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| Emma in her "hat" |
Emma had to go to the vet for an aural hematoma yesterday. You can read more about what that is here, if
you’re so inclined, but the very short version is that it’s kind of like a
blood blister. She had one on her left
ear about seven weeks ago and we took her to have it drained, but it has
reappeared.
We took her back to the vet yesterday and he drained it
again and put a small hole in as well, in hopes of allowing more drainage. The goal is to get rid of it without
surgery. We have to drain it three times
a day and put Neosporin on it.
Fortunately, my husband is going to be handling all, or at least most,
of the draining (stuff like that really gets to me).
Emma has to wear this odd little hat contraption to keep her
ear pressed close to her head, so it doesn’t flop around and bleed all over the
place. She managed to take the hat off
shortly after we got home yesterday and it wasn’t a pretty sight.
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| Emma in the hated no-bite collar |
Emma is very good at removing contraptions meant to keep her
from hurting a surgical site. We can’t
use a regular E-Collar on her because she knows how to take them off. Fortunately we held onto the no-bite collar we acquired when we first learned that E-Collars don’t work. It has come in very handy over the years. She managed to remove the hat about every
five minutes last night, which the cats found very interesting. So in addition to Emma being able to scratch
her ear and it flopping around, the cats were trying to play with her
ears. Who knew that dog ears were fun
cat toys?
So we opted to add the no-bite collar to her get up. It keeps the new hat in place and prevents
her, and the cats, from getting to her ear.
She hates the no-bite collar.
It looks pretty uncomfortable and it’s the one thing she can’t finagle
her way out of. I think it also offends
her sense of style. When I took her out
this morning she seemed to be in a hurry to go back inside once she realized
the neighbor’s dog was out. Poor thing,
I think she didn’t want the other dogs to see what her parents were making her
wear.
Emma is also on
antibiotics, since she has an open wound.
For most dogs this doesn’t present much of a challenge, you just put the
pills in some Velveeta cheese and they scarf it down, or with some dogs you
just hand them the pill. It doesn’t work
that way with Emma. She isn’t very food
motivated. She only eats things she
likes, and only when she’s hungry. She
also doesn’t trust Velveeta cheese. Not
at all. She understands that humans are
devious and like to hide things dogs don’t like in it. She also doesn’t trust soft dog treats,
peanut butter, or hot dogs. I (the pills
are my job, since my husband is doing the draining) am currently hiding the
pills in hardboiled eggs. I’m not sure
why they work, maybe it’s because the smell is so strong, but they work, at
least for the time being. I think
getting a hard boiled egg also offers some small consolation for her unfashionable
hat.
