Charlie is in sick bay again, this time with a broken foot.
Tuesday morning arrived and Charlie was only using three of his legs. At first, mum and dad thought he had stood on something and had hurt his paw but he squealed when mum touched his leg…..so off to the vet.
The vet has this brilliant machine that can take a picture right through our bodies called an x-ray and it was ideal for looking for a broken dog paw.
Broken Metatarsal
X-rays confirmed that Charlie had indeed broken a Metatarsal, which is a common injury among footballers. Well Charlie certainly wasn’t playing football but he does run about like a lunatic and the vet thinks he must have slipped on the ice.
His leg will take about five or six weeks to heal but the vet gave him some medicine to take the pain away. It tastes like honey and I think it makes him quite sleepy.
So while Charlie is feeling down in the dumps, with only three wheels on his wagon, I will take the opportunity to warn people to take extra care in the winter, as dogs and other animals suffer when it’s cold too.
Ice hurts our paws
Dogs are especially at risk when we go for our walks, because snow piles up in our paws, especially if you are a woolly monster like Charlie.
This snow forms into balls of ice and really hurts when we walk. It can even cut our paws quite badly. Please make sure you keep clearing the snow from our paws or even get us some winter boots.
Dogs with lots of fur need to have it kept short around the feet, but not too short or we will get ice burn.
Dogs love playing in the snow but our mum and dad always keeps a close eye on us to make sure we don’t get too cold.
Although people think that dogs are like wild animals and can tolerate the cold, we have been bred specially for domestic living and our normal body temperature is actually a few degrees higher than a human, so we need to keep warm.
Dogs like me, who have very fine coats, should have a waterproof jacket when out and about in the winter. Please don’t put us in sweaters as the material gets wet and makes us colder.
If you want any further information about looking after animals in the winter, the RSPCA has some very useful advice on their website.
Here are some important tips for winter dog care.
- Make sure the snow and ice is removed from our feet, legs and tummy.
- Wash paws as soon as we get in with warm water to remove any salt, or chemicals used on the roads. Antifreeze and de-icing products are extremely toxic to dogs but we find them very tasty. If you wash our feet, we cannot get poisoned when licking our paws. Licking salt from our paws will make us feel sick or even make us vomit.
- We must not be allowed to lick from puddles or eat snow from the road or pavement.
- Do not let us off our leads in snow or ice. We can lose our sense of smell in winter and easily get lost or run into danger.
- Make sure we are microchipped or have our identity tags on. We don’t like snow storms, it makes us want to run away.
- Dogs can easily get frostbite in our paws, ears and noses and this is very painful. Hypothermia is common and even a short time in sub zero temperatures can cause damage and make us sick. Please do not leave us in cold cars, they soon turn into fridges!
Please look out for all animals this winter.
Must go and look after peg leg now!
Buster