Farm dog day done wrong

Saturday was supposed to be Della's day. Clay was away. I was going to work outside so she could hang with me and do farm dog stuff. That's her favorite. And that's how it started out. 

I even took her to the nursery with me and put the four flats of plants I bought into the crates so she could have the back end of the van to herself. When we got back home I let Thor, Betty White, Callie, and Max out to the pasture along with Della and Serena. I got started doing some yard work, a little mowing, and some container garden planning and preparation. It wasn't too long afterwards that Della jumped the fence out of the pasture to join me in the yard while I was puttering around the house. I left the back end of the van open so she could lay in there in a comfortable spot and still watch everything that was going on.

A while later I saw her jump out of the van and race over towards the fence because the neighbor was mowing over there. She stood there and watched for a bit and then came back to me as I called her. When she came past me, heading back for the van, I saw the big, red, open gash on the top of her back. 

I immediately put her into the van, got the three fosters back to Daneland, left Max in the pasture, and put Serena back in the house and headed to town. I placed a couple panicked calls to Erika and then to one of the emergency vets in town. I was told that I'd need to fill out forms online and that they had a 2-3 hour wait. Now, she wasn't bleeding, she was still running around for quite some time before I discovered this, but I did not want to wait another 2-3 hours for her to be seen. I called Autumn Trails vet in Charlottesville, which is open all day on Saturdays. I had been there a couple times before, once with Della I think, and once with Maya. 

I arrived and called in, someone came out to assess the situation and although she wasn't bleeding, they took her inside right away. The vet called me after examining her and I was told to come back about 7:00 p.m. to pick her up. 

I don't know what happened. They said it looked like a tear, probably from something she got caught on while running underneath. They didn't think it was a result of a fight and I think I would have been missing a dog if one of them had done that to Della, but no one else seems to have even a scratch on them. I also don't know exactly when it happened. I never heard a scream. She never came to show me she was hurt. She just took up her position in the van and she still jumped out of there and sprinted across the front yard to see the neighbor. She's a tough girl. 

When I picked her up she was still a bit groggy, but I lifted her into the van and she settled down for the ride home. I put a cone on her when we got home and that just sort of freaked her out. She wouldn't move, fought me on the leash, did everything she could to get the cone off. Clay got home a few minutes later and we got her inside, moved all the other dogs out of the way, and got her upstairs to my office and into one of the giant crates. There she managed to get the cone off and we left it that way for a while, but not wearing a cone really wasn't an option. We got another on her, tied to her collar, and she doesn't seem to be fighting it so much, but she can't seem to settle down and get to sleep. 

She's still laying in the crate kind of crying. I've taken her out but she didn't do anything. She had zero problems negotiating the stairs while wearing the cone. I suspect she's in pain. The told me to start the pain meds tomorrow but I gave her some tramadol already and I really need her to get some sleep so we all can.

I've got Serena in the crate next to her and she seems fine with that. Everyone else is banished to the bedroom or the kitchen. Max and Thor are camping out tonight. I'm planning to sleep here in the office with her and Serena, if any of us can sleep. It didn't turn out to be the day we had planned and it may be a long night.

Della and Serena playing was a great start to the day.

On the way to the vet in town.

Upon our arrival, she still seemed pretty good.

It was pretty deep and was torn wide open.

On the way back home.

The soft cone was our first attempt. She refused to move with it on

and she tore it off when we finally got her inside and up to the crate with it.

They did a nice job closing it up, and there's a drain installed.