Thursday, January 8, 2009

Our Boy Chopper - Tragic Accident



This past Friday, January 2, 2008, our boy Chopper was struck by a car in front of our home. The driver never stopped. I do not blame the driver for the accident, but am appalled that someone could hit any animal, and especially such a beautiful boy, and not stop. I still can't believe that he went out to the road as both he and Harley have been trained to stay away. This is something I train/re-inforce daily when I check the mail. Unfortunately, it only took him being out of my sight for a couple of minutes for him to be hit. Thankfully, I was able to get to him immediately and take him to Kinslow Veternarian Clinic here in Lebanon. I could tell his back left leg was broken badly but didn't know what else could be damaged.

For the first five hours it was touch and go. Dr. Amy Hastings was afraid that his bladder had been ruptured or that he might have other internal injuries. She didn't want to X-ray until he coule urinate. Dr. Amy and her staff hooked him up to an IV, gave him a little pain meds, and crated him. All we could do was wait to see if he could pee. I tell you I have never prayed for pee before! I called our friend Billy Murphy and asked if he would please post to our Leaps and Bounds Agility group list for prayers and positive thoughts. By 2 pm, we had pee! They immediately sedated him and took X-rays.

The breaks were really bad. The fibula was broken in several places but they were relatively clean breaks. The tibia was another story. It was broken into shards lengthwise, split to the crown on each end. Dr. Amy informed me that they were not equipped to repair this kind of damage, but could call in an orthopedic surgeon. They sent pictures of Chopper's x-rays to Dr. Paul Newman in Franklin, Tennessee, and within a few minutes he called back and said he thought he could repair and save the leg. We scheduled surgery for 8:30 the next morning, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2008.

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