Domestic Violence Is Never The Answer

This past Friday was a less-than-great day. I’d been sick all week, and was still congested. It was a looooong day at work, and I decided to skip the freestyle club meeting that night. As it turned out, I wouldn’t have been able to go, anyway. I got home just before 6:00, and Duncan met me at the door, as usual. Reyna did a quick drive-by, and ran back outside. I realized the fur at Duncan’s neck was matted, figured it was Reyna spit, and finally got him turned around so I could see his face.


The white’s of Duncan’s eyes were swollen and full of blood. They were so swollen, in fact, that he couldn’t actually close his eyes. He was also oozing some nasty looking fluid from both eyes. Other than that, though, he seemed to be okay and was in his usual playful mood. While I was calling the emergency vet (my vet closes at 6:00) to alert them that I was bringing him in, Reyna came into the living room and they started playing. And then I saw blood spraying all over the floor. At a quick check, all I could tell was that Reyna had blood pouring from her nose. So, I unloaded the groceries, loaded the dogs, and we all drove to the emergency clinic.



The first tech to see Duncan commented that his eyes appeared to be “bloodshot.” Um, hello? We are way past bloodshot here. We chatted a bit, got the pups’ vitals (which included muzzling Reyna to get her temp), cleaned Reyna’s face, and waited on the vet. The vet, who managed to land himself on my list of “People Who Really Do Not Impress Me” had this as his first comment: “Hmm. That appears to be a bit more than an allergy.” Ya think? Just maybe? Not only did I have to explain that neither of my dogs normally look like this, I also had to explain that separating them for the exams would result in the destruction of the facility. This is why I hate seeing someone other than our regular vet – strangers just don’t realize the stupidity of some of their questions, because they don’t know the dogs. Its just so much easier with someone we know...


The emergency vet checked both dogs, made sure Duncan wasn’t blind (which I could have told him, but he insisted on testing it anyway by covering one eye and flapping his hand at the other, which just freaked Duncan out), checked for other injuries - amazingly, Duncan's neck and throat didn't seem to bother him at all, and decided that either Duncan had been hit by a car (which didn’t explain Reyna’s injuries), Duncan had caught his collar on something and so I needed to check my yard (again, no explanation for Reyna), or the dogs had been in a huge fight and that I should keep them separated for their own safety. Or Duncan had some brand new mysterious blood illness and we should immediately start running tests. Did I mention that I don’t like new vets?


I figured we had five reasonable options as to what had happened.

1 – A small animal made the mistake of coming into the yard and got into a fight with the pups. That would explain the marks on Reyna’s face, but not Duncan’s injuries. And when I checked the yard the next day, there were no animal parts anywhere in the yard.

2 – Some idiot managed to grab Duncan’s collar and choke him.
That didn’t really work for me, either, since I can’t imagine anyone getting close enough to actually grab his collar, much less doing it without being mauled by both dogs in the process. And I didn’t see any people parts in the driveway, and I didn’t have a note or phone call telling me I was being sued for the vicious dog attack.

3 – Duncan got his collar snagged on something.
Again, not too believable for me. The only thing he could snag on to cause that much damage would be the top of the fence, and that would involve jumping five feet. And we’re talking about Duncan.

4 – A deer jumped the fence, and in its attempt to flee, kicked Duncan in the face and managed to scrape up Reyna’s face.
I figure a deer kick would leave Duncan with other visible injuries, such as a broken nose. A knot, at the very least. But his eyes were his only injury. When I checked the yard Saturday morning, there was no area that looked to be any more disturbed than any other, which I would expect to see if there’d been a major scuffle with a large animal.

5 – They did it to each other while playing.
This made the most sense to me. I checked Duncan’s collar, and the part that rests on the back of his neck was stretched and twisted, and covered in dried blood and spit. There were also two spots that looked like puncture attempts, and they looked to be as far apart as Reyna’s canines. All of her canines are flat, though, so she wouldn’t have been able to actually tear through the collar material. My guess is that they were playing, and she somehow got part of her mouth stuck under his collar. They both freaked and struggled, causing the damage to her face and making it impossible for her to get loose. As his collar tightened, the blood vessels in Duncan’s eyes ruptured, and the choking pressure most likely caused him to go limp, if not pass out entirely. When he went limp, Reyna would have had the room to get loose from his collar, since he was no longer fighting and pulling. I figure, when Duncan came around again, they probably looked at each other and said something like “What the heck just happened? That was so weird!” And Duncan probably tossed in “That was cool! What a head rush!” I’m also sure it wasn’t an actual fight, because, let’s face it, if Reyna wanted to seriously hurt Duncan, she would. She could do some major damage before it occurred to him that he might need to defend himself. And he wasn’t acting off – he was playing with her, starting scuffles, not acting at all nervous around her.

After explaining to the vet that no, we were not going to run multiple tests for some sudden blood illness, because most likely the dogs did this to each other while they were playing, we finally managed to go home. I left a message for my regular vet, telling them that we’d be in the next morning.

Saturday morning, we went to see our regular vet. When he walked in, his first question was “What’s this I hear about a dog fight?” Apparently, the emergency vet had written in his files that the injuries were the result of a fight, not an accident during playtime. When I told the vet what I figured had happened, he checked both dogs and looked at Duncan’s collar, and agreed with me – it was just a freak accident and definitely not some weird blood illness. He did say that I was extremely lucky that Duncan was alive and not seriously injured – no permanent eye damage. He actually did a quick check to make sure there were no scratches on his eyes, which the emergency vet didn’t do. He also sighed and shook his head when I told him about the other vet’s vision exam, and told me not to worry about using the antibiotics for Reyna and eye drops for Duncan. I’m pretty sure I heard him mumble something about “only your dogs”...

Sunday morning, I cleaned my truck, because it looked like I’d slaughtered an animal in it. Reyna’s nose bled like crazy (as noses do), and during the ride to the clinic she had sprayed blood all over the side windows, the back window, the back of the seats, and even the outside of the truck (she likes to ride with her head out the window occasionally).

As of today, Reyna’s face is almost completely healed. The swelling in Duncan’s eyes is gone, and the blood in the whites of his eyes is receding. If he doesn’t turn his head and angle his eyes so you can see the whites (reds), you can’t actually tell anything is wrong.