Tuesday 24 February 2009

Bath Time Blues

A bath can be a relaxing thing for most of us. Unfortunately it can also be a very dangerous item to some animals if you like a hot bath. Usually cats but some dogs get very over excited and end up jumping into the bath or falling in by accident if they are sitting on the edge.

The abdomen and legs can get scald burns on. One of the worst l knew was a young Westie (West Highland White Terrier) who dived into the bath when he got over excited during play time, while the bath was being filled. No one had noticed that the cold water had not been turned on.

He had a lot of dressing changes on his legs and ended up trying to tear the dressings off and chew the other wounds so had to have a buster collar on. He was in for quite a long time, and for the first couple of days wouldn’t lie down. We put a cushion into his kennel to allow him to lower his head, so he could sleep sitting up. Only one fitted the bill perfectly for his size so that became his cushion.

I knew there had to be a better way to allow his body to relax and made one of my “contraptions”. A couple of bandages tied like slings and a towel across them. He was very scared to relax at first and it took some time for him to realise he could relax and not hurt. Once he did he had his first good sleep since he came in.

It was not perfect and did slide at times but even so l am pleased to report that it was a success. He seemed to enjoy being in “the sling” which although went under him the bandages supporting the sling went under the least damaged parts of him. As it was bandages they had thin pressure points which helped. It was just as well he enjoyed it as he was there for some time.

His legs and under his abdomen were raw in places.

Sleeping in the "sling"


Side view of the "sling" in use

2 comments:

Dave the Dog said...

Poor little man. Well done you.

TonyF said...

We had a cat that loved water. She used to sit under dripping taps. If she could sneak into the bathroom when the bath was filling, she would hide until one was lying comfortably, then she would appear and sit on the edge of the bath, she only fell in once, onto my father!