UPDATE:
Lady is doing so well and is so calm that she was let loose with the house pack for “mental health” and play time. One Sunday morning when let out for her potty break she came back in without her splint. She apparently caught it on a tree branch or fencing and pulled it off. She was in no noticeable pain. It was not noticed it was gone when she came back in for breakfast. Later, when out for more stretch and potty breaks, Marilyn almost had a stroke when she realized there was no splint!
First thing Monday morning she went to Bollinger County Veterinary Services. Radiographs displayed a miracle. The shattered bone was healing, joining for a solid connection, making the leg usable. She had feeling in the leg too! She would need several more weeks of the splint to support the growth and healing process, but it looked like we would be able to save her leg. A little over two weeks later she started to lick on her splint, a behavior she had not shown before. Then she started to chew it and a stench was noticed. We would learn that some of the shattered bone fragments were moving and working their way out, causing bleeding and an infection to erupt under the splint.
Tuesday, 8/20/13 Lady was sedated, spayed and minor surgery was done to the leg to remove the bullet still logged in the leg and some of the bone fragments. Her leg was scrubbed clean and will be allowed to finish healing without a splint.
Lady will be fostered by the Dr. Colleen Retz family until she leaves for her new home. We have three homes who would like to adopt her. One is in Memphis where she would live with a nurse and her eye doctor husband, as a therapy dog to visit the Baptist Hospital and St. Jude’s. The Cape area home is also with an eye doctor!