Any vets around?

[ghostofoggs]

We live in a very rural area surrounded by forestry.
Our year old lurcher went off and came back a couple of hours ago with fresh blood on her chin chest and paws.
No visible signs of injury on dog. We suspected that she had found a deer carcass - shooters gut deer and leave the insides.
Dh went back out with her but found nothing.

She ate some food at tea time and slept.
Awoke suddenly whining and shaking.
She is now curled up in a tight ball and is shaking slightly.
Any advice? Our vet is over an hour away.

Call your vet and speak to them. Asap.

Vet asap.

Okay, I've rung the Vet.
He said it sounds like she's had a run in with something - deer/fox - and to just leave her overnight and see how she is in the morning.
She's following me around like a shadow, shallow breathing and still has a slight tremor. Hot dry nose. She refused some fresh ham I offered her.
Have run my hands all over her again and she is not flinching, but occasionally still giving a whimper.
Will put blanket on bedroom floor so I can keep an eye on her.
Poor love.

Thanks for responding.

Could you phone a different vet for advice? Even if she hasn't injured herself physically, she could be suffereing from shock. I don't like the wait and see approach, I'd be too scared to just wait when it's clear something is not right.

Hope she improves and is back to her usual self asap

How is she this morning? Must admit I didn't feel comfortable with the approach taken either.

Me neither.

How is she?

I would be worried she has eaten something that has been poisoned. Unless she is totally Ok this morning, I think you need to see another vet.

I hope she is OK.

She's a lot brighter today.

Last night she bled a little from inside her mouth and was swollen under her chin.
This morning she has eaten a dead mouse courtesy of the cats, and some sardines.

She is brighter,wags her tail and has been running around outside but the swelling is still there.It looks like it could be fluid filled.

Could possibly be that she has run onto a stick or been bitten by something. Bit of a mystery. Looks like the blood was hers though, rather than something elses and that she had it on her paws from scraping at her mouth.

We will be taking her to the Vet tomorrow morning regardless.

Glad to hear she is a lot brighter today. Bet you were worried last night. Hopefully the vet can shed some light on what might have happened and that she makes a full recovery.

Managed to get a look inside her mouth tonight and it looks like she has a huge blood blister type thingy pushing up from under her tongue.

This seems to support my thinking that she has been running with a stick and it has got rammed under her tongue. Not sure about the fluid filled swelling under her jaw. Don't think a stick could have gone right through, but will see what the Vet says tomorrow.

good luck for tomorrow, let us know how it goes x

Thanks, I will.

Consensus seems to be that she was most likely chewing sticks/running with stick and it rammed against something and cut under her tongue.
The Vet sedated her to have a proper look and to make sure there were no splinters. He said it was very badly bruised under her tongue but there were no fragments that he could find.
She's had antibiotics and he wants to see her again on Thursday.
She's had some food but is still blissed out and sleeping now.

Was a long day as I had to leave her to be sedated and collect her 2 hours later. It wasn't worth driving home so I sat and read a book.
I originally left for the Vets just before 12, and didn't get home until just after 5pm.

Sounds like she is going to be fine which is great to hear. Hope she is fully recovered really soon and that she has been put off chewing sticks.

I refuse to let my pup chew sticks. Instead, he chases empty plastic bottles!

It's hard to stop her chewing sticks as we live in the middle of hundreds of acres of spruce forestry (our nearest neighbours are a mile away). She is out and about all day with dh and on her own.

She doesn't only chew sticks. She loves water bottles too, and any of dh's tools she finds. He can be lying under a truck mending it and she will steal his spanner.
She has lots of little 'nests' where she accumulates all her treasures, and we regularly have to go and claim things back.
She has a particular fondness for croc type shoes.
She also waits until she hears the hens clucking and runs in and steals the eggs from the nesting boxes

Poor thing. She must have been in a great deal of pain

Poor little soul, she must of been in a lot of pain, stick injuries are horrible. Try taking a high value toy out on walks that only gets to be played with on walks, can help them stay away from sticks, try a small size soft football the ones with stuffing in, or a really fluffy soft toy, get her to carry it on walks and play with it with her/get her excited over it on the walk, can help a bit to distract from sticks.

She doesn't get walked as such.
Living where and how we do, the door is always open, so she comes and goes as she wants. No fences, walls or boundaries for hundreds of acres.
She spends most of day either with dh working in the woods and with the horses, with me as I do the chickens, etc or curled up asleep in a chair gently snoring.
She's currently sat in the driving seat of dh's truck watching him chainsaw logs.

Really glad she is on the mend. Your lifestyle sounds idyllic btw! Do you never worry, though, that something might happen to her out and about and you wouldn't be able to find her?

She doesn't really go far - tends to stay with either me or dh and if not with us then within earshot.
Our other lurcher is older, with bad feet and doesn't venture out much at all.