Tough Week for Roxxee Ketchup

Roxxee Ketchup, recovering from three surgeries (Sept 16th, 2009).

It all started with a simple walk on Monday morning at 10:00 am. We had been away the previous week, so Roxxee wasn't on her normal schedule. Rox and I had taken a nice walk that morning at 8:30am, and only 45 minutes after she got to work, she was whining at the front door. So I decided to let her out...

I took Roxxee outside into the grassy area in front of the office, and she spent a little time sniffing around. After only a few minutes, I decided to bring her back inside. First, I opened the glass door and stepped into the foyer. I asked Roxxee to sit, and she did. I took off her leash and bent down to pick up the mail. All of a sudden Roxxee started flipping out, howling in pain. I had no idea what was wrong.

The next few seconds were a blur. She thrashed around, clearly in tremendous pain. I quickly figured out that her tail was caught in the door. So I opened it -- and Roxxee took off outside. She darted out into the street (a very busy street) as I desperately called after her. Luckily, cars saw her and slowed down, while my co-workers ran out into the street to stop traffic. Roxxee kept heading away from me, regardless of how many times I called her. It was one of the most gut-wrenching moments in recent memory as I watched my scared little puppy heading into traffic.

Luckily, we got her back before more damage was done. When we got her back inside, it was clear that she had a serious tail injury and she was bleeding quite a bit. In the foyer, I found a 2 inch piece of her tail (mostly fur, but with a fleshy bulb part). We went to the vet immediately, and the rest as they say -- is history.

The next morning, Roxxee had three surgeries:

1) Tail repair: they had to remove a small section of bone in order to form a new bulb at the end of her tail.

2) Spay: We took advantage of her tail incident to get her spayed. A 2 for 1 deal! Although common, spaying is a serious abdominal surgery.

3) Mouth: During the surgery, the vet noticed a baby tooth that had gotten stuck in her gum line. So they spent some time in her gum cleaning it up.

I picked up Roxxee on Tuesday evening, only an hour after she got out of surgery. I had to hold up her head and she could barely stand up. When I got her home, she was in a lot of pain. Not fun.

It's now a handful of days later, and Roxxee is doing great. Although she has to wear a cone around her head for a full 2 weeks and she can't go on any walks, she's full of energy and happy again.

What a week!