I pull into the driveway and see my nephew running up the walkway from the house. I roll down my car window and all I hear is "Tali got hit by a car." Thankfully I didn't go into panic mode. This isn't to say that I calmly walked into the house. No, I ran into the house, not even taking the time to grab my purse out of the car, I'm just saying that I was able to keep my wits about me.
As my nephew and I are running to the house he tells me that it looks like her leg is broken. I'm worried deeply about her but am relieved that she isn't dead. I get in the house and run to her. After examining her leg it looks like it's dislocated. I could also see a laceration on her back leg and cuts around one of her eyes. I'm worried about internal bleeding. The man who hit her came to the door and talked to my nephew while I examined Tali. He said that she went under his car (a small SUV).
We live an hour away from town, and there was no getting her to a vet that night. I put her in her crate so she wouldn't be able to move and didn't let her eat dinner.
I took her down to the vet first thing in the morning. I had to drop her off so I could get to work. I anxiously waited for the vet to call me. They confirmed that she dislocated her elbow on her right leg, had a laceration on her right knee, and thankfully no internal bleeding. Unfortunately they were unable to re-locate her elbow and referred me to the emergency vet in our area (which is twice as expensive as a normal vet).
She had to have surgery and cost me $2,100.00, but at least she's still with me. I was a little shocked when I went to pick her up and saw this bright pink bandage holding her splint on.
They had to put 5 staples in her knee to help close the laceration.
She had three different medications she was taking, one of which had to be dissolved in water and shot into her mouth in a syringe. She hated that one and fought with us as we would try to open her mouth. We also had to keep her bandages dry. Dry?! We live in the mountains, it's winter, and they want me to keep her bandages dry!? Let me tell you, it was a challenge that involved a lot of Glad press and seal.
She now has staples and bandages out/off and thinks she can run and jump. She is supposed to have restricted movement for another week, three weeks in total. She also has multiple physical therapy exercises she gets to do for a total of six weeks.
I hope she's learned a lesson about running into the road, but I highly doubt it.
