A Bit of a Big Scare

No worries - this is a happy ending story!

Couple of weeks ago, the very last day of Rebecca and Steve´s work and stay at Kipp d´Amundsen Kennels, the crew (including newly arrived help - Kristyna and Flores) went out to play with the kids. 

All went well, it was a beautiful sunny day, and the retired dogs and pups were playing with each other and with the handler crew. 

Jachym and I had a lot of stuff to sort out indoors, and we got a very disturbing surprise when they guys rushed Granite, all bloody, into the house.

He was in quite a distress, seemed to have cramps in his jaws and desperately pounded with his paws over his nose. A behavior I´ve never seen before. Apparently, the dogs were playing, Granite was somewhere behind the kennels and suddenly the guys heard screaming and dogs fighting. Music attacked Granite and Granite was snapping bag. Granite NEVER fights.  And Music won´t  attack him just all of a sudden with no reason, besides, they are used to running and playing together every single day.

We tried to calm him down, which we partially succeeded in. I took towel with warm water and washed off the blood from his front legs and his muzzle. No signs of bite marks, except for his nose, which started swelling a bit. He was breathing heavy, which was a very worrying signal. He wouldn´t close his mouth properly and sometimes grinded his jaws together. Really strange. We gave him Rymadil as he seemed in a lot of pain, and we suspected that Music must have somehow "hit" his nose so hard that the breathing became painful, otherwise we could not explain what is going on. 

But Granite would calm down, and then all of a sudden, like in an attack, start desperately rubbing his feet over his nose again. We examined his mouth numerous times to find nothing. Nothing broken, nothing swollen, except his gums being scratched and a bit bloody, which could have been from the claws as he kept rubbing his face before we prevented him from doing that further.

He wouldn´t drink and thus interested in food, he would get this strange reaction again.

Nothing made sense so we decided we need to rush him to the vet. As we were about to call them for emergency appointment, Granite coughed real hard, when Jachym tried to offer him kibble again. 

I looked on the floor and found this:

Yes, this stick is almost 10cm long and must have been stuck in his throat!!!

Granite immediately got lively, calmed down, jumped at us and gave us kisses, and went on to chow down the offered kibble! 

Phhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Can you imagine the relief???!!!

The reconstruction of the story is like this:

We have raspberry bushes in the dog yard, right behind the senior dogs´ kennels. The dogs love to munch on the berries in summer, leafs in spring and the dry branches in winter. Granite often seeks something to chew on and that is what he was doing this day as well. This raspberry stick got stuck in his throat and he was desperately trying to get it out with his paws for a while. That explains the scratched up gums. Music noticed Granite being in distress and attacked him. Some dogs do this, it is a behavior I truly dislike, but I´ve noticed some dogs have this kind of behavior. When the crew found them fighting, they of course assumed Granite was in pain from the fight. What remains a mystery is where and how well did the stick hide in Granite´s mouth, as we did not manage to notice it despite checking his mouth with a headlamp light.

As a reward for such trauma, Granite got to spend the day in the house, with his grand-nieces and nephews (aka the Love Litter) and ......

....... the night in bed. 

He was quite satisfied!