Whilst walking our dogs along the Railway Line early on Thursday morning, as we do most days, all was well until Nova yelped and we saw her leg was pouring with blood.
It was clear she had injured herself and the blood loss was great. We managed to get her back to the car and put a makeshift tourniquet around her leg. Frantic phone calls were made to two local vets, alas no vets were available, and then a drive to Wear Referrals where a vet was waiting for her arrival.
The blood loss was huge, it was everywhere, over her, her four legged companions, the car, me! It was thought she may need an emergency blood transfusion however, on arrival, she was immediately sedated and put on a drip to replace the fluids lost. The vet confirmed if Nova hadn’t arrived when she did she would have quite simply bled to death.
After four plus hours in surgery, tendons re-attached and a number of arteries repaired, the vet believed the cut was so clean, shards of glass were the main suspect.
Nova, who is a tender 14 months old, came through the ordeal and surgery remarkably well. She will be on crate rest for a minimum of six weeks, has copious amounts of vet visits, physiotherapy and hydrotherapy ahead of her, not to mention the pain and discomfort.
She is now at home, leg in a split, looking extremely sad, she fell over numerous times trying to stand but now she has mastered the art of three legged walking albeit very tentatively.
The Railway Line is a very popular and beautiful place to walk and exercise dogs plus many humans and their families enjoy the trees, nature, wildlife, open space and, of course, the heritage. Increasingly we have noticed smashed bottles littering the pathways and the grassed areas. When safe to do so, we pick up the glass and put it in the bin. Sadly, dogs and children don’t know to do this or to avoid the dangers of broken glass, we appeal to the small number of people who use the Railway Lines who think it fun to smash bottles and glass and leave destruction in their wake to reflect on the cause and effect of doing this has on others.
Nova is still a puppy, full of life, enthusiasm and adventure. She won’t be going out for quite a while nor will she be taking her hard earned place at Crufts this year. But she will recover and bounce back with a great deal of hard work and determination.
Some friends collected all of the bottles and smashed glass from the area of the accident, on Saturday morning, and disposed of them safely. Please think about your actions and the repercussions for others. The consequences can be devastating. Thankfully Nova will recover but the outcome could have been so much worse.
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