We're sure that you remember the astounding tale of A Doll Named Dolly, and if you missed that wonderful reader submission you need to read it! Dolly has been injured in a horrible accident, and her human, Carl B., has contacted us with questions and concerns that we don't have any experience with; we're hoping that The Long and Short of it All community can help out a fellow Dachshundist:
Dear Joey and Maggie,
I own a Miniature part longhair, part shorthair female Dachshund that I love very much.
She was our neighbors dog and at first she hated me. After about a month she accepted me and came to love me and my family as only a Doxie can. I'm retired and disabled. The dogs name is Dolly. We wound up sometimes babysitting Dolly while the neighbors were at work. In the fall of that year the neighbors became involved in divorce proceedings. The husband moved out, wanted to take Dolly with him, but could not because his rental home would not allow it. As soon as he moved out Dolly got it in her head that I was going to be her new owner. That's just how it turned out. They gave her to us.
We treated Dolly as we would a toddler who has not begun to talk yet. That is what she reminds me of. An alert toddler who loves new experiences, truck rides, lawn tractor rides, or anything new and interesting. We take her everywhere we go and have always been protective of her.
My problem started last week. We were helping my son move out of his apartment in Kansas City and back home. It's a three hour drive. In the process of moving I let my guard down. Everybody was in a hurry. We got a late start because of icy and foggy roads. I was outside the apartment moving my truck when some doors fell on Dolly seriously injuring her pelvis. I should have taken her with me to move the truck.
Here we were three hours from home and I don't know any vets in the KC area. A GPS is useless in searching for them because it kept sending me to wrong addresses. Here I was with a hurt dog trying to get around in rush hour traffic when I happened to drive by a pet spa. I dropped in there and asked instructions to the nearest vet. I wound up at Lionsgate pet hospital in Overland Park Kansas. I highly recommend them. Dr. McHugh took x-rays then recommended that I get her to a Orthopedic Vet. She gave me some good pain meds to ease Dolly's trip home.
It was a hard trip home. The next day our regular vet at Horton animal hospital got us in to the school of vet medicine at Missouri University in Columbia,Mo. They performed surgery on Dolly the next day and repaired her broken pelvis as best they could. I am highly impressed with them also. Even though it's a large clinic with lots of animals they obviously fell in love with Dolly and best of all Dolly was in love with them.
I now have Dolly at home. I am keeping her in a crate. She still has stitches and a cone collar to prevent her from biting at them. My wife and I had worked in hospital settings our entire careers BUT.... humans can usually convey their wants and feelings to you whereas with Dolly we have to go with our intuition. We have never in our lives taken care of a seriously ill pet. All of our previous pets only had minor health issues up until they got old. Our Dolly, now that she's home and feeling better, wants to do the things she always did before. Her former owners had a crate for her but she has an aversion to them. I have the crate sitting where she can see me at all times and she sits there looking at me with those sad eyes of hers and it's getting to me.
Another problem I'm having is that she will not pee or poo in the crate. To her a proper dachshund is to go outside to do their business. Her former family was very strict on this. She's had accidents with us but we have treated it like it's no big deal while she sets there with the "I am so sorry" look on her face.
Do you know of any good places where i can purchase a belly sling for her?? I have one coming from Drs. Foster and Smith but I think it may be too big even though I ordered the smallest they had.
Any advice at all will be highly appreciated.
I thought we protected Dolly well but I was very wrong. Ten seconds of inattention was all it took. I grew up in an era of time where men were not supposed to cry. I've done quite well in not doing that sometimes not even crying at funerals. I can't help it with Dolly. Being disabled myself I am very familiar with bone pain and how you never quite recover from an accident. I mourn Dolly's lost youth. I am afraid she will have the same problems I am having.
We're hoping Dolly's recovery goes well, and that our expert readers can offer some great tips.
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