Tuesday June 10, 2008 Harry, who is usually up all night and sleeping till at least 11am (artists....), got up early in the morning with me so he could drop me at my office (with only the one little car he'd have to drop me off then go) then head to Ft. Wayne in order to get back to the Pokagon Veterinary Hospital and Dr. Zimmer around 9am. Dr. Zimmer had stressed that he felt Abby was in very good hands in Ft. Wayne, that he felt she was getting excellent care where she was, but we wanted her closer to home and also felt maybe a rural veterinary hospital might not be as expensive as the one in the big city. So I went to work an hour early and Harry went to Ft. Wayne. The plan was that I would use my work's car and meet him at Dr. Zimmer's at around 9.
I pulled into Dr. Zimmer's just a few minutes after 9, Harry pulled in just a minute or two later. Abby got out of the car with one of those big plastic "lamp shade" collars (I guess the technical name is e-collar, at least that is how it was itemized on the bill) and a plastic guard "buttoned" to her nonexistent butt. I'm going to show you a picture of it and it's pretty ugly so be ready. ( 'Course there will be uglier pictures before we are done but you'll be able to see the amazing progress that has been made by Dr. Zimmer with this horrific wound.) My heart went out to her, it was the first time I'd seen her since we left her in Ft. Wayne on Saturday, she was moving slow but you could tell she was happy to see me. Her tail was waging. I had to wonder how she could even think about waging her tail. I would have thought it would really hurt but I guess I'm not to up on the anatomy of a dog, at least not what muscles do what, because I would have thought that the muscles that control her tail were gone considering the size of the hole on her back side.
It's kind of blurry to me right now but I'm pretty sure that it was Susie that greeted us and show us directly to an examination room. I will never, ever forget the look on Dr. Zimmer's face when he stepped into that room and took his first look at Abby, it was a holy crap look if I have ever seen one. A wow or woe or something like that involuntarily came out of his mouth and he kind of stepped back and just looked at it for what seemed like a few minutes at least.
Dr. Zimmer sat down in a chair in the corner and looked at us and said what would you do if I told you to turn around and take her back to Ft. Wayne. I said "well, I guess if that is what you told me to do that is what I would have to do, but I'd rather not." He had also reminded me that she had been getting very good care there. I told him I knew that but I had heard good things about him and he was closer to home and I thought he might not be quite as expensive (not that his care was of any lessor quality, just that things usually do cost more in the city than they do in the smaller rural areas) . Then I asked him what would he do if she was his dog? His answer was that he had the facility to take care of her and he would be able to do so, course being a veterinarian I guess my question was a bit silly but I wanted to know his honest opinion, would you put her through what she is going to have to go through? He said, she will recover from this, it's going to be a few bad weeks (the folks in Ft. Wayne had already told us it would take at least all summer for this wound to heal) but she will recover. That made me relax a bit. My original feeling that no bones had been hit, no organs and no major arteries, she was still the healthy old gal she had been before she had been shot, she just had a big hole where her butt used to be, I couldn't even consider putting her down. Money or no money I would find a way to take car of the vet bills and allow my furry companion to live out her life as originally intended before some crazy farmer felt he could end it for her early.
Dr. Zimmer asked us to leave Abby there, he would take a closer look and let us know what he thought could be done. We took a couple pictures for evidence sake, I asked him if I could leave my camera so they could get some pictures of the wound, it was hard to really get the full impact with the plastic guard thing over it. "No, no, don't leave your camera, I'll take pictures for you with my digital camera." So we patted Abby and left her at Pokagon Veterinary Hospital. I was starting to feel better, things were going to be fine. I knew that even if Dr. Zimmer's fees were as much or more than in the city, Abby was closer to home and still in very capable hands.
I pulled into Dr. Zimmer's just a few minutes after 9, Harry pulled in just a minute or two later. Abby got out of the car with one of those big plastic "lamp shade" collars (I guess the technical name is e-collar, at least that is how it was itemized on the bill) and a plastic guard "buttoned" to her nonexistent butt. I'm going to show you a picture of it and it's pretty ugly so be ready. ( 'Course there will be uglier pictures before we are done but you'll be able to see the amazing progress that has been made by Dr. Zimmer with this horrific wound.) My heart went out to her, it was the first time I'd seen her since we left her in Ft. Wayne on Saturday, she was moving slow but you could tell she was happy to see me. Her tail was waging. I had to wonder how she could even think about waging her tail. I would have thought it would really hurt but I guess I'm not to up on the anatomy of a dog, at least not what muscles do what, because I would have thought that the muscles that control her tail were gone considering the size of the hole on her back side.
It's kind of blurry to me right now but I'm pretty sure that it was Susie that greeted us and show us directly to an examination room. I will never, ever forget the look on Dr. Zimmer's face when he stepped into that room and took his first look at Abby, it was a holy crap look if I have ever seen one. A wow or woe or something like that involuntarily came out of his mouth and he kind of stepped back and just looked at it for what seemed like a few minutes at least.
Dr. Zimmer sat down in a chair in the corner and looked at us and said what would you do if I told you to turn around and take her back to Ft. Wayne. I said "well, I guess if that is what you told me to do that is what I would have to do, but I'd rather not." He had also reminded me that she had been getting very good care there. I told him I knew that but I had heard good things about him and he was closer to home and I thought he might not be quite as expensive (not that his care was of any lessor quality, just that things usually do cost more in the city than they do in the smaller rural areas) . Then I asked him what would he do if she was his dog? His answer was that he had the facility to take care of her and he would be able to do so, course being a veterinarian I guess my question was a bit silly but I wanted to know his honest opinion, would you put her through what she is going to have to go through? He said, she will recover from this, it's going to be a few bad weeks (the folks in Ft. Wayne had already told us it would take at least all summer for this wound to heal) but she will recover. That made me relax a bit. My original feeling that no bones had been hit, no organs and no major arteries, she was still the healthy old gal she had been before she had been shot, she just had a big hole where her butt used to be, I couldn't even consider putting her down. Money or no money I would find a way to take car of the vet bills and allow my furry companion to live out her life as originally intended before some crazy farmer felt he could end it for her early.
Dr. Zimmer asked us to leave Abby there, he would take a closer look and let us know what he thought could be done. We took a couple pictures for evidence sake, I asked him if I could leave my camera so they could get some pictures of the wound, it was hard to really get the full impact with the plastic guard thing over it. "No, no, don't leave your camera, I'll take pictures for you with my digital camera." So we patted Abby and left her at Pokagon Veterinary Hospital. I was starting to feel better, things were going to be fine. I knew that even if Dr. Zimmer's fees were as much or more than in the city, Abby was closer to home and still in very capable hands.
1 comment:
Poor Baby! That's just awful....her poor rear! I'll be checking back for new's on her healing process and hopefully the prosecution of the shooter!
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