Clothed With Scarlet: Wellness/Health

Old dog is sick. Very sick.

I give you detail as we have discovered a wonderful way to care for our dog...to prevent him from disturbing wounds.

He is experiencing blood loss due to external tumors and hemangiomas. He has had these for over a year but have proven to be benign and have required minimal care. Recently one of the tumors has enlarged and begun to hemorrhage. He is severely anemic and unstable for surgery to remove one of the tumors that has had regular hemorrhage.

We have to stop his continuous licking of the wound. A common remedy is an Elizabethan collar (it looks like you have put an upside down lamp shade over your dog's head). Logan is an Italian Greyhound. Their body shape causes issues with most commercially made items. Their necks are the same diameter as their heads making it possible for them to slip anything around their neck right over their head. Their large chests and narrow torsos make bandaging and such nearly impossible.

We were told by the veterinarian that if he lost any more than about three tablespoons of blood that there was a significant chance that he would die in the night. So....an intense brainstorming session began to try to come up with way to prevent blood loss. Mother came up with a wonderful idea!

This is a gown for Logan. The idea was to enclose him in a comfortable situation that would prevent him from licking the wound. It is just like a gown for a newborn baby really. I took two of my husband's undershirts and sewed them shirt-tale to shirt-tale. Then I cut the neck out of the bottom of the "gown" so that we could just tie the ends shut but be able to open it quickly and/or easily to remove Logan from the gown. We used strips of fabric to tie the gown to his collar. We did not want for him to be able to get his paw into the neck hole and just pull down to wriggle out. I cut off the sleeves of the t-shirt and sewed the area shut. I also lined the gown with a very heavy t-shirt to absorb any blood that may have seeped from the wound.

All of the white fabric that appears to be a blanket over the top of him is actually the gown that he is enclosed within. He has plenty of room to move around. As you can see, he has his front legs fully extended out in front of him.

I take him out of the gown/collar every couple of hours to go potty outside and get some water. I can quickly and easily check his wound without even waking him by just untying the bottom of his gown. We used one of the plastic tablecloths that has the soft batting on the underside as a layer of protection for the furniture. He has a kennel but sleeping on the furniture is his preference; he is more comfortable there and rests much better. The large tablecloth is turned plastic-side down and then a few layers of his blankets give padding and layers of absorption (if necessary).

His condition is very critical and he will require continuous care for the next 7-10 days until we can see if the medication will lessen his anemic condition. Even though Logan is just an old dog, he is a creation of our Heavenly Father. It is good for the girls to help with Logan's care. It is good for the things "on our schedule" to be set aside to care for Logan. He might live for years to come or these could be his last days. It is my prayer that God would be glorified, even through the life of an old dog.

"And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good." ~~Genesis 1:25

"22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." ~~Galatians 5:22-23

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If you ever happen to find yourself in need of a gown such as this for one of your family pets, just drop me an email and I will be happy to make one for you. mrs_klause@yahoo.com

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posted by Mrs. Klause

March 5, 2008

Music: Magnify The Lord

This is a radiograph of something called a "torus fracture". I had never heard of such a fracture. Another way of saying it would be a "buckle fracture". The orthopedic doctor described it like this: "When you stack cardboard boxes on top of one another until the bottom box "breaks". The bottom box is not actually crushed and it is not broken into pieces, but it is broken by being buckled. The same phenomenon happens in a torus fracture." It is most common in fracture of the forearm in young children.

Hmmm.... who knew?

Kennedy fell out of the bed, while sleeping. We spent Tuesday getting x-rays at the hospital and then visiting the pediatrician's office and then later a trip to the orthopedic's office. She picked out a purple cast and will need to wear it for three weeks. She broke both of the bones in her arm. :0(

Children are amazing at their ability to adapt. She has switched right over to using her left hand without any trouble at all. I am thankful it was not more serious.

posted by Mrs. Klause