Sooo, Bibi has a cone on her head and some stitches in her face.
Rewind.
When we moved into this house, the backyard was a wreck. Everything was super overgrown and neglected. After cleaning up the trees and bushes, we were left with a big ol slab of concrete in the middle of the yard, which gave the place a prison-basket-ball-court kind of feel. It was a bummer but I kind of ignored it and the entire backyard for a while.
My mom took an interest in re-beautifying it, and helped me pick out and plant a bunch of new flowers and little bushes and ferns. It really helped! But we are now taking it a step further and ripping out half the concrete and putting in lawn! We’re also getting flagstones to cover the remaining cement. It is going to look spiffy out there!
Anyway, during all the back yard work, I figured the dogs would be bummed to not be able to do their business whenever they wanted, so we planned to stay with my parents during this time. We were there for two nights, when my mom woke up in the morning and said, “Do you think we need to take Bibi to the vet?” I had been awake for a little bit but my eyes had been closed, so everything was still kinda blurry. I couldn’t see what the big deal was. All of a sudden, I freaked out! She had two HUGE bloody gashes on her head, right above the eye, and little scrolls of skin scrunched underneath. It wasn’t bleeding very much, which was weird, but I when you can see white-ish fatty tissue dangling off your baby’s face, you kinda want to hurl and pretend it’s not real. She didn’t seem to be in pain, though.
There had been an altercation between Bibi and one of my parents’ dogs and he snapped at her. She has grown up around those dogs but nothing like this has happened before. She also has very thin, delicate skin, and not much hair to protect that skin, so she does run into bushes and stuff and rip gashes in her own skin, but I had never seen anything like this before. It was kind of shocking.
The vet said she needed stitches and might have to go under general anesthesia, so they had to keep her for the day to empty her stomach out as much as possible so she wouldn’t barf from being anesthetized. I felt so bad leaving her at the vet in a crate all day with her face dangling off her skull.
We picked her up later that evening, and she was super groggy, but my parents’ house is very stimulating and fun, and she kept trying to run around and do stuff with the other dogs, while she clearly would also start sagging and collapsing when standing still. We decided that I would take the dogs back to my house and just deal with her condition and also the lack of back yard.
Bibi was not raised to go to the bathroom on walks or tell me when she needs to go. We have always had a dog door so she could come and go as she pleased. She has only pooped once ever on a leash! So I worried about her refusing to poop on a walk! Although her new favorite thing to do on a walk now is EAT CAT POOP. So far, she has still not pooped on a walk. She seems to wait until the workers are done in the backyard, so I can let the dogs out at the end of the day and let them sniff around.
So life has been a bit hectic, making sure the dogs get walked often (but not for too long since Bibi’s pain meds make her tire quickly), making sure to wipe her eye boogers for her, making sure she’s not getting her e-collar stuck on or between furniture, waking up early to the sound of jackhammers, super sleep deprivation due to having to wake up at normal people early hours but still working very late into the night. It’s been an interesting few days, and she needs to have the cone in for like 10 more days! EEP!
I apologize if Etsy orders are getting shipped out a bit more slowly than usual! I’m doing my best to keep up with everything!
I’m putting other photos behind a cut, since I know some people might be curious about what Bibi looks like, but others might not want to see it….
Me and Bibi super tired yesterday.
FrankenBibi with a major eye booger.
Tried to get a pic of Bibi’s wound, but she didn’t stand still. The picture doesn’t really capture the DEPTH and shocking MEATINESS of the wound.
Poor Bibidog.
