Dixie

As many of you have heard we had a big decision to make two weeks ago. Our dog Dixie got kicked by one of the horses while trying to move them outside. She is a herding dog by instinct so whenever the animals are moved at all she is right there helping. Unfortunately this time she got kicked hard on her front leg. This was on a Wed night. Dan being the farmer he is didn't even think of bringing her to the vets. (he IS the vet on the farm for most things) But after two days of Dixie not putting any weight on her paw and not moving to far, Dan surprisingly made the phone call. He wanted to get her x-rayed to confirm the break was where he thought it was. And yes the e-ray did confirm that....it also showed one bone in her lower leg was a clean break, but the other one was crushed. After $180 dollars Dan DID NOT want to spend anymore money on "a pet". That's just the way he was raised. His solution was to bring her home and splint it in hopes it would heal. I took her for the initial apt, and refused to go back and tell the vet we were taking her home without treatment. Meanwhile I had been talking to the vet and she had since emailed the x-rays to another vet which said that a cast or surgery would not fix her leg. The two options were amputation or put her down.....So that put a stop to Dan's plan. So what do we do.....The amputation would be another $400. Dan knew the kids and I didn't want to put her down. (Anyone who knows Dixie knows what a wonderful dog she is) And honestly I don't think he wanted to put her down either. It came down to he didn't think the amputation would be fair to Dixie. He didn't want to bring her home and have her on the farm and not be able to do what she loves. The vets assured us that dogs recover and adapt very well.  In the end Dan agreed to go ahead with the surgery. Last Tuesday she went and had her leg amputated and surprisingly to all of us she has done amazing! She came home last Thursday and has been getting around great....slower, but very good. 

This is a video of Dixie last Thursday two days after surgery. A week later and she doing great! Unfortunately I still have to yell at her to stay back when I've let the horses out or move the sheep!