Lexi Was Attacked

Lexi in her hot pink cast.

Face book has taken over and I have not even been keeping my blog up to date. Shame on me.

So here I am trying to catch up and determined to keep my blog up better. I am beginning with Lexi and the crisis we had with her around the middle of December. I took her outside for her normal exercise, potty break. The dogs next door at Russ and Terry's came out and Lexi went flying around the side of the house to play with them through the fence. I was annoyed because I was more than ready to go back in and finish what I was doing. Then I heard a God awful sound that told myself couldn't be Lexi because I had never heard her in that kind of pain and fear that the sound invoked. I headed to the side as fast as I could go but I felt I was in slow motion. Then Terry drove up from work at the precise moment and yelled at her dog to drop Lexi. He did. Thank God he did. Lexi went skulking into the bushes by the house and I knew she was terribly hurt. I tried to get her and she got as far into the bushes as she could get. When I finally reached her she cried out in pain and I knew I wouldn't be able to get her. I went into the house to grab a blanket to throw over her so I could pick her up. When I opened the door she came running inside. She was practically crawling on her belly and I saw the blood. I put the blanket over her and got her into the car as soon as I could. I wish I could say I was cool calm and collected but that wouldn't be true. I guess Lexi had gone into shock because she just fell back against me so I drove with her in my arms. I put the flashers on hoping the other drivers would know there was a mad woman on the roads.

I got her to the vet and the doors were locked and I finally got enough focus to me to read the message. It said in case of emergency, take the pet to an animal hospital in Brandon. I felt sure Lexi would not make it to Brandon. I couldn't believe it. I kept trying to remember the address in Brandon so I could put it into my GPS…wasting precious time because nothing was working in my brain to get the number set. I finally calmed down enough to do this and got back on the road. Then I remembered the vet I took Lexi to at first. He was in Plant City still and had a larger place now.

I went there hoping they would be open before I went on to Brandon. He was! He was. I went running inside with my bundle of mangled puppy and no one was at the desk but I could hear them talking in the back. I screamed out that I needed help and a woman came out and took her from my arms. She led me to a seat where I could stay while they worked with Lexi.

After an eternity, they came into the room and told me that the puncture wounds from the bite would heal but the problem was the shaking the dog had done once he got Lexi firmly pinned in his mouth. It had torn soft tissue, muscle and skin up inside. There was internal bleeding and they couldn't be sure if the organs weren't affected. They needed to keep her for the first 24 hours and if she did not develop breathing problems in that time, she might make it. I thought I would die, truly. I hated to think what Lexi went through those few horrendous moments when she was in that dog's mouth. The dog has got out of the fence and into our yard many times before without incident. He has played with Lexi before. This time he attacked immediately when he got under his fence and into the yard. This dog is a big rescue dog that they said was a pit bull mix of some kind. This proves to me what I've known all along, how unpredictable this breed can be. Why would anyone have such a dangerous dog? Everyone that owns them always says the same things…he's so loveable, so mellow, serene, the best dog in the world. Humph. These dogs are bred to kill. I don't understand the reasoning. If I had a wish it would be that people who have these types of dogs would have to have a huge insurance premium at least. In my heart I'd much rather see them outlawed all together. I don't know what people can be thinking. Anyway….this did not help my concept at the entire breed. Not long after this happened, a Rottweiler killed a little baby boy in Tampa. It, too, was the sweetest dog in the world and loved this baby boy. Right. I think the parents should be brought up on child endangerment at the least. There, I've said it. I try to keep those beliefs to myself but these vicious dog breeds just baffle me. I do believe, in my heart of heart, that everyone has a right to have whatever breed dog they prefer but when others are in danger (and that would be anyone around that dog) then something else needs to be done. JMHO really…now I'm done and I'll go on my merry way without hate or fear.

Lexi made it those first harrowing 24 hours and then we had to worry about the bleeding internally. The vet did not want to do surgery yet; he was hoping to handle the situation with aggressive treatment and laser work. He also put her in a hot pink cast. That was to keep things in their place while they had a chance to heal and to put pressure on the bleeders.

After a week I was hoping she'd get the cast off and he'd say she was out of danger but that wasn't the case. He did take her out of the cast today and watched her for a bit but then had to put her back in one because there is this gully in her side and then this huge ball the size of my fist pooching out. He said that was muscle that was disconnected from the chest area and is now a ball in the abdomen. The danger is that the body will reject this muscle tissue as a foreign entity and that would cause a lot of problems, abscess being the beginning. Now he is giving her meds and procedures that will hopefully keep the body from rejecting that mass and keep it viable so that she will just be a bit deformed with that big not and gully in her body. Deformed is preferable to dead so I'm all for that.

After two weeks he took the cast off and the mass of muscle was attached and viable so that was very good. In a few more days when I took her in he noticed there was a pocket of fluid under the mass and now there is a bulb of the fluid poking out. He's going to wait until Tuesday to see if it might absorb but this is Saturday night and it is getting larger. He said he would put her under and insert drainage tubes in her side and see if that would work. If not, that will only leave surgery to remove the muscle and all the tissue that was displaced by the attack. Whew. She's been through so much. I was certain we'd get a good bill of health for her but I guess it's going to still be a process. I have to think one day at a time and enjoy the now but it is sure hard. She has a great Christmas with lots of pampering and spoiling by everyone here. You sure wouldn't know anything was wrong.