A painful boo boo for Ellie B

/ February 19, 2016

I had to take Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle to the vet the other day.

After that frigid spell and a frozen backyard at the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, my dear wife Karen and I noticed that our beloved rescue mutt hopped back up to the back porch and trotted back into the house with a bit of a limp.

Worse yet, we saw spots of blood where her paw landed.

The ice had done some damage.

So Karen called the folks that take good care of her at the Shop City Animal Hospital and scheduled a visit, and I coaxed her into the backseat of my Chevy Cruze.

There was a new veterinarian in the office this time, and he carefully looked at her rear left paw.

As close as Ellie B will let me get to a rear paw the day after her vet visit.

As close as Ellie B will let me get to a rear paw the day after her vet visit.

He winced, then explained.

It was akin to one of us having an entire fingernail ripped off, the vet said.

I winced.

Ellie B indeed was having some pain. But there was nothing he could do. The pain would subside in a few days. The pad would grow back on its own. All of her licking at the spot actually helps the healing process. Do not walk her anywhere where she might encounter road salt.

Ellie B looked as pitiful as possible, wanting our attention.

Our pampered pooch, with painful paw.

Our pampered pooch, with painful paw.

Got it, Doc.

We keep her in our fenced backyard, no salt but that obviously risky ice, I explained. And the Eastwood skunks forever lurking in the shadows of dawn and dusk and darkness of night. Yes, he knew of the city stinkers, and suggested we hang some sort of noisemakers back by the shed. Skunks hate noise, he said, and wind chimes or even well-placed empty cans on a string will send them on their way.

Interesting!

Then he gave a somewhat startled Ellie B her scheduled bordetella shot — we were due to come in four days later anyway — and off she went to the other room so an assistant could trim her nails, the second part of that no-longer-needed appointment.

Has your pet ever suffered a winter-related injury, and if so, what was it and how did you treat it? What would you do to pamper your pet after this visit to the vet? What would you do after hearing this skunk story?

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46 thoughts on “A painful boo boo for Ellie B”

  1. Hope Ellie B. is completely healed by now! No snow or ice here, but our black mouth cur thinks he’s an acrobat & often runs & jumps up (about 5 feet) and hangs off my fig tree limbs, then drops back to the ground. Now that he is over 10 yrs. old, there’s been a few days that he comes in limping because he’s hurt himself. So far, I have been lucky & giving him an aspirin & keeping him docile for a few days usually works, thank goodness! Hope it’s starting to warm up for y’all! We’ve had some beautiful weather this last month here in my part of Texas.

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    • A Texas Tree Leaper! Now that’s one special dog you’ve got, Sadie. Holy cow. I’d love to see that. I hope he doesn’t hurt himself now that he’s 10-plus. Ouch! You can’t just wipe outt those favorite activities that are ingrained into an active dog, I know.

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  5. Poor Ellie. We’ve had dogs – including Cody – who have actually ripped nails off. The amount of blood and the inability to stop it is terrifying! One of our dogs (the border collie, not Cody) had to wear baby socks taped to her foot for several weeks because she kept working at the wound. The cone of shame did no good – she just found a way to get her snout around it.

    We found the best way to handle something like this is to pretty much treat the dog normally, but limit the type of exercise that would put pressure on the paw. Making a big deal of fussing over the paw only makes the dog more needy. I know it’s tough not to do that, but the poor thing will figure out too quickly that looking pitiful gets extra hugs and treats. One of our dogs (again, the border collie, not Cody) figured out that holding her paw up like it was killing her got her lots of attention. Took awhile to train her out of that.

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  12. Like you and Karen, I would pour on the pampering and cover her face with kisses, while she laid on a warm blanket on the couch and not having to move to hurt her paw further. I would promptly put out those noisey cans to keep the stinkers away! (and hope the neighbors don’t complain). Poor Ellie B. I hope she heals quickly!

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  13. Aw, poor pupper-roo :/ I am glad to hear she is on the mend.

    The only winter related injuries my cats have had to deal with are the fact that winter occurs and that, at least once a snow storm, they think it would be interesting to try to walk out onto the porch and into the white stuff. Their reaction is pretty comical for us, not so much to them I am sure.

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  14. Aw, yeah, that’s sad. I am careful about salting the back steps for this reason. I’ll use boiling water, or buy the special stuff that’s safe for pets.
    Where I’ve seen the worst of it is at the park, so I’ll frequently walk on the wrong side of the walk, so her paws stay in the snow.
    We haven’t had an ice injury, but I understand the use of dog boots is becoming more popular to avoid that sorta thing.
    Best wishes to Ellie B 🙂

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  15. Poor little girl! I can only imagine how a pet suffers when something like this happens and they can’t tell us exactly what is bothering them.

    We have never had a winter related injury here because there is virtually no winter. We’ve had other scares, as when Ricky swallowed a sock or had a burst cyst. Frightening, both times and both times the emergency vets took care of him, but it was pricey. No amount of money can stand in the way of taking care of a loved one!

    Ellie will heal and she is sooooo lucky you are her parents, Mark. Hugs to all of you.

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  16. Please tell Ellie B I hope she gets better quickly. Mikey, my Great Dane, has torn a toe nail before, when being in the midst of a an epic death battle with Maxie, my Golden Retriever. That reminds me, I need to pile them into the cars (yes, it takes a caravan to go to the vet in our household) and take them to get their nails done. I think Ellie B needs a cheeseburger or something like that. Maybe some snow boots.
    Skunks in the garden would be a disconcerting.

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  18. I hope Ellie feels better very soon, Mark. This reminded me of how I encourage people, when they’re in physical or emotional pain, to treat themselves as kindly as they would treat a wounded, beloved animal. ❤

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    • The vet said it will take a couple of weeks to grow back, Barb. She’s still limping, but taking it like a trouper. Spirited dog, she is. Thanks, my friend. Have a great Friday over there. 🙂

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