A Sense of Doubt blog post #2198 - Ellory and the Cone

 

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2198 - Ellory and the Cone

So, here's Ellory in her cone collar. How did that happen??

Some time before Friday February 12th, Ellory developed some wound or sore on her tail. I swear that I did not shut her tail in the sliding door. It has happened before, but I am extra careful now. I know it did not happen.

But returning from the back yard through the slider Friday the 12th, as I was toweling her off, she yelped in pain. When I tried more toweling, she yelped again and ran away. We discovered this dime size wound on her tail that she was licking incessantly and making worse.

We decided to wait and see what developed. Not sure why.

By Friday evening, it was bloody and smelled. She was getting blood and fluid on the bed and couches. And so, I decided to call the vet first thing Saturday morning.

Our vet is in Ridgefield not the Woodland one two minutes from our house because the Woodland one is limited and turned us away three years ago because they were not accepting new clients. Ridgefield is not that far. Maybe ten minutes down the I5.

Anyway because of the snow storm, no one was open Saturday. Our vet was closed. The Woodland vet wouldn't see us. The Longview vet was closed. And so I took Ellory to the "ER vet" down near Costco about a thirty minute drive down the I5. Normally, this would be an easy drive. But here in Washington, where no one is prepared for snow and ice, it was more of an adventure, even in a Subaru with all wheel drive. Mostly, me and the few other cars on the road drove down the middle of the highway. But in one stretch, there was so much frozen snow and ice that it made a rutty surface, like uneven and random rumble strips.

I managed to get Ellory to the ER and get her checked in. They took her inside and then a few minutes later they brought her back because the power had gone out. They explained that they did have a generator, but it was not working. I was welcome to wait or find another vet. They could give me the name of an ER pet hospital south of Portland. SOUTH OF PORTLAND.

I elected to wait, even though I had not had enough coffee yet and no breakfast. Soon, I was starving.

We waited a couple of hours and eventually power was restored from, I think they said, emergency city power. I was told that I had to leave Ellory and go back for her later. I was not thrilled about this prospect as I suspected that this return would be after dark, AND it was still snowing, HARD.

I gassed up Liesel's car. Somehow Costco's gas station was functional, and tried to find some fast food (because I was starving) but places were either without power or closed for the snow.

I did go back to get Ellory at almost 8 p.m. and the drive home in that frozen, crazy rumble strip area was even worse, over a mile or more of insane bumpiness. Terrible.

But we did it, and Ellory came without bandages, because the wound has to breathe, and wearing the cone. And with lots of drugs to take. We were also told to put this ointment on her tail and warm compresses, but after a week, she still will not let us even touch it anywhere, not even on the wounded part.

Also, she figured out how to crane around and get at her tail for licking, but amusingly, she cannot always remember how to do that, so she cannot do it constantly. 

Maybe one more week of cone life.

LOW POWER MODE: I sometimes put the blog in what I call LOW POWER MODE. If you see this note, the blog is operating like a sleeping computer, maintaining static memory, but making no new computations. If I am in low power mode, it's because I do not have time to do much that's inventive, original, or even substantive on the blog. This means I am posting straight shares, limited content posts, reprints, often something qualifying for the THAT ONE THING category and other easy to make posts to keep me daily. That's the deal. Thanks for reading.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2102.23 - 10:10

- Days ago = 2062 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.