Last Friday night Nellie attacked Dani and was going for the kill this time. I was sitting here at the computer when I heard a most awful screaming noise outside. I went running out there and here was Nellie on top of Dani. I grabbed Nellie's tail and started pulling her off, but this time I couldn't get her off. She was too strong and intent on doing in Dani. Luckily Sam came to my aid and started biting and barking at Nellie, distracting her enough that I could finally get her to let go of Dani long enough to separate them. There was blood everywhere. As I was disciplining Nellie, Dani went up on the deck. She was standing up there with blood pouring out of her. Nellie had torn a big hole in her chest right under her left front leg. I had to grab a couple of towels and hold them up against her to get the blood to stop flowing out.
I got her in the house without getting blood all over the floor and examined her to see what all was going on. She had bite wounds all over her front half, and the big hole in her "armpit". I mixed up a concoction of coconut oil, calendulated oil, lavender essential oil, and some tea tree oil and took a syringe and squirted it up into the hole. You could put a golf ball in that hole! I could see her muscles where her leg joined her chest. After I got a good dose of oils in there I took another mix of powdered herbs: garlic, comfrey, willow and some cayenne and stuffed the hole full of it. I tried to wrap it, but nothing I tried would stay in place, so Saturday morning I quit trying. I just left it open. I also gave her some raw honey, a spoonful at a time, 3 or more times a day. She is healing quite well! The swelling in her leg has gone down and it's almost back to normal now. She's barely limping on it. The hole is shrinking and there is no infection at all.
Dani is going to be 15 years old in May, so she's a little old to be getting in fights, especially with a dog so much bigger than her. So, from now on, I have to keep those two separated. I don't trust Nellie not to attack her again. This is about the 6th time she's attacked and this was the worse one. Thank heavens Sam was there and helped. He's only 9 months old, but he's as big as Nellie and very smart. He catches on to things quite rapidly. He's also best buds with Dani. He was very worried about her Friday night. He slept on the deck the whole night, as close to Dani as he could get, being an outside dog. He's very gentle with her when she goes outside to go to the bathroom, not trying to play with her or anything. He just sniffs her and stands by her for a minute, then walks away and leaves her alone. He also keeps between her and Nellie while she is out.
I'm glad we got a lot of snow last night and today, it covered up all the blood out there! We've got a good 10 inches of new snow now, and it's still lightly snowing and 12° out there. I hope it stops pretty soon, I'm tired of shoveling and plowing snow! I still have more to do tomorrow.
Anyway, the herbs and oils are doing a wonderful job of healing her wounds, probably as good as, or better than, the drugs a veterinarian would have given her and a whole heck of a lot cheaper than taking her to a vet, especially since it was after hours, as usual. I have never had an emergency during office hours. It's always been in the evening or week-end. Even had to take a goat in for an emergency C-section on Easter Sunday one year. We're so far away from any of the offices, that a house call mileage charge is more than the actual cost of whatever they are treating. I've learned to treat almost everything myself over the years. There are a few things that I will still take an animal to a vet to take care of, but it's got to be a last resort.
Luckily Dani is going to make a full recovery, and is healing rapidly. Now I just have to make sure that I keep those two apart all the time. That will take some juggling around, but I think it will work. At least for the rest of the winter. Once the snow is gone, I'll have to figure something else out. Dang dogs, anyway. Never again will I have two dogs of the same sex here. LGDs are just too territorial. Good for predator control, not good for other pet dogs. Nellie is especially mean when it comes to food. A bone is what set her off this time.
Well, that's all the excitement around here for now. I'll be digging out of the snow for the next couple of days. At least now we have a decent snowpack around here. It was pretty slim before this storm. Lots of bare spots under trees, etc. Not now! Glad I finished my thinning project on Tuesday! I just have a few big trees to take out of the dairy pasture and it's all done, except for the burning of the slash piles. That will happen in April when open burning season is.
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