So, we have to lovely dogs. One of these dogs is a 115 pound Weimeraner named Jack. Jack was a rescue dog that we adopted January 4, 2010 from the Weimeraner Rescue of North Texas.
Jack is a monster. He is huge, he drools and he lets out the most terrible smells. At the same time, he is the sweetest dog you will ever meet. He has to be in the same room as us and loves everyone. Plus he has the cutest stump ever, hence his personal theme song "Stump Shaker."
Since adopting Jack he has had a long list of problems that required medical attention. He breaks out in hives. He has fractured toes. He bites his nails. He is overweight. The list goes on.
We are getting used to Jack's issues, but one day he literally tore one of his nails in half. There was blood everywhere and it was like he knew this as he paraded from room to room. Now, he has bitten down his nails before to the point where they bleed, but this was different. We decided to watch it and see if it healed like it had in the past.
To make a long story a little shorter, we had both dogs groomed and the groomer cut the nail down even more. Cut to a few days later and Jack wasn't putting any weight on that foot. Then his toe ballooned to three times the normal size and it was back to the vet.
There are certain things you don't want to hear at the vet. What I heard that day was, "We'll pray that it's broken." We had previously thought Jack had a broken toe and the vet exaplined how horrible it would be for him to have to wear a cast and now we were hoping for that.
Turns out Jack had a nailbed infection that was fairly severe. I believe the vet's exact words were, "We'll do everything we can to keep from amputating the toe." Amputation.
This was about three weeks ago and now we are giving him twice daily antibiotics because the first round didn't work well enough. Plus, we get soak his foot every other day for 15 minutes. Have you ever tried to force a 115 pound animal to put its foot in a bucket for what feels like an hour? It isn't fun. But, it's what we have to do because a dog that big with a missing toe would be super depressing to see and deal with.
Jack is a monster. He is huge, he drools and he lets out the most terrible smells. At the same time, he is the sweetest dog you will ever meet. He has to be in the same room as us and loves everyone. Plus he has the cutest stump ever, hence his personal theme song "Stump Shaker."
Since adopting Jack he has had a long list of problems that required medical attention. He breaks out in hives. He has fractured toes. He bites his nails. He is overweight. The list goes on.
We are getting used to Jack's issues, but one day he literally tore one of his nails in half. There was blood everywhere and it was like he knew this as he paraded from room to room. Now, he has bitten down his nails before to the point where they bleed, but this was different. We decided to watch it and see if it healed like it had in the past.
To make a long story a little shorter, we had both dogs groomed and the groomer cut the nail down even more. Cut to a few days later and Jack wasn't putting any weight on that foot. Then his toe ballooned to three times the normal size and it was back to the vet.
There are certain things you don't want to hear at the vet. What I heard that day was, "We'll pray that it's broken." We had previously thought Jack had a broken toe and the vet exaplined how horrible it would be for him to have to wear a cast and now we were hoping for that.
Turns out Jack had a nailbed infection that was fairly severe. I believe the vet's exact words were, "We'll do everything we can to keep from amputating the toe." Amputation.
This was about three weeks ago and now we are giving him twice daily antibiotics because the first round didn't work well enough. Plus, we get soak his foot every other day for 15 minutes. Have you ever tried to force a 115 pound animal to put its foot in a bucket for what feels like an hour? It isn't fun. But, it's what we have to do because a dog that big with a missing toe would be super depressing to see and deal with.
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