Monday, August 22, 2011

Bleeds Like Stink!

Head wounds.

Airlie finally pushed Kansas too far about two weeks ago, and instead of being able to dash out of reach quickly, she found herself backed up to a wall. That's when Kansas moved in for the muzzle grab. The major reprimand of the canine world. Leo's been employing this on Airlie a few times, lately, and I've seen him do it once on Hank (that was the first time I'd seen Leo actually buck up and mete out any disciplinary action). He's gentler, though, and even though he's bigger, he's not much of a chewer and Kansas seems to have greater bite force strength.

Kansas might also not really know how to inhibit her bites. She left a nice puncture just below and to the left of Airlie's left eye.

We didn't notice it at first. As usual, there was a small skirmish, a bit of yelping, and both went right back to playing as they had been moments before. Once tired, they went off to their respective resting places.

That's when DH noticed the blood splatter.

Everywhere.

He says it was a lot of blood- I think it was just spread out. I mean, they went racing all about the living room, and even into the bedroom, after the encounter, which took place in the entry way.

Once DH announced "Someone's bleeding!" I glanced down at my feet, where Airlie lay.

Ah. The thumbprint-sized puddle of blood on her snout- here was the culprit.

DH panicked (as usual) and started grabbing cloths and applying pressure, though to me it looked like the wound was already clotting just fine on it's own. He continued to apply pressure- and repeatedly examine the cloth, and rave about the blood. I refrained from reminding him it was a white cloth and that wetness tends to spread outward as it is absorbed. I really was all for leaving it alone, but he insisted I go get the styptic pencil we keep in the doggy-specific first aid kit for such things, and proceeded to close the wound with that. Then he decided Airlie should be kept still (good luck with that) for the next couple of days.

I felt useless, so I set about wiping up the already-dried blood spatter droplets around me.

DH took stock of the bedroom, the entry way, the far end of the living room... it was on the tile, on the walls, on the carpet...

Again, I'm going to reiterate that there was a whole lot of running and rough-housing going on and that a little bit of blood can go a long way when it's being flung about.

She never even knew she was hurt. It swelled a bit the first day, which seemed to interfere with her vision and stability some, and made her look cross-eyed, but she's been fine. It's been 10 days and the styptic powder finally worked its way loose. this morning, I noticed a small, pink, bald gash where the wound used to be.

I'm sure she's fine.

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