ER

DJ got Thanksgiving off so he had to work the following Saturday.  I had to run in and do the weekend chores at work and then pretty much had a lazy day.  I decided to run to town because there was an awesome deal at the fabric store.  It was a pretty nice day out so the dogs were outside.

I got back from the store and they weren't there to meet me-- odd.  So I decided to go see if I could find them.  There are four houses in the family all within a mile of each other and sometimes they like to go visit-- go ahead and tell me how terrible this is that we let our farm dogs run around...  just wait!

I pulled out of the driveway without stopping to unload the car (I had also stopped to grab some eggs, bread, milk, butter, and beer...).  I headed towards the creek and I saw UC lying in the grass.  Hmm... okay.  As I slowed down he sat up and looked at me.  I pulled over and rolled the window down yelling at him.  He didn't come.  That's strange.  I got out and went around the car and he started walking up to me, but then turned back around so I followed him.  He took me down to the creek where I found JW.

A muddy, muddy, muddy JW just lying in the mud.  He was stuck in a trap, not even fighting, he just looked at  me like, "help me, mom" so I jumped in the creek and tried to get him out.  Between all the mud, UC trying to be right there seeing if his buddy was okay, and not being familiar with traps, I soon decided that I wasn't going to be able to get him out of it.  I was able to pull the whole thing out of the creek.  It was a struggle to get him and the trap and me up the bank.  UC was trying to help, but was more in the way than anything, we somehow got the trap stuck to his collar-- found that out when I tried putting JW in the car!!  I got them unhooked and both of them (still muddy messes) loaded into the car.  I called DJ's brother but didn't get an answer.  I then called his mom and asked if his dad was around and if he could help me.

I arrived at their place and his dad was able to get the trap off JW after fiddling with it a bit.  I wrapped him up in a blanket and held him while applying pressure to his back foot to slow the bleeding down.  I was sitting in the passenger seat and UC was in the back seat leaning through and trying to clean him up.  He was so worried.  DJ pulled in about then.  We got UC out of the car (much to his disliking) and DJ's parents took him home.  He was less than thrilled with the idea of leaving his little brother.  We headed to the emergency vet hospital and got him in right away.  They cleaned him up and decided to take x-rays to see what everything looked like.  I was sure his back leg was broken, as it took the brunt of the beating!! 

After awhile the doctor came in and said nothing was broken but the trap had gone through toe of his little toes so we had to give him pain meds, antibiotics, and anti-inflamatory pills.  They had given him a shot for pain so he wasn't limping when we went home, just very tired.

UC was quite glad to see his lil brother when we got home, however JW was a little crabby and just wanted to drink/eat/sleep.  So we gave him his pills with supper and put him to bed.

He was sore the next few days and wasn't himself.  He laid in bed except to go outside.  About a week later he was more himself so I let him outside for a bit.  When I let them back in, he was limping.  I took that as a sign that he wasn't quite ready to go back to his normal routine, so he stayed inside most the time, but would still run around in there.  He still limps if he is on it for too long and goes up and down stairs on three legs.  Also when UC steps on one of his bad feet he will yelp and favor it, but usually forgets about it after four seconds.  I think he would go out and play more, but he is not a fan of the cool temps we've been having so he usually goes out to do his business and runs back to the door! 

FYI: the trap was set illegally, so yes, you can say we're bad pet owners for letting them run around, but the trap shouldn't have been set there in the first place.  We have also installed an underground fence now, so hopefully they will learn their boundaries quickly.  (I'm sure I'm a bad parent for using a shock system-- but I've been shocked and I learned quickly!!)   Now go ahead and judge me :)