A day or two after we had to put Charlie down :( we noticed that Sonnen's little tail looked quite raw. Thinking she just got it caught in something we decided to monitor it and see what happened. It got consistently worse the next few days but wasn't out of control, so we called the AVC and got advice and continued monitoring her. The rawness evolved into a cut on the underside of her tail which she seemed happy to ignore when she was out with us, so we weren't ecstatically concerned.
When she got up for the night on Wednesday (Jan 4) though things had turned ugly. There was blood covering a substantial part of her backside and there appeared to be a large chunk completely missing from her tail! Dr. Nielsen was on nights at the AVC and told us to come right in. Adriana (we are just about on a first name basis with our veterinarian, and know far too much about her personal life than we should now!) examined her and cleaned her up. She put Sonnen on 2 oral meds; one an anti-inflammatory, and an antibiotic. Then sent us home.
We went to bed (by now it was after 2 am) and got up around 7:30. Sonnen was once again covered in blood, and had been digging at her wound. We called the AVC but there was really nothing they could do except tell us that the meds needed a couple of days to start performing; so, that means we are on the clock, 24 hrs, making sure she doesn't hinder the healing of her wound.
Sound familiar?
She has had a good day though. We have kept her from messing around with her wound and it is looking cleaner and less inflamed than it has in days! We are praying for a speedy recovery, because with a new semester having just begun, reading assignments are starting to pile up already and I've a book review due in a few short weeks. It is unfair to UPEI to have to choose where my priorities lie.
So, we are back on the night shifts until we get out little one back to the place of health that God intends.