The rest of the Cast Story

Well, The four week x-ray came and went. The diagnosis was 4 more weeks (so 8 weeks instead of the four we were hoping for).

March 16th we had a scheduled cast change - swelling was coming down and hair on his leg starting to grow back so that he wasn't totally bald. The inicision was finally healing. But the lump looked scary. Chuck explained that it was a function of there not being much flesh to hide the pin. He came home in an NC State Red bandage.

The next scheduled bandage change was April 4th. After leaving his red cast alone for 18 days, he took his fresh blue one off by 7:00 a.m. the following morning. At the vet's office, waiting for our turn, Tim accused him of laughing at us. Yep. Corgis laugh! Back to a red cast. The next, and hopefully final x-ray was scheduled for April 17th - through the cast. We did not make it to April 17th before needing a new bandage!

April 12th he started slipping his leg out of his cast. Fortunately (and heartlessly), I was able to jam his leg back into his cast and restrict his movement until we reached the vet's office the following morning. Dr. Reynolds decided to approach the cast differently, and used only the back half. This reduces the weight of the cast. Only 4 more days to our final x-ray! The bandage is now a lovely purple!

Through this all - I've listened to the cracks about dogs with no legs - and how on earth do you break a 4 inch leg... So from my sister (who shall remain nameless Aunt S...) "He’s finally found his school to support: the University of Western Ontario – the Purple Flash."

On Monday April 17th, the verdict from the x-ray - "Let's keep it on for two more weeks - there is still a tiny shadow at the breakpoint." My jaw dropped. Ideally this is a good plan, as Dash really does try to keep on frapping with his cast on... however, realistically, it is nearly impossible to envision keeping that thing on for two more weeks (note the four previous unplanned bandage changes....).

Tuesday April 18th, we got a little bit complacent and forgot to put on his Bitenot collar. Bad idea. He started to chew on the bandage. Because he only has the back half of the cast acting as a splint, he did some damage beyond just tearing off the purple vetwrap. I replaced some of the vetwrap, and replaced it again a few hours later and noticed that the bandage was decidedly damp. Uh oh. I sent a picture of the boys in their purple bandages... to which Aunt S. replies "I can't believe how tall Gus is getting! Mind youhe's next to short dog (you had to know that wascoming), but he is definitely sprouting." ...

The following day - I sent this email out:

Dash got bored yesterday. Really bored. And combined with our getting too complacent and leaving his colar off when we were gone yesterday... he got busy... First thing I noticed when I got home was that the lower part of his cast was decidedly chewed on. And when I went to rebandage it, it was decidedly damp. And when he chewed more of the bandage off while my back was turned, it was even damper... So I had Mike take him to the vet's office today. Where they decided that his leg was just too wet to bother re-bandaging. I wonder if he stepped in his water dish, but there wasn't a puddle in his laundry room.

Nope - no puddle. As we sat together in the ex-pen on Wednesday night, Dash demonstrated the power of Corgi Slobber. Come to think of it, over the course of four months, I spent a lot of time sitting in the ex-pen, keeping him company.