Murphy's Plastic Surgery

Our poor pup has had quite an ordeal over the past 6 weeks.  When Maddie and I returned from our trip to Baltimore in July we went to pick Murphy up as soon as we had dropped our suitcases off at the house.  We were so excited to see her and quite surprised when we left covered in blood!  Something happened to the very tip of Murphy's tail while we were gone and it was spurting blood out of it when she got excited to see us (and she probably hit it on something again since her tail never stops moving!).  I tried to keep it bandaged during the week but it was still bleeding the following Monday so I took her in to the vet to have a look at it to make sure everything was ok.  We spent close to $25 for a big bandage that was supposed to stay on for a few days.  We took her back a few days later for them to assess it and they rewrapped it.  This cycle went on for 4 weeks...I told the vet they were going to have to put me on the payroll if we kept this up!  Well, after 4 weeks the word "amputation" started coming up.  I was worried about dealing with her tail as I was getting closer and closer to my delivery date with the baby.  It wasn't easy for me to bandage Murphy's tail myself and it wasn't easy to clean the blood off of the walls every time she walked by wagging her tail.  Eric and I went ahead and made the decision for them to take Murphy's tail on Tuesday, August 10th.  I was supposed to drop her off in the morning for the surgery and the vet said she should be able to come home that afternoon.  Well...the afternoon rolled around, the vet tech called me and said the vet wanted to keep Murphy through the weekend.  I immediately saw $$ flash in my eyes thinking of the added expense of overnight stays.  I asked how much it was going to cost me per night and the tech said they weren't going to charge!  Thank God for that!  The vet wanted to keep Murphy because she needed to be heavily sedated, she needed her bandages changed frequently and her case of "happy tail" kept making it bleed...the problem in the first place!  We JUST picked Murphy up yesterday, Monday, August 23rd.  She was supposed to be gone for a few hours and it turned into 2 weeks.  And I'll be honest with you...I was starting to get used to not having any pets in the house!  Well, after that big long story, here are a few pictures of Murphy's newly remodelled tail.  Poor thing has to wear that big ol' cone too :(  She keeps running into things with it, can't drink water with it on, can barely pick up her toys with it on, but at least she can sleep with it on!  When I take it off of her, she wants to chew at her stitches and we can't have that!  During her stay at the animal hospital she managed to get the cone off one night and chewed a few stitches out, which they had to replace.  She's scheduled to get her stitches out Friday morning so I don't want to let her get at them to delay this process anymore!

Oh, I was supposed to be posting pictures now :)  Enjoy!  The world's most beautiful tailless Silver Lab.