Week Two

It's never encouraging when you leave off a dog for what you think is a routine procedure, and when you return, the receptionist says, "The doctor wants to speak with you." That's what happened when we went to pick up Bingley from his bandage change on Saturday. The problem was that the skin on his paw under the bandage still looked "rough" and the possibility of an infection was high. So we needed to up the anti-biotic dosage and return for another bandage change on Monday (today). Just in case my anxiety over the possible side-effects of more anti-biotic was not sufficiently high, it was mentioned that if Bingley's skin under the bandage did not improve, we would be looking at an "open splint" healing. Visions of struggles with an e-collar, sleepless nights, waking repeatedly to check if Bingley was busy removing his splint, filled my fervid brain. To top it all, his new bandage--complete with festive Christmas Tree cutout-- was too large to fit into the wonderful heavy-duty IV drip baggie that had served us so well the prior week. I do envy positive thinkers. As we took Bingley home, I contemplated worst case scenarios. What if an infection got started in his paw? What if the infection moved into the broken toe? How would I cope with the intestinal fallout--my new euphemism for raging diarrhea--from the increased dosage of anti-biotic? How could I Jerry-rig a protective baggie that would last an entire walk? Over the weekend, we learned that conventional zip lock baggies barely last a walk, and a large amount of paper tape has to be used to keep them on. Bingley went from two anti-biotic capsules a day to three, with as much Pepto Bismol as I could force down his throat. I fretted a lot. Today, we returned for another bandage change.Thank Heavens, there is a noticeable improvement in the skin on Bingley's paw. I can keep him at three anti-biotic capsules--rather than upping the dosage to four, and we don't have to return for another bandage change until Friday--four days instead of the two or three that we were originally told. He wore a regular zip-lock baggie home from the vet's, but I have a new IV variety that I'm hoping will fit. I'll try it before his next outing. Rain is predicted for Thursday,which will bring its own challenges. But, as my mother used to say "Sufficient unto the day (is the evil thereof.)" So we have now ticked off the second week of Bingley's little toe recovery. (The only thing "little" about it is the identification of the toe he broke.) And I keep telling myself: This is a finite process.