Friday 19 November 2010

On the mend

Following my near death experience I had to spend 3 days in the vet hospital. I had special photos taken all over. The only problem showed up on my right hind leg picture, but it was a big problem.


Never mind the broken bone, can you see my tail? 

The vet took pictures from different sides, all while I was asleep. Who knows what else they might have done!

The lovely vet lady that fixes broken bones had to order a special metal rod to stick my bone back together, so I had to wait an extra day for the operation. Now my leg looks like this on the special photo (from 2 different views):

You can even see the staples that were on the outside of my leg. They have gone now though. There were some fragments of bone shattered that are just hanging around inside somewhere!

As Owner didn't come to see me, while I was drugged up, the hospital staff kept a diary for her. I think they were pleased that I managed to keep busy despite my injuries as I had reports such as "Drip proving impossible to manage this pm as dog keeps twisting itself up in it. Has also chewed off connector and dressing....dressed leg with no chew dressing"; "Trashed kennel and has pulled out I.V. and chewed up dressings".

Ha! - so much for the no-chew dressing!

When I went home my leg was sore - don't look if you're a bit squeamish!



Ready?




Are you sure?




OK then:





I was doped up on lots of pain killers when this photo was taken. This was the day I came home. Owner slept downstairs on the floor with me for the first 2 nights, but as I tried to get up and lie on top of her in the night that special treatment soon stopped!


Now my bum definitely looks big in this one! 

Can you believe they shaved my leg, but left my bum hairy?




I decided that after I got over the stubble growth I couldn't be bothered with keeping up the whole leg-shaving malarky - how do human ladies keep up with it all? It would take me ages to do all 4!

In case you're wondering the red blob in the photo is the chewed off end of one of my kong goodie bones! 

It was a couple of weeks before I was allowed to even lead walk, and then a couple of months before I was allowed to run. That was really difficult once I started feeling a bit better! My 6 week post-op X-ray showed I had a bit of a screw loose! It's funny because Owner used to say that before I even broke my leg!

I had to go and see a lady called Ruth who is a physio-terrier-ist. She likes to prod and poke and fiddle with my leg a lot. Sometimes she makes me go swimming too - I get to play with lots of tennis balls in the pool! (I love tennis balls).

When I started seeing the physio-terrier-ist, I could hardly bend my leg, but now I am running and jumping around like anything! I still go for prodding, poking and fiddling to keep my leg flexible, but other than that I am NFM.


(Normal For Millie)

Monday 15 November 2010

Near Death Experience!

It was a year ago today that Owner thought I was a goner!

We were having a lovely run around on Dartmoor (well, I was having a run and Owner was walking) - just like today when we went to the same place. I did a lot of to-ing...

...and fro-ing (Does my bum look big in this?!):


On our travels we met a lovely Border Terrier who I thought would like to have a sniff and a bit of a play.

Turns out that the lovely BT was actually a grump & didn't want to say hello. She snapped at me and chased me off (I know! I was surprised too!). Then a weird thing happened - her humans called me over "Milly come here", so over there I went. Grumpy BT went too. Then grumpy BT snapped at me again & chased me right off the path and down the hill. I ran up back up to the path & kept going at full pelt. This was my view:

You can imagine that it seemed nothing out of the ordinary to just run straight ahead, especially with a little whipper snapper at your heels and tail!

My next view was this:

Yikes! Too late!

Owner had gone ahead thinking I'd catch her up when I'd finished larking around. The next thing she heard was a gasp from the other 2 humans and then nothing. 

This was me sitting at the top of the bridge today - it's really high isn't it?! 


I heard Owner say "Is there a drop there?" because from her angle you couldn't see a drop (tell me about it!). Then I heard Owner say a rude word & saw her rush down the side of the bank towards me. 

I was lying on the ground just beyond the rocks you can see in the photo. My leg hurt so badly I couldn't move, whimper, or even open my eyes. Owner thought I was dead already. Then she was thinking of head injuries,  and internal ruptured "this, that & the other". 

The other 2 humans were really kind. The lady put her jacket around me and the man spoke to someone on his iBone. Even the grumpy BT came over and gave me a sniff. Apparently she's called Milly. Well I wasn't to know the humans were calling Milly with a "y" and not an "ie" was I?

The man knew a local farmer who came out with his Landrover. While we were waiting for the emergency transportation to arrive, Owner knelt down next to me and was stroking me and saying nice things just as if we were on the sofa together at home.

When the farmer arrived he scooped me up and into to back of the vehicle to drive me & Owner back to our car. Owner could see that my right hind leg was broken but she was still thinking about all the "this, that & the others" that might be wrong. 

When we went back today, I took a more sensible route down the bank!


As it was a Sunday and my usual vet was closed I had to go to the nearest vet hospital. Don't tell @WMPcsidogsmithy, but I think Owner might have driven a bit faster than she should have to get me to the hospital!

Good job it was just a Dartmoor Bridge and not the Rainbow Bridge I went over!

Thursday 11 November 2010

Mini Millie

This is my 1st blog!

My name is Millie Dog. I'm sometimes known as No-Millie; Down-Millie; Naughty-Millie, but mostly just Millie, or Mills.

I was born on 11th January 2009 miles away from where I live now with Owner (@my-owner) & Lodger. This is the 1st picture Owner saw of me.

I was about 4 weeks old. I'm a bit embarrassed because I've got a podgy tummy & still have some of my lunch around my lips!

Owner came to visit me when I was 6 weeks old & I liked her straight away because she smelt of ham sandwiches!

I went home to live with Owner on 14th March 2009. This is a picture of me in the car on the snuggled in next to my vet bed & some newspaper in case I needed "to go"! I have always been a good snuggler - I started young & have had lots of practise. I'm best at snuggling with Owner!




I was very good on the journey to my new home & only did one wee. I wasn't sick, didn't poo & didn't cry hardly at all. Owner promised me that once I settled in at home & got over missing my dog Mum & brothers & sisters I would have the best life ever and she was right!



I liked to change my position a bit during the journey to check out the best position to sleep in! It took all day to travel.

When we got home I had a look around the garden. There were three lavender plants next to each other. Now there is only one! The middle one I ate, and the right hand one I wee'd on lots and it died!



 This was my 1st meal at home.



 And this is me safe & sound in my crate. (I'm at the bottom right of the photo!)


 I looked tiny in there then, but I have grown into it since then! Owner gave me lots of toys to keep me company.