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On a lovely Saturday morning between rain showers Sarge, his people, and his pack were hanging out on the front porch. Sarge and his pack had grown up in the city. Even though Sarge himself had once lived out in the country for short period of time, he had grown used to a 4 foot tall fence to limit his access to roads and open spaces. We had just moved to the country with plenty of roaming space, along with no fencing. Though Sarge is very obedient, he still likes to wonder around, but with a simple “HEY!” he’d been running back to your side.
As I was saying, we were all on the front porch for a lovely Saturday morning chit chat. We have this chocolate-tri chihuahua (Vennie), who has this terrible habit chasing speeding cars. In a blink of an eye Vennie lunged off the porch and took chase of a silver truck pulling a trailer loaded with a tractor. Sarge being the herding dog and the protector that he is, went to “herd” Vennie back to the house. He cut between Vennie and the trailer when the vendor well clipped him on his left side.
Sarge rolled, twisted, and thrashed in such a manner that we believed he suffered spine damage at first. After a closer inspection we saw that it was only his left hind quarter and hip. Rushing him immediately to the nearest veterinary, we swaddled him in a blanket as tightly as we could in an attempt to immobilize him. After the friendly vet looked him over and done several x-rays it was determined that there was no internal bleeding, and all organs were undamaged. However, His pelvis has a chip broken off, which isn’t a concern and nothing can be done about. His upper leg (femur) was broken in two just below the hip joint, and his ankle was basically crushed. The bone damage was too extensive for the local vet to repair so he was referred to a bone specialist. There is only one in the state of Arkansas we were told, so we would have to travel.
After the specialist looked at the x-rays he determined that the “hip” would need several pins if not a plate and the ankle would need a custom built plate in order to repair the damage. Long term prognosis was that he would have a near complete recovery over a long period of time, but would suffer severe arthritic pain for the rest of his life. He may or may not be left with a slight limp. The second option was to amputate the leg entirely. Although he would only have three legs and would hop instead of walk, long term we were looking at less pain throughout the remainder of his life, and a much quicker recovery time.
After alot of discussion between family members and friends, and talking with Sarge, we have decided that the better option was to amputate his leg. Looking into his next 7 years and beyond with us, we believe he will be more comfortable with this decision and it’s outcome.
And so, the appointment has been made and we now wait….
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Poor Sarge,
Sounds like you have a good plan in place and Aussie’s are well, awesome so I bet he will do great. Feel free to ask questions as their is much experience here.
Penny
Thank you and we will keep that in mind. We plan on a quicker and harmless recovery and wish the operation would just hurry up and get here! We plan on posting again to night and pray that everything will go according to plan.
Oh wow you guys, I’m just now catching up on things. I’m so sorry you all went through such a traumatic event, I can’t imagine how awful that was. It’s awesome that he survived that ordeal and will be fine when this is all over. He’ll be just as unstoppable as ever before, and faster too (Tripawds always are) so no more chasing cars, ya hear Sarge?!
You are terrific pawrents for getting expert opinions and weighing all your options. Stay strong, be pawsitive and know that you can lean on us. Good luck to all of you and keep us posted.
We keep our heads on our shoulders and look back on it as if it was a sign from God. We pray for a quick and harmless recovery and plan for a good future.
Oh goodness–what a traumatic experience! It sounds like you have made a difficult, but well thought out decision for Sarge, the hero dog. My Nia girl and many others still live happy, pain-free lives without that fourth leg, I’m positive a great recovery for Sarge is underway.
Thank you. You know, God promises us that we won’t be asked to go through any ordeal without equipping us with the tools and strength that we need to get through it. Because of this promise, I know we will get through it and Sarge will thrive. Thank you all for your encouraging words.
I’m so sorry that your boy got hurt but I have to say what an amazing dog he must be, to protect at such a high cost! Be very proud of your brave little man! Good luck and I hope it’s an easy recovery.
Thank you so very much. And yes, we’ve always thought he was a special dog, but watching him recover these past couple of weeks he has shown us so much about true love, faith, and commitment to family. He is one very special and amazing boy.