Gemma's Struggle
Last Saturday afternoon, I was working in the shop. I had brought my dogs along. There isn’t a whole lot for them to do, but they like to come with. They wander around some (Gemma more than Jekyll) and mainly lay in the shade.
As the afternoon grew later, I realized I hadn’t seen Gemma in a while. She usually pokes in every once in a while to see what I’m up to, but I was focused on my project so I figured I probably missed her and she was somewhere nearby.
Soon she showed up limping. It was a front foot and she wasn’t putting any weight on it at all. I guessed it was a sticker in her paw. After a quick look, I couldn’t find anything. Well, maybe it just got poked and she will get over it soon I thought. But she kept packing it then laid down and actually whined.
This is pretty strange for her. I thought she probably was chasing a rabbit and smashed it or caught it on something so I gave her a closer examination. I couldn’t find anything wrong with it. Nothing seemed broken or cut even a little. Maybe it was some kind of sprain. I was wrapping up my work and thought I would just give her some aspirin when we got home.
After just a little longer, before I finished what I wanted to she whined again from under the truck. That seemed really strange to me so I took another look and the paw was swelling. It wasn’t just swelling a little, it was moving up her whole leg and the paw was getting big quickly.
A quick call to Megan, then I tried the veterinarian. He said what I was afraid of: it was most likely a snake bite. I am extremely thankful to have vets around that are willing to take my phone calls on weekend evenings. The vet got us on the road to recovery. Poor Gemma was absolutely miserable for a few days, but she slowly improved. The swelling eventually went down. Now it has been a week since she was bitten and she is basically back to normal. There is no swelling, she is running around like crazy, and there is rarely ever any hint of a limp. Phew... we got lucky with that one.
by Brandon Greet