More Eddie Adventures!

Of Fast Eddie’s nine emergency visits so far, three have been related to cuts to his paws while running off leash at the Old Hospital Grounds here in Northampton. The first one was rather minor he cut himself running on an icy path. I had no idea that dogs can get injured on ice obviously I haven’t had any Iditarod experience with dogs in icy conditions. That incident resulted in a couple of stitches and no park visits for a week.

The next one was a little bit more serious. Eddie was running around at the park and went into the woods where he sliced open the toe pad of his paw. With several stitches and orders to keep him from jumping or running around for two weeks, we went home. The vet’s concern was if this didn’t heal properly, his toe pad might have to be removed. We knew we couldn’t keep him from not being a Mexican jumping bean, but we did try. With that said, several days later he leaped off of the three-foot high retaining wall in our backyard and split open the stitches. In spite of his dare devil leap, his toe pad finally healed but it is now a very odd shape. Well, there goes the idea of using Eddie as a paw model to pay off his vet expenses!

The most expensive incident so far, again at the park, and with seconds to go before getting Eddie back into the car, he ran off into the woods and came out bleeding. Poor Mary brought him home and wanted to wash all the blood off of him. I took one look and knew that he had cut tendons. We quickly headed up (on a Sunday morning, no less) to the Veterinary Emergency & Specialty Hospital in South Deerfield near Yankee Candle.

The vet on duty knew Fast Eddie from previous park experiences. She’s the one that called Mary’s ex-partner who works at the hospital to get Mary’s cell phone number when she found Eddie running around at the park with no adult supervision. At the time, Mary was madly searching for the elusive Eddie at the park. Dr. Losert also knew of some of Eddie’s previous exploits with the snake (last blog) and mouse (that will be explained in a future episode).

Well, the diagnosis was that his tendon had been cut, probably from a broken bottle of which many litter the woods. Thank you, you moonlight booze-hounds for throwing your bottles around and leaving dangerous broken glass that can injure animals! He had minor surgery with internal and external stitches needed to repair the damage. They wrapped him in a huge cast-like bandage with splints to protect his limb. Dr. Losert cleverly created a pumpkin “iron-on patch” for the bandage since it was so close to Halloween.

We were told he had to wear a cone (Elizabethan collar) for his entire recovery period of four weeks or more, and he would need to get the bandage changed on a weekly basis with our local vet. And thus began the tug of war with his bandage. Eddie and Chancey (our third dog) love to play tug of war, but this was the first time Eddie could do it all by himself.

So he just kept pulling and chewing on his bandage which resulted in a total of eight bandages! Oh, did I mention that at some point he broke the splints and had to get them replaced too. Isn’t he special!

The idea that one could keep Eddie from doing something he‘s not suppose to do is rather humorous. That boy lives to chew and destroy. It’s his mission in life…one he does quite well.

Eddie is still recovering even though the splints and bandages are now off. He still favors the leg and when outside hops around on three legs. Once he’s fully recovered he will return to his daily walks at the park but on a leash. His days of running off leash with wild abandonment are over and will just be a distant memory...for Eddie!