Sad Week

After 6 months of our dogs enjoying one another, their relationship suddenly changed last week. On Tuesday evening, on the eve of Bella's spay appointment, when Josiah walked outside, the dogs began to compete for his attention. Instead of the younger dog submitting to the older one, things began to escalate. Soon, they were tearing one-another apart. It took all of Ben's strength (good thing he was there) to pull them apart. The dogs were separated, and Josiah began to wash and examine their injuries. Their were several punctures and open wounds on both dogs. Both had extensive tears to their ears. Since nothing was bleeding out we cleaned them as best we could and went to bed.

On Wednesday morning at 7am, the dogs were taken separately to the pet hospital. Good thing they were already expecting us. Bella had come into heat, which explained her aggression. Since her wounds were not as extensive as Molly's we decided to go ahead with the spaying. (Notice Bella's "poodle legs" where they had to treat her puncture wounds. Her left ear had to have several stitches to put it back in place. They put it up on top of her head with a bandage to heal.)Molly's wounds were so deep that she needed stitching in five locations. Her puncture wounds were the most troublesome. She had to have a total of 17 drains put in her wounds to help with already growing infection and fluid. Both dogs were put on antibiotics and pain medication. Molly had to stay the night for observation. On Thursday Molly came home and was in so much pain that the vet allowed us to go ahead and give her extra pain medication. The drains bothered her so much that she didn't want to lie down. (If you look closely, you can see some of them...)She was exhausted. Once the extra meds kicked in we were able to talk her down onto the bed and she got some rest.

Both dogs are doing well now, but Bella has been given to the Irish Setter Rescue for re-homing. They will take her to have her stitches removed next week. It is our understanding that Bella is quite young to have competed for dominance in our home, and that the dogs might have never reconciled their differences. We would never have wanted to take the chance that the dogs could harm each other like this again, and there are many families waiting for Irish Setters in California. The families are screened carefully. I hope Bella will be happy. The good-bye was a bit tearful, but we feel it was for the best.