Poor Prune... she has had a tough time of it of late.
At the end of April we travelled to Chesterfield to the Hairless Hearts UK HCM scanning clinic in Chesterfield for Prunella’s first heart scan - which was A1 - and at the same time she had come into heat so I dropped her off for mating on route back.
All was going well until she arrived back to me lame on her left side back leg which she would not put down at all. There was no open wound but a toe was at a very odd angle indeed. We went to the vet and she was booked for x-ray which needed to be done under general anaesthetic the next day.
The news came while she was still under that her toe was dislocated and this brought with it several possible outcomes - which included surgery, pinning and even amputation of the toe. Mark, our vet had struggled to re-locate the toe while she was under and told me he was almost ready to stop trying and recommend the surgical route when he managed to feel it go back in place. Re-x-rayed the toe was almost perfectly in position. The splint option was now our method of choice, albeit this is not guaranteed to be a success and she will risk the toe coming back out again later as the ligaments may never re-grip the joint properly after so much damage.
The splint now meant her having weekly revisits for re-dressing and also enforced bed rest... for several weeks. Poor little girl. She had had so much trauma and this felt awful as I dislike caging my pets, but needs must.
On the Friday evening she came home and I duly popper her with heated snuggle pet into her cage, with food, blankets, water and litter tray. She was not happy and cried to come out, wriggled so much that her blanket was constantly in her water bowl. I placed in a snuggle sack to try to help her settle and stop the water logging issue. She was not happy to use the litter tray either with this bulky splint and dressing which encased her kneed to toes, crying for several minutes to no avail before urgency to go made her use the tray provided. She is quite the burier too and so for the next few weeks I was constantly sweeping up litter! However, what came late on Sunday night was sighting her in her litter tray squatting to wee but now she was minus her splint!! 😲😲😲
Now, I had been given a “cone of shame” to use should she start to bite at the dressings but she had not done this at all that I’d seen so where was it?
In her blanket, looking like a miniature blue mummy was her miter dressing which had slipped off intact as she wriggled and wriggled around in her snuggle sack trying to get comfy.
Now what to do? I had just spent over £450 in vets fees with £50 more to come each week and did not wish to see this wasted. Yes, she is insured and I would get much of this back, but I must pay up front and the claim will take several weeks to process. I unwrapped her dressings studying how each layer was put on, then, with Pru held against me, her head and body under my right elbow I had essentially headlocked her so I could re-splint her as best I could.
I then proceeded to worry ALL night in case I’d wrapped it too tightly and cut off circulation which would then mean she lost her WHOLE lower leg. The morning could not come soon enough and as soon as it dawned I was on the phone to the vet and back we went.
The toe still looked straight. Did it need a new x-ray,though? We decided not, and the vets resplinted her as I held her still and away we went back to her cage until Friday’s scheduled appointment.