Elizabeth Collars are not my preferred form of fashion. エリザベスカラーはもうごめんだ。。。

As a rough and tumble dog, I have had my share of minor injuries. A few twisted joints, sore paws, and of course, the time my nose was bitten by a very unfriendly snake. In February of 2022 though, I had my first injury of the year and the worst injury I have ever had.

While playing in a local park I sliced open the carpal pad on my right leg. That is the pad that is kind of above my ankle, not one of the ones that leaves a footprint when I walk on the ground. I am not really sure what happened. I was chasing a ball and then I felt something happen. I didn’t cry out or anything, and I DID get the ball, but on the way back to Dad, I stopped to lick the wound. Dad came over to look and called an end to play time when he saw that there was more than a little blood. Not that there was a lot of blood. But there was blood.

Dad is not the best doctor. He did the best he could, but he knows his limitations, so recognizing that this injury was worse than usual, he brought me to my regular vet. The regular vet, is OK and his assistants always give me treats, but I can’t say I was assured by his assessment and treatment plan. Basically he gave me a few days of pain killers, wrapped it up, and sent me on my way. Not to hurt Dad’s feelings, but his wrapping was much better than what dad had managed to do.

All is well and good. For a day. But then the bandage needs to be replaced. And no one considered the fact that I do not really like bandages on my legs and that I do like to use my mouth and tongue to keep myself clean (by that I mean clean enough for me and Dad, but not clean enough for Mom who still insists I take regular baths…).

After a few days of dealing with this, it was decided to bring me to a bigger animal “hospital” that has doctors that are used to dealing with more serious injuries than my regular vet. I was not involved in this decision making process, but as is my nature, I went along without any complaint.

Here I was told that there were two options:

1. Keep it protected and let it heal, and we will see how it looks in a few weeks.

2. Put me under general anesthetic, and close the wound with stitches.

Personally, I am not a huge fan of the idea of surgery. I have friends who went to the doctor for some kind of surgery and when they came back home, they were missing “bits” that they were not expecting to lose. The doctor also checked how my wound was doing, because despite the idea that licking one’s wounds is a good thing to do to keep a wound clean turns out not to be true. Who knew that licking a wound actually introduces bacteria to the wound and makes things worse? I sure didn’t. He ended up prescribing a week’s worth of medicine to kill the bacteria in my wound. His prescription got worse when he said I would also need to wear an Elizabeth Collar to keep me from doing what dog’s do. I have never worn an Elizabeth Collar before and I hope I never have to wear one again.

When I first got the collar, I was so confused. I would move my head as normal, but I kept hitting walls and doors and chairs and trees. When I got outside, I could not even get myself to mark a tree next to the animal hospital because I could not maneuver myself into the correct position. I just froze in place! When I got home, it wasn’t much better. I couldn’t jump on the sofa because the side of the collar kept hitting the edge of the sofa. Mom and Dad moved some furniture to give me more space. I did not want to lay down, but finally, I was so tired, I had to get some sleep. I just slept on the floor and did not move til morning.

Don’t worry though. This story has a happy ending. I managed to figure out how to get around in the collar. A few weeks passed. My leg seems to have healed up and now I am back to play as normal.

I hope I never have to wear that collar again!

僕はまた怪我しちゃった。たいした怪我じゃなかったんだけど、僕がペロペロなめないように、ママとパパは僕に変な帽子をかぶせることにした。エリザベスカラーっていうんだって。生まれて初めてこんな変な帽子をかぶったよ。初めての日は帽子が邪魔で動けなくて、全く寝られなかった。生まれて初めて寝不足になった！　パパは飛行機の中で使う首の周りにつける枕みたいなのも買ってくれたけど、これもあんまり好きじゃなかった。ママとパパは包帯を何回も変えてくれた。「犬のレッグウォーマー」っていうのをみつけてからは、包帯を変える回数が減った。どんな小さな怪我でも不便だ。唯一の収穫は犬のレッグウォーマーが便利だって知ったこと。治るまで1ヶ月以上かかったよ。皆も気をつけて！！