I never owned a dog before and recently decided to add a dog to our household.
I looked at maybe thirty or more puppies and adults from breeders and shelters. Finally, I decided on the dog.
I came home with healthy eight week old German Shepherd Dog.
Everything was going well up until about one in the morning last night. The puppy needed to go outside. My wife said she would get up this time and took the puppy out. I had done it every time up until this point. Meadow (my dog) already had the housebreaking down and we were working on getting her comfortable with the leash.
My wife put the leash on her and brought her outside. They walked for a good distance and the dog goes to the bathroom. It was a little cold outside but my wife started to play with the pup for awhile and then they started running back up to the house. Well, Meadow ran through my wife's legs, which caused her to trip. According to my wife the dog knocked her off her feet and the leash caught her ankle, which caused her to fall hard on the dog.
Well, I hear screaming and come running out of the house. The dog is yelping and ran over to them. I picked up Meadow and she was bleeding in the mouth. I brought her inside and started to look at her mouth and head. A few seconds later she had blood bubbling out the nose and goes completely limp. I swear, I thought Meadow was dead. I wiped the blood from her noise and mouth while screaming at the dog to wake-up. It felt liked I screamed her name a hundred times. Finally, she responded. I honestly don't know how long she was out but it felt like forever. Well, I grabbed my keys and cell phone and started towards the VET. Couldn't get him on the phone. I finally just called 411 and they connected me with a 24-hour emergency care about forty-five minutes away. I was stopped for speeding right before I reached the place but the officer just lead me the rest of the way there. I really appreciated that.
First they did a quick examination and her awareness had started to improve but her breathing was very labored. They took x-rays and were concerned about the diaphragm. And of course, head trauma. She went into an oxygen tent. It was a long night and many possibilities/outcomes were discussed.
Well, today they told me that her lungs have cleared up a lot. She is breathing better. She had a couple of nice clean bowel movements. No blood.
They told me about an hour ago that she started to bark again and being somewhat playful. Tonight they told me that there was a lot of bruising but the diaphragm looks good. So, hopefully we are out of the woods and they stated she might be ready to go home by tomorrow.
One thing that really upsets me about this place is that right after the initial examination they wanted the lower of the estimated cost of treatment right then or they weren't going to treat her. Here I am standing in a T-shirt with blood all over it, shorts, and slippers. I didn't even bring a credit card in the hurrying. I needed two thousand dollars. Well, I had someone come with cash but they weren’t willing to give me a day. It really was all about the money.
