Emergency vet visits and getting KO'd by my dog

For the last couple of nights Henley has been very unsettled and when he is upset he makes sure everyone knows about it. At first we ignored his barking but noticing that he could get comfortable and was continually pacing I had a look over him. He appeared fine until I felt his stomach, I had barely brushed it and he yelped and flinched away from my touch. In the back of my mind that two of his brothers had stomach related illnesses (one blockage and one highly inflamed stomach) I sat with him to see if he could settle at all. After asking to be let out to do his business (no troubles there) I turned back inside and washed my hands. Paws padding into the kitchen I looked down to Henley and immediately called my dad. one of Henley’s eyes was fully dilated and the other not dilated at all. It wash;t like that a minute ago so I knew soothing was quite wrong with him.

Calling my local vet they put me onto SASH the Small Animal Specialist Hospital who we had visited multiple times previously with my sisters injured cat Skitz, a stray tortoiseshell cat that turned up in our front yard looking for love and food and multiple injured native animals that I had saved and they took in. Ringing ahead they asked me to think of any possible things like plants or chemicals that he might have gotten into or whether we had changed cleaning products recently that may be causing an allergic reaction. Racking my brain on the way to the vet of what he might have gotten into I couldn’t think of anything. On arrival Henley went from the woe is me Henley at home to a new place? New people? instant excitable puppy Henley came out. From his behaviour you wouldn’t think he had a thing wrong with him, but the minute you looked into his eyes you could see he wasn’t right. They took him out back to run tests and examine him while I nervously filled out some forms. I have to say I have never been so nervous or worried in my life, how do parents ever go through this with their children? Henley is my furbaby and by the time the vet came out (after sitting and waiting 45 minutes) I was a nervous wreck. 

The veterinarian was quite perplexed by Henley’s condition. His stomach was very tender but the x-ray showed no blockage or obstruction. And his eye condition didn’t seem to be connected to what the vet estimated as being toxicity poisoning. I did remember that early in the day during one of his crazy Vizsla puppy moments propelled himself into the corner of our timber eating bar, but had continued on playing like nothing had happened. So the veterinarian suspected toxicity and a possible concussion and wanted to put him on iv fluids to flush out toxins and keep him hydrated, closely monitor him overnight and have their ophthalmologist (eye specialist) take a look at him in the morning. After telling me another vet would call me in the morning with his update and when I could pick him up I made my way back to the car (after putting down a rather large deposit for Henley’s treatment). Knowing that he was in the best care possible I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

The call in the morning came letting me know that his eye had returned to normal and had been examined by the ophthalmologist and appeared normal and healthy. His stomach was no longer tender and he had scoffed down the breakfast he was offered. Their best guess was toxicity and to try and keep a close eye on him for the next couple of days, feed him a bland diet for the next week and keep him quiet. I looked at the lovely vet when she said to try and keep him quiet and she quickly said “oh he’s a Hungarian Vizsla, well as quite as you possibly can.” Keeping a Hungarian Vizsla quiet is like asking the sun to stop shining or the moon to stop glowing the word quiet and Vizsla don’t just don’t normally belong in the same sentence.

Taking a rest on his favourite blanket.

Henley has well and truly recovered from his mystery illness that occurred back in July and it was only a week later that as I bent down to pick something off the floor that he reared up on his hind legs (like a pony) and head butted me in the head. Needless to say I woke up on the floor seeing stars with a very worried Henley fussing and licking me. Jeez I knew he had a hard head but it was more like hitting titanium than a bone skull. So yes I have been embarrassingly knocked out cold by my dog, at the time it wasn’t funny as an instant migraine developed but looking back on it all I can do is laugh about it.

Have any of your dogs accidentally injured you?