened in a microsecond, we had saved the puppy from breaking her neck. But she immediately started to shriek and wail…obviously in horrible pain. And couldn’t put weight on her right leg.
It was, of course, Friday afternoon. All veterinary emergencies in Mesquite always happen on a Friday because there is one vet clinic, it’s not an emergency hospital, and is not open on the weekend. So, we would have to run up to St. George, Utah (1 hour) to the nearest emergency veterinary hospital…which wasn’t open for another three hours.
Meanwhile, poor BonBon was in excruciating pain.
Once we got to St. George, and xrays were taken, the vet explained that our puppy had a spiral fracture of the right femur. That was bad news, but not all of it: this “emergency” hospital didn’t do surgeries to fix things like this, and all of the other veterinary clinics in St. George were closed for the weekend.
We were pissed.
Through a referral from our neighbor friend Sandy, we were able to reach a Las Vegas vet who then connected us with a specialty vet in Las Vegas who did orthopedic surgeries of the complexity required for Bonnie’s injury. That was the good news: the bad news was that we had to wait until Monday to see the sawbones.
The St. George vet put Bonnie in a splint which she had to live with for several days until I could take her 100 miles for her orthopedic surgery, which is happening this morning as I am typing this blog entry.
Fingers are crossed that everything goes smoothly.
The other canine members of our pack were devastated by Bonnie’s injury. In particular, 3 year-old Baby, who is Bonnie’s surrogate mother, best friend, and playmate was beside herself with grief. She began to shake, started peeing in the house (which she NEVER does), and was inconsolable. Booger withdrew into herself and got extremely morose. They were wrecks.
When we returned from St. George with Bonnie in the splint, the two dogs kept their distance, spooked by everything and the weird wrapped appendage hanging off their pack mate. If they got close to sniff, and accidentally touched her, she would shriek with alarm and pain, and sent them back into their shock-induced funk. It sucked.
Anyway, all of us made it through the weekend, during which Bonnie made peace with her splint and figured out how to lay in such a position to avoid pain, and the other dogs figured out that things were probably going to be okay. Charlie and I had to sleep in separate beds, taking turns to nursemaid the injured dog. But we got through it.
The surgeon in Las Vegas, Dr. Mason, had his consult with me in the parking lot, due to Covid-19 protocols. He had reviewed the xrays and had mocked up a version which showed the metal brace and screws that he would use to surgically mend the broken femur. It would take about ten days for the wound to heal, and about 30 days for Bonnie to regain full mobility. He said, “Your job, taking care of her so she doesn’t contaminate the wound or get too active and mess up the mended bone, is as important as mine”.
Yeah, it will be some work back at home, for sure.
By the way, the cost of BonBon’s Boo Boo is going to run us over $4,000.
Yipes!
UPDATE: Just got word from Doc Mason that the surgery went fine and that we can pick up our puppy in Vegas tomorrow mid-day. Hooray!!!!!