Ruffian, my airedale, was run over by the mail-carrier. I was right there - she just kept going and hit her. We had to jack up her car to get Ruffi out - she’s so big and there was so little ground clearance on the car. She has a spinal fracture way down near her tail, but no broken pelvis or ribs, apparently. At the moment she’s got movement in one back leg, but the other is dragging and her tail has no sensation. The big question will be if she has bowel and bladder muscles. I’ve got her at home - the vet says to leave her in a quiet area for a week and see how much heals. On my way home from the vet, I ran out of gas (I swear I should’ve had at least 60 more miles in that tank). Some Mexican guys gave me a lift to the gas station, but it was a four-mile trek back to the truck in the pouring rain. No one stopped. Of course, I left my umbrella in the Mexican’s guys’ truck.
We wouldn’t have been on the road only we’d gotten so much rain, so the dogs and I went down to check on my horse, Irish. His paddock was semi-flooded and I put him up in the barn. We were all walking back to the house, but the creek running through the paddock was so deep and fast that Ruffi wouldn’t cross it, although the other dogs did. So I crossed back over and we walked the long way, up to the road so we could cross the creek at the road, which has a culvert. The postal vehicle was just pulling away from my mailbox and the dogs went running up to her. She just didn’t see Ruffi in front of the car and hit her. It was awful, really awful.
There’s not much change from last night. She’s able to sit, but has no strength in her back end. She does react to pain in one back leg, and the vet tech said that when he was trying to position her for the X-ray she pulled against him with both back legs, so that’s a good sign, I hope. They needed three shots of dope to get her relaxed enough to take the pelvic X-ray. No real urine or fecal output, but she didn’t have anything to eat or drink yesterday. She was interested in food today, though. No muscle tone in her rectum, which is bad.
I have to say, I heart my vet. Before I left, she gave me her home phone number if I needed anything. And they treated her for three hours (not constantly, but checking on her every 15 minutes or so), gave her meds to counter-act shock, anesthetic, X-rays, staples in various wounds, all for $60. This is the same vet that trailered my horse from the old barn to the farm (about 60 miles round trip) for no charge.
Those of you that are the praying sort, please say a prayer for a stubborn airedale.
StG
