Keeping the big Bear immobile

[jabear]

I thought I would share a little about my actor...

You know having to keep Bear "still" is not as easy as I hoped it would be.  He hurt his front dewclaw the other day and the vet told us to just be careful, no biggie since it is half on/half off. It looks so painful! Anyhow, he kept licking it and is so careless with himself (he runs & gets crazy all the time) so I decided to tape it with gauze so he can't irritate it. After a long bath and grooming session, I taped it all up and gave him pain meds and tried to keep him calm....My plan worked just fine until a few minutes ago when we went outside to potty. 

My drama king was moping in the house, long faced and kinda limping because of the bandage and then the second we go outside he is full of energy. Where did the limp and long face go I wonder? The entire walk you would never guess he had a problem, but now we are back inside and he is laying down grumbling and looking at me like "Mom...I really don't like you right now". What a brat!

[Kiahpyr]

AWWW! Poor Bear!! They are great actors! Hope his declaw feels better soon.

[jabear]

The vet didn't want to remove it because it was not totally off. It is half on (really on) and half off and removing it would be alot- he would have to be put out to remove it. She said it would probably heal on its own and would probably grow back just fine. For now though it is a pain in my rear end and I hate to see him in pain....even if he is a partial faker.  If we really want though, she said she would remove it but it was our decision and was not something that had to be done right away. Guess we'll see how the week progresses.

[kristi]

Poor Bear 
They are quite the actors aren't they?

Sam hangs his head & mopes around if you scold him when he's done something wrong.
Until he goes outside & chases a squirrel or something runs around like a crazy guy acting happy & all.
Then he'll come in & pretend to be all depressed & everything again.
You can't help but laugh at them...

[paharts]

Kado came in the house one day & left blood drops everywhere. We finally tracked it to him & found his dewclaw half ripped out & twisted back on itself. It was freaky looking! Hubby laid with him while I tugged to see if it was loose but nothing happened. I called my vet [of course, this happened at night ] & he said to yank it out with pliers; that's all he'd do. I didn't have the heart so laid with Kado while Hubby yanked. It popped right out without issue. We cleaned & wrapped his foot to be sure no infection & my vet came by the next morning to check it. He said it looked great & the nail would be back in no time. We kept it bandaged [I LOVE vetwrap & bitter apple ] for a few days to keep it clean & the nail grew back. It's been about 9 mths & you'd never know it happened.

Ya know, I think I was more squeamish on this one than the big baby

[Stacey]

I think I threw up a little in my mouth  ....
poor Bear!  I am in pain just thinking about it!

[shangrila]

Poor Bear! I hope he gets better soon.

I'm not suprised that he had energy when he went outside. It's all the power of positive thinking.... I will never forget the day we got zoey spayed/tacked. They kept her overnight and she was sedated and they told us not to visit her but we felt like we had to. They normally do visiting in exam rooms, but they told us they would let us visit her in her crate in the patient room because she wasn't moving at all and they didn't think they ould get her to the exam room. Well as soon as she saw us her tail was wagging and she hoped up and sped to us. So we went to the exam room. Once she realized we weren't going outside (going home) all her energy disapeared. She literally didn't move - not her tail, her head, even her eyes. We had to carry her back to the patient room. All her energy had just been from hope and happiness of seeing us. I am sure Bear had all his energy from the happiness of being outside.

By the way, If he is playing with the bandage, try putting a sock on his paw.

[MommyOfSchnauzers]

Keeping dogs of any size immobile is not an easy task!  Just reading about his dewclaw makes my fingers hurt!  Poor big guy.

[jabear]

Thanks for the nice thoughts everyone....ho pefully he will heal up soon.

Paharts- that story made me squirm. I can't believe you did it yourself. Luckily, you did a great job and your baby healed nicely.

[Gypsy Jazmine]

Samson can lay a guilt trip on you like nobody's business!...It sounds like he & Bear could be related...lol!...Heal up soon Bear & give your mama a big slobbery kiss...She worries about you ya' know!