Shadeaux nearly died last night.

[angledge]

hotpantsgalore called me last night & says, "I'm on my way home from the vet's."

Last night, as usual, Shadeaux was playing in our backyard with several of our neighbor's dogs, including Duke & Lexi. The humans were chatting with each other, when suddenly they heard Duke whining. He & Shadeaux were locked together, & the first impression was that they were fighting. But when folks ran over to separate them, it turned out that somehow Shadeaux's choke chain collar had got wrapped around Duke's lower jaw, & it was throttling her. Every time Duke moved, it tightened the chain, & he was scared & trying to get away.

Everyone was trying to get them loose. Shadeaux passed out. Her tongue was sticking out & was purple. She lost control of her bowels. And still, nobody could get the chain off of Duke's jaw. Duke's owner told me later that he was steeling himself to try to break Duke's lower canines in order to get the chain off. Then B*, our downstairs neighbor, who works at the Houston Zoo, somehow managed to manipulate the loose skin around Duke's throat & mouth in a way that allowed the chain to come free. Shadeaux came loose into hotpantsgalore's arms, & HPG thought Shadeaux was dead. But B* found her pulse, & so then the race to the vet started. One neighbor called ahead to let the vet know what was coming in, but then another neighbor said - "Where's Lexi?"

In all the fearful commotion, one of the other dogs had been frightened enough to flee the yard. But HPG had no time to help look for her. She got to the vet, who listened to Shadeaux's lungs & heard fluid. He gave her a steroids shot, & gave HPG some antibiotics. Apparently there is a risk of pneumonia. But overall Shadeaux was fine last night, just subdued & lethargic. I will get an update when HPG gets up this morning.

Happily, our local crackheads found Lexi last night & returned her, completely unharmed. In fact, all of the dogs seem to already be moving past this accident.

Why, why, why, why did we let Shadeaux wear a choke chain as her daily collar for so long? I knew it wasn't a good idea - but it looked cute, & HPG & I could never agree on what color collar to get for her. Now I realize that I couldn't care less if HPG goes to Petco today & buys a pink & purple camoflague collar with a Dallas Cowboys tag on it. My dog is never wearing a choke chain again.

I am once again left so deeply thankful for my neighbors. And for my dog being alive.

OK, off to work now. There are FEMA subgrant applications to write.

Comments

[cygnoir.livejournal.com]

My goodness, what a terrifying thing to happen. I'm so glad your dog -- all the dogs -- are all right.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

It's the humans who are still messed up.

HPG feels bad that she didn't know what to do to free Shadeaux.
B* feels bad that she was willing to hurt Duke in order to help Shadeaux (since I wasn't there, I'm not really clear on how she got that chain loose, so I don't know how it hurt Duke. But she SAVED MY DOG, so at some level I don't care.)
M* feels bad that he was considering breaking his own dog's teeth off.
I feel bad because I am so far from home & can't help.

[love2loveher.livejournal.com]

OMG. I'm so glad that everything turned out alright. I can't imagine.

I'm a big fan of the martingale collars. They have the benefits of a choke, but not the chain. Premier has them in all sorts of pretty colors. Rox and Tucker wear them, so I'd be interested to know if you think the same thing could happen with that collar!

[angledge.livejournal.com]

Even from a distance, it was pretty horrifying.

Since I wasn't there & didn't actually see HOW Shadeaux's collar got caught in Duke's mouth, I don't know if it could happen with the Martingale collars.

[thepikey.livejournal.com]

Man, I don't KNOW about this year so far. Lots of scary close-call incidents.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

This one seems to have ended well, at least for the dogs. The humans are still a little shaky.

Actually, Shadeaux probably thought it was AWESOME because last night she finally achieved one of her Life Goals - she got to sleep in the bed! The human bed! WOO-HOO!

[love2loveher.livejournal.com]

God Bless Dogs. They don't know all the emotions behind an incident, they can go through whatever, and somehow they come out of it LOVING US.

[bad-latin.livejournal.com]

So, so, so scary. I'm so glad you're all okay.

[lovellama.livejournal.com]

Yowza! Very relieved they got to her in time.

[hermiston.livejournal.com]

Good grief, what a terror. I am relieved to hear all the dogs were okay in the end. Your neighbours sound legendary.