My yard is about 3/4 acre and fenced for the dogs. The only time they get out of the yard is every night when I go down to the barn to hay the horses and the dogs come down with me. They have about 20 minutes before they come in and get their dinner.
I have 13 acres, with 80 wild acres across the road. I live in the middle of nowhere with about 4 cars an hour passing my house. So last night we were walking up from the barn and Wylie dashes after a vehicle pulling a trailer and gets hit. And as soon as he’s down, three of the other dogs come after him. So I’m trying to hold off a 100 lb dobie, a german shepherd and a giant schnauzer from attacking an already-injured dog. Why they’re after their packmate I have no clue - I can only guess with the noise he made and the smell from the truck, they didn’t recognize him. I get Wylie in the house and look him over. I don’t see much, some scrapes (fortunately no real wounds from the other dogs). He’s a tad shocky at first, but stabilizes after about 30 minutes. I monitor breathing temp, gum color, etc and figure whatever he’s got will probably wait until the morning when I can get him in to my vet. I figure a visit to the Vet ER will probably cost at least $800, and he doesn’t seem in danger of dying.
He wasn’t walking, but I knew he could stand and walk. I get him to my vet early, and by this afternoon. he’s had X-rays. I picked him up this evening. He has no broken bones, no internal injuries. The vet gave him steroids and antibiotics and sent him home with antibiotics and spray for the road rash. The only bad thing is the X-rays do show a pretty advanced case of hip dysplasia, which will have to addressed at some time. By tonight he walked outside and went to the bathroom, so everything’s working okay.
I’m so lucky, this could’ve been so much worse. It’s hard to think that with all this land, I can’t let me dogs occasionally out. My vet bill for 4 x-rays, all the meds given at the clinic and meds sent home with me totalled $140. I love my vet.
I lost my dog, Bramble, to a car on a similarly quiet road years ago. You & Wylie are very lucky (also with the good vet)!
I find with the dog I have now, who is used to living in a city, she is so used to cars that she knows exactly how to handle roads. In a way, an occasional car might be more dangerous.
I’m so glad Wylie’s injuries weren’t worse. Our border collie will occasionally take off after a car on our lightly traveled road and my heart nearly stops every time. We finally gave up on letting her run free during the annual bicycle race that goes past our place. She gets to spend that day in the house.
We have a great vet too, but we’d rather only see him for the maintenance stuff.
Poor Wylie! Bad as it is, I’m glad it wasn’t much worse.
I don’t know what it is that makes dogs turn on one of their mown when a pack member is injured. My Gordon Kharma is BAD about it. She is normally a gentle, sweet dog, but let one of the small dogs yelp and she is ON them. I have to keep a very close eye on them.
I’m so glad it sounds like he will be fine. Probably pretty ouchy and sore for a week or so. Lots of virtual treats and gentle rubs from me!
What it is about the pack-attack mentality when a member is down, I’ll never figure out. Had a dog at the ER a couple weeks ago that had a seizure while the owners were away, and when they got home, found a blood bath. Seizure dog (130lb bloodhound mix) was still alive, but so badly attacked by his 80lb boxer-mix roommate that he needed surgery and hospitalization for three days.
Is this a common thing? I’ve never heard of it before.
A few years ago some friends of mine lived on a road much like the OP–4-5 cars an hour at most. One night the decrepit old female greyhound (rescue dog) was hit by a car. The young male shepherd mix (~3 years) stood guard over her body until he was also struck and killed, a few minutes later. I’m pretty certain that was the case, as she hadn’t been savaged and he was expert at avoiding cars.
The greyhound was deaf would often run off (the deafness in part explaining the inability to avoid cars). They weren’t the most conscientious pet owners for allowing her the opportunity to do so, but having both dogs killed in an evening was a hell of a price to pay for that failing.
I’ve never noticed any of my dogs be aggressive to hurt pack members either, but (though sad behaviour) it’s actually quite interesting. Does anyone know more about it? How about when the human of the pack is hurt?
the pack thing was so scary and sudden. And as soon as the adrenaline was gone, they all calmed down at didn’t try anything. They were sniffing him like “what happened to you?”. This morning Wylie’s reluctantly up and walking outside to go to the bathroom, and finally has an appetite. I’m going to keep him crated while I’m work so things won’t have the chance to turn ugly.
I know you take good care of your pack, so I hate to sound like I’m lecturing, and you’re rural as well…but I’m a relentless advocate of leashes or fences for this reason, among others.
About “the pack-attack mentality when a member is down,” I haven’t encountered it. Simone, our pit bull, will rush over when Sadie, our pb-hound mix, is hurt, but only to begin systematically licking her with a fur-abrading intensity.
The pack-attack thing, in my experience, is not all that common, and seems to need certain circumstances in order to happen. Seizures, for one, and I’ve seen the attacks happen with both dogs and cats (sudden, strange movements, possibly a scent change?). The other instance I’ve seen it happen with dogs is when one seems in distress. Now, usually there are people present to stop things before things get too crazy. But it seems when something happens to make one dog yelp for some reason (nail trims for dogs who hate them), sometimes another dog who lives in the home will not just come to investigate but will nip at the yelping dog.
In the cases of in-home mauling (sometimes one-on-one, sometimes two or more on one) who knows what happens, what set of circumstances happened that caused the other dogs to go after the one. I can’t think of a case in which the owners were present. In the 7 years I’ve been a the ER, I can think of maybe 7 or 8 cases that the mauling was so severe (during my shifts - so there probably are more cases), but that’s in a city with varying dog population estimates anywhere from 350,00 to 450,000. So, it’s rare, but it happens. I think the situation has to be just right and has to involve a certain personality combination to happen. It’s totally unpredictable, and runs the gamut of types of homes.
I don’t even know how one would begin to put a study together - what I’ve said here is entirely my experience and speculation amongst me and my peers whenever these things have happened. Would be interesting to survey it somehow.
Anyway, sorry for the hijack, StGermain. Still so very glad you and yours are OK!
Sailboat - My dogs don’t have free run 24-7. They usually get about 15-20 minutes per day to run the fields. Then everyone comes in the house and has dinner and settles down for the evening. Obviously it’s a calculated risk that didn’t work out for Wylie. On a leash they can’t run flat out, or sniff out bunnies. I like for them to have time to just be dogs.
I may have to see about fencing more of my pasture so the dogs can run there. Maybe increasing my hotwire to 5 strands would keep them in.
SeaDragonTattoo - In Wylie’s case, he made a high-pitched yelp, and he smelled different. Maybe the adrenaline, maybe the car, but even with my poor human nose I could smell it. I wondered if maybe the dogs didn’t recognized him as one of their own.
papergirl - Thank you so much for the kind comment. My animals really are my life. It’s a hard decision for me whether to totally limit my dogs’ freedom - I can see the joy they get in enjoying a hard run, chasing things (they never seem to catch anything, but that doesn’t bother them), nose about the fields. I think dogs need some time to be dogs, rather than someone’s pet.
Tonight when I got home Wylie tried to run a few steps when he saw me, so I think he’s on the mend. Good strong farm dog. I got him from a high-kill pound on his last day, along with his brother Andy. Wylie and Andy DuFresne. Wylie is named after the famous chef and Andy Dufresne was the name of the character in Shawshank Redemption. I figured he had his jailbreak when I got him out of the pound.
