Today's Keyboard Smash

[scrubjayspeaks]

[Content warning: animal injury]

Unfortunately, those eight hours yesterday did not mean we would actually get results the same day. It was an act of pure optimism to suppose otherwise. They still have to send the blood draws out for testing. So I took home my very sad doggo last night with no further information and also no more toenails on said doggo.

We warned them, the dim bastards, that she's been gnawing on her feet. We offered them the cone of shame we've been making her wear. They insisted they had plenty of cones available and wouldn't want to lose ours. Apparently not quite enough cones, though, because when I got her home I discovered she had chewed every nail but two down to bloody nubs. Which meant she spent eight hours, un-coned, with them ignoring and/or failing to notice she was obsessively eating her own feet. Which doesn't inspiring a lot of fucking confidence in the doctor's support staff, at the very least!

I can't sleep, because I hear her gnawing in the night. (She can't wear the cone in my room. We tried. She launched a tower fan across the room. She's...extra clumsy in the cone.) I try to get her to chill out by petting her, which works for a little while, until either I fall asleep again or she gets too wound up to resist the impulse any longer. And I don't know if she does this because her skin is itchy and irritated or because she's anxious about the various or both or neither.

I'm really lucky I'm not running a machine at the moment. I'm so tired, I'm dozing off with my face in the microscope eyepieces. If I run a machine, I may lose an arm. No, these machines aren't really capable of taking off an arm, but I feel I would find a way somehow.

I need a nap, and a snack, and, like, thirty uninterrupted minutes of zero responsibilities, worries, or productivity. The snack, at least, I can manage: the coworker I traded biscotti to has come through with the promised beef jerky in return. I may regret eating at work--dinner is a long way off--but damn it, I deserve jerky today.

Comments

[harpers_child]

Oh goodness. Best wishes for your doggo. I hope you can get some decent sleep soon.

(Would you like the trick my parents used to keep our lab from chewing his feet when I was kid?)

[scrubjayspeaks]

Ooh, yes, I would love to know. According to the vet, the chewing isn't just a cause of infection, but actually an indication of an existing infection as well. So getting that under control *should* help. But she's a persistent sort, so I'm up for anything that will control the gnawing.

[harpers_child]

My dad gives blood as often as he's able so they've got a whole stockpile of that reusable bandage stuff that sticks to itself. Child's sock on the dog's foot and wrap the reusable bandage around the top tightly. Sometimes he'd do a double layer of sock and bandage depending on how bad the foot was / how determined the dog was to get the sock off. Changed 2-3 times a day to keep the sock from getting too dirty and leading to more infection.

Our lab-something mix was prone to yeast infections between his toes. It's not super fun for anyone.

[scrubjayspeaks]

Oh, vet wrap, yeah! I hadn't thought to use a child's sock--I wonder if mine would tolerate that better? We have some dog booties, but they're sized for the other, bigger dog, and mine just sort of abandons the concept of having legs when I put them on her. Amusing, in its way, but not ideal. Thanks for the tip!