BS: Non-Music...gonna be a long night

Subject: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: Mudlark
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 05:28 AM

Black night and the corgis raced off barking and Mikey, a touching youngster who has always been accident prone, came tearing back in the house drooling, squinting one eye and obviously deeply frightened. He is very skittery at best, and when i finally put him up on the kitchen table in strong light, all I could find were a couple of red marks on the right side of his nose and another at the edge of his right eye. He also smelled peculiar.

This is rattler country--his mother has already been bitten--but I dont THINK these red marks are punctures, but it's a hot night and I've had big rattlers right in the yard.

The peculiar odor doesn't smell exactly like skunk...not quite that bad, but equally persistent, a smell that lingers at the back of the throat. But if he got into it with a skunk badly enough to have been wounded, I would have thought there would be no question...he'd be drenched.

This happened at midnight...it's 2:30 now, and I'll stay up watching him for another hour or so and hope his breathing stays normal. The nearest emergency clinic is about 2 hours away over a bad road, so I'm not anxious to haul him into the vet if it's not necessary. On the other hand, if it is a snake bite and the venom hits his respitory system, that 2 hour drive may be about 2 hours too long.

At times like these it is particularly hard to be alone. Making these decisions all by myself, after 40 years of being married to a highly intelligent can-do guy, is about the hardest thing I've ever done. Anyway, I'm glad I have Mudcat to while away these waiting hours. Please excuse the non-music thread...just needed to connect.

Subject: RE: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: Banjer
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 05:39 AM

Mudcat, here's hoping for the best for Mikey. If he has made it this far, given his size he will hopefuly survive his ordeal. I would think a snake bite would travel very fast once in the system. Good luck to ya, and do keep us abreast of his condition!

Subject: RE: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: gnu
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 05:42 AM

Heart and prayers with you. Just stay calm.

Subject: RE: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: Mudlark
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 05:49 AM

Thanks, guys. I appreciate the input. He is sleeping quietly, breathing is OK so far, so I'm hoping for the best.

Subject: RE: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: greg stephens
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 06:38 AM

Subject: RE: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: Morticia
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 08:42 AM

any news?

Subject: RE: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: Sorcha
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 10:27 AM

Oh dear......I hope he is OK. Please let us know how things go. I would lose my mind if anything happened to one of my Corgis.

Subject: RE: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: Amergin
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 10:49 AM

Oh jesus, Mudlark.....I hope he'll be ok....

Subject: RE: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: Mudlark
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 12:09 PM

Mikey seems to be OK this morning...I finally went to bed about 4:30, after checking him, giving him a dog biscuit, which he gobbled, and seeing no swelling developing, no breathing problems. And he fine this morning, and raring to go, no doubt to do battle all over again, to boldly go where no canny corgi would.

Thanks so much for all your concern...alone at 1 AM with a major worry, I feel especially blessed to be able to come to Mudcat. No more nocturnal rambles for these guys...I think the extreme drought is bringing the wild things closer than they usually come...saw a gorgeous coyote INSIDE my pasture fence a couple of mornings ago.

Subject: RE: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: Ebbie
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 12:15 PM

So glad there was a happy outcome. And maybe Mikey today is an educated dog.

Subject: RE: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: Banjer
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 12:16 PM

GOOD NEWS!!!! Glad to hear that all appears well! I was almost dreading opening this thread for fear what I might find. So glad all is well with the litle guy!! God Bless you, Mudlark, for caring enough to sit up with him all night!!

Subject: RE: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: RichM
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 01:15 PM

There are several animals that are musky-smelling...foxes and weasels come to mind
...and some non poisonous snakes have a strong odor from a belly gland, for instance: garter snakes...

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 05:48 PM

If Mikey is anything like my aunts' dog Laddie, he won't learn... he'll be out there first chance to get the sucker back.... Luckily Laddie only came back with a grass snake from the back pasture, and coyotes are unusual, if not rare in deepest darkest Dorset.... but it took a couple of mouthfuls from grass snakes to teach him not to go play with the nests.

The cows had a better way of dealing with them, they just pooped on them..... cows on an all grass diet ..... don't know whether it drowned them or suffocated them!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 05:49 PM

Like Banj, I was almost afraid to open this one to read the outcome. So glad to hear he is okay!! Thanks for lettng us know!

luvyakat

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: Sorcha
Date: 13 Jul 02 - 06:43 PM

Oh, I am so glad! Can't stand to thing of Corgis being miserable. A good friend lost his Irish Wolfhound (age 5) last week and he is inconsolable. We don't even know why yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: Hrothgar
Date: 15 Jul 02 - 07:44 AM

As Henry Lawson pointed out in his story "The Drover's Wife," all snake dogs get bitten by snakes eventually. So if yours thinks he's a snake dog, do your best to discourage him.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Music...gonna be a long night
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 16 Jul 02 - 04:15 AM

Whoa! Somehow I missed the connection with your line about the Corgis, and also overlooked the word "vet"...so you can imagine what reading your post about your "youngster" did to this pediatrician's blood pressure. In your next post I was a bit taken aback by the dog biscuit, but then I finally saw the word Corgi again and figured it out. It's not that I don't care about dogs, you understand, but...

Aloha,
Mark