Poor Louie!

We had a near disaster last Thursday night. Chuck, Marjie, Tom and I were just sitting around the table after dinner, and we heard screaming. I immediately knew Stout and Lou were fighting, so I ran for the porch, threw open the door, and pulled Stout off Louie’s throat. My first thought was that Louie was gone because there was so much blood; it was squirting out of Lou’s neck all over everything. I carried Lou in the house but couldn’t get a good look at the damage because of all the blood, and every time I tried to wipe it away Lou was screaming and writhing. So I hopped in the cold shower with him, and Marjie got a flashlight to check the damage. He had a hunk of skin hanging just behind his lower jaw, and the cold water had slowed the bleeding, so we decided Stout probably hadn’t taken out his jugular. Tom and I jumped in the car and headed for San Ignacio.

The vet we usually use wasn’t available, so we went to Dr. Tesecum’s office and called the emergency number on the door. He was there in about five minutes, took a quick look at Lou, and hustled us into his office. He knocked Lou out and started cleaning the wound, and found that the flap of skin was covering a vein with an obvious puncture by Stout’s tooth, which fortunately had stopped squirting blood by that time. One stitch on the inside and four on the outside, and the unconscious Lou was ready to be carried home with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory pain medication for the next week.

Lou is scheduled to get the stitches out next Thursday. He seems to be fine, and isn’t even fussing with the stitches. Our bigger concern is Stout, who essentially ripped up his ticket to have house rights. We don’t want to let him near Lou, even if we’re supervising, because he did a lot of damage in about ten seconds the other night. That means Stout, and Beli by association, are now spending 24/7 on the porch and in the dog yard, and although we try to go out and talk to them and play with them, they’re not getting the socializing time they had when we’d let them in the bedroom/office with us while we were working on the computer or reading, or to sleep at night. Their lives are still better than most of the local dogs, but they’re not members of the family as our other dogs have always been, and as Lou, Nock, and Recona still are. It bothers us, but it’s not worth risking Lou’s life, and I think if Stout killed Lou, or even hurt him any worse than he did, I’d probably have him put down – so rather than go there, we’re just keeping them separate.