Dan and the Unfortunate Accident...

Well.... Some of you know about this and some of you don't.... So, I probably should just start at the beginning...

On Tuesday night, October 19th, I received some calls while at a PTO meeting from Dan. The first couple of calls, I didn't take because I thought maybe he just had a question or something and I am the secretary at the meetings - it's hard to take calls while your taking minutes... Anyway, he was very persistent, so I took his next call.

This is what I heard: "Buddy, kennel, wrist, bleeding badly, won't stop, hospital, come home now." I immediately went back in the meeting, pushed off my notebook, grabbed my neighbor so she could help with the kids (thanks so much Julie!), and rushed home. We came in the door to see some blood on the floor and Dan in the bathroom trying to clean puncture wounds on his right wrist and left thumb. I was able to assess the situation and off we went to urgent care.

During the drive, Dan explained that he had been in the office working and the kids were down in the basement playing. Buddy, out of the blue, started urinating on the floor and on some papers that were on the floor. Dan yelled at him (because he's almost deaf) but Buddy didn't budge. He then tried to push him on his behind toward the door. He didn't budge. So, Dan attempted to grab his collar. When Dan did that Buddy turned his head back and bit down on Dan's wrist. Dan pulled up his arm toward the ceiling and Buddy held on going up on his hind legs. Dan finally was able to get Buddy off, but his wrist was badly bitten with many deep puncture wounds. He called our neighbor and he helped get Buddy back in his kennel.

Once at urgent care, they cleaned his wounds. He was given a tetanus shot. But, they couldn't stitch him up because they don't do that for dog bites. It has something to do with trapping the bacteria from the bite. They showed me how to dress the wounds and sent him off with antibiotics.
I did forget to mention that all of last week, Dan had important meetings downtown from at least 8a-6p. Most nights, he was there much later. So, on Wednesday, he had a long day. To make it even longer he was exhausted from little sleep because of the pain he was in. He called the doctor's office and was given a prescription for Hydrocodone (sp). That evening, he did feel a little better and slept better due to that. Unfortunately, though, his hand was really beginning to swell up.

Thursday he woke up and his swelling was much worse. Sadly, he had a long day in store for him at work and didn't get home until a little after midnight. We knew, then, though that he would need to go to the doctor the next morning. At that time, his hand was so swollen, you couldn't see his knuckles.

Friday morning, he went back to the doctor's office that he had gone to Tuesday night. They told him as nicely as possible, that there wasn't anything they could do for him and that he needed to go to the E.R. and begin I.V. therapy (w/antibiotics). He considered Dan's treatment again, and decided to send him to a orthopedic hand surgeon first for his diagnosis. Once there, he got a sonogram. The radiologist found that while he had some fluid near the bone, he did not have any pus on the bone, so they would not have to operate that day.

The orthopedic surgeon then decided that Dan needed to be admitted to the hospital with a central line I.V. so he could receive antibiotics via the I.V. Since it was Owen's birthday, he asked the surgeon if he was SURE he had to go to the hospital. He considered the question and asked how responsible Dan could be. Dan of course, can be very responsible. So, he sent Dan downtown to a facility that could put in the central line. Dan was also told that he needed to sit very still or be lying down the entire weekend as if he was in the hospital.

So, Dan has been home, wearing a plastic cast type thing with a central line going from his arm into his chest. Every six hours at 12a, 6a, 12p and 6p he has to administer the antibiotics through the line. He's done a really great job of sitting still and keeping quiet despite Owen's birthday on Friday and Anna's school carnival today, not to mention Aviva's open house.

As for Buddy, we spoke with our vet here and our KS vet and both agreed that Buddy acted defensively, rather than aggressively. However, that doesn't make the bite any easier to excuse. We are very concerned for Owen and Anna's safety. If he would have done that to one of them, their little bones would have been crushed. It's just such a sad situation because those of you who know Buddy, know this is not the real Buddy...

Dan is supposed to go back to the orthopedic hand surgeon tomorrow morning at 8a. We're hoping for good news!!