Of Dogs and Fires

Life is such an adventure. The day after our last ride, one of my dogs, Ash, came up with a nasty swelling on his face. I was scheduled to get out to shoe some horses at 9am, and just knew when I saw the dog that I was going to be late. Our vet is in exactly the opposite direction from where I needed to go, and of course there's no way of knowing how long it would take. Would the vet give him Benadryl and some anti-inflammatories and send us on our way? Would Ash be staying?

Upon examining the swelling, I quickly determined that I really couldn't be sure what it was. There was no puncture wound or bite mark of any kind. It just looked like somebody had stuffed a racquetball in the poor dog's face. On top of that, there was a lot of edema, which had succumbed to gravity and filled Ash's hound-like "wattles." Poor dog looked like a pelican! It was also clear that, although he didn't object to it being poked or squeezed, the swelling was making Ash very uncomfortable. He would start to shake his head and stop. On our walk, he stayed right beside me or behind me, unusual in that he normally runs ahead with Mac.


I loaded Ash up and let my client know what was going on. I am very fortunate that I have very understanding clients. Since all of them own animals themselves, they know what it's like to find something wrong. I drove Ash the 45 minutes to the vet's office and waited to be seen. The vet examined Ash quite carefully, even feeling and looking in his mouth trying to find some sort of entry tract. She immediately suspected an abscess, but was very concerned because of the location. It was very close to his airway, and it's size prevented her from palpating different structures. Just could not be sure what or where it was. So I left Ash to be treated and headed out on my way.


The ranch I was working at is a cellular phone dead zone. I don't think any services work there. I warned the vet's office before I left that I wouldn't be reachable until I was finished with the horses. So I went to work and finished up as quickly as I could. It was after 1pm before I left the place.


As soon as I got back into a service zone, my phone lit up like a Christmas tree. I stopped at a restaurant for lunch and started checking voice mails, text messages, and emails. The vet had called to inform me that Ash had a truly monstrous abscess, and please call back to authorize further treatment. There was an email from East County Magazine reporting a fire between Potrero and Campo.


Well, that's not good news! I ate lunch while researching where the fire – dubbed the Cowboy fire – was in relation to home. About twenty miles north-east of home. The winds were low, but all reports indicatied that the fire was burning hot and fast. Adding to that problem, the area in which the fire was burning was inaccessible to ground crews. The fire was being fought entirely with air support.

I returned home as quickly as possible. The smoke from the fire was a huge black cloud, highly visible from my front porch. I had planned to go to the YMCA to take a core training class, but ditched that idea against the possibility of the wind shifting and/or kicking up. I needed to be here in the event – however unlikely -- the fire shifted. I would still have to make the trip to pick up Ash from the vet.


When I arrived at the vet's office, I immediately said that I needed to get the heck out of there as quickly as possible because of the fire. They had no idea there was a fire. Ash was still groggy and out of it. The vet doesn't like to send dogs home unless they're completely alert, but the staff knows me well. I've taken home dogs that were completely out. The staff convinced the vet (she's new to this hospital, so she doesn't know me yet) to let Ash go before he was fully alert. We got Ash out to the truck with the aid of a towel wrapped around his midsection and shoveled him into the truck. He looked completely ridiculous. I took the e-collar off him pretty early in the ride home, which seemed to help out a great deal. I hate e-collars….

Before we got home, Ash was alert. Still tired, but alert enough to get himself out of the truck and go find a place to pee. I got him in the house and gave him his medication. He's got three drugs. Tramadol, Rimadyl, and Clavamox. Painkiller, anti-inflammatory, and antibiotic respectively. He's been a very happy camper on these drugs. He's not easy to pill, unfortunately. I tried poking a pill into a piece of hot dog, which he took, started chewing, and spit the pill out. I tried putting it in peanut butter, which he refused. So, I had to shove them down his throat. This may not sound like a big deal, but my whole hand fits in his mouth! It feels a little like sticking my head in the lion's mouth. Not really, he's very sweet and gentle. Still, his mouth is so big I can shove all four pills in at once and get him to swallow them. He doesn't like it, and if he really did not want to take the pills, there's probably little I could do about making him take them.


By this time the fire was well over 400 acres. While it had caused the Campo Elementary School to evacuate, it hadn't threatened any structures and there were no other evacuations. I kept up on the news until I went to bed. In the morning, the smoke cloud was significantly smaller and I felt safe to leave to work.

I couldn't leave Ash home. First of all, he's got this huge drain poking out of his face, and Mac is a problem. While I don't have to worry about Ash messing with the stitches or drain, Mac will worry at them. Also, he needed a dose of Tramadol at 2pm. There was no way I'd be home in time to give him that dose. So, once again I loaded Ash and just took him with me.


Ash has never gone with me to work. He's such quiet dog, though, that I wasn't worried about it. Not only that, but he's pretty heavily drugged! The biggest problem I expected to encounter was that the first ranch we were going to has a no-dogs policy. It's way too hot to leave him in the truck. No problem, I'll just tie him up. Okay, problem. Upon hooking him up to the tie-out, I realized that his collar would interfere with and irritate the drain. I tried putting a horse halter around him. No dice. Same problem. So I let him loose, and my assistant and I just kept our eyes on him and kept on the look-out for the ranch manager. Ash hung out pretty much right where we were, selecting bits of horse hoof to chew on and laying in the nice cool grass. The only people who saw him didn't care. Got through that!


Over the course of the day, we learned that the Cowboy fire was burning back on itself and that weather conditions were expected to stay favorable. That felt like a bullet dodged! Ash got lots of attention and fawned over by everybody who met him. He had a great day, and was absolutely pooped by the time we got home! He sure slept well that night.


Ash looks a great deal better now.  The abscess swelling is nearly gone, but we still have to deal with the nasty drainage!