The Long Carry

I have written about the dangers of sticks being thrown but in this case it was not a thrown stick that did the damage but a dog off having a good lunatic run and enjoying the summer weather. To be honest you can not blame him as we see so little sun in the UK like all accidents it was one of those things that happens. Oh dear l can hear the hands rub of the health and safely people looking for some reason and way to stop it.

The dog ran into a broken end of branch from a fallen tree. The stick slammed in under his front leg and upwards. His owner had to lift him off the branch as he sensibly froze and screamed for help. She then had a 1 mile walk back to the car carrying the poor lad. I think she was in a worse state of exhaustion when she got to us than the dog with his wound. Reception got her a mug of tea as a first aid measure.

He was very lucky it missed all vital nerves, bones, chest etc and after a very good flush to remove bits of dirt, bark and other debris he only needed sutures and a drain. The drain is called a Penrose drain, it is a hollow thin flexible silicone “straw” and is placed to allow fluid that builds up in certain wounds an escape route; they run down the outside of the tube and drip onto the floor.
If as in this case you can not pull all the muscle across to close the hollow all the way up there is a sort of open hidden space, tissue fluid would form in here and cause problems as it built up hence the penrose drain, then the fluid just causes problems on carpets.