We had a horrible accident today involving a barbed wire fence! Not sure why it happened but turned my back on younger pear dog only for him to climb a bank and attempt to jump the barbed wire fence into a field. He completely misjudged the jump and ended up falling onto the fence, hanging over it, screaming and falling down into the field. I knew that he had really hurt himself but couldn't find any way in. We took our coats off and threw them on the fence and Mr P climbed over and lifted our panicked dog back over to me. My lovely vet stayed on this afternoon and gave pear dog a general anaesthetic and stitched him up. He's been home now some time howling and moaning but it could have been so much worse - the vet told me that we had missed some major blood vessels by less than a millimetre. He's only 2years but normally such a sensible and calm dog and the field was empty. God knows what he thought he was doing! I'm going to buy a barbed wire cover in case I ever have to climb over wire in the future and thank my grown up children who despite my protestations pick up the dogs regularly. It would have been so much more difficult if he wasn't used to being carried.
Oh my word! That sounds absolutely dreadful...hope little Pear Tree dog has a more comfortable night....I just cant imagine how you must have felt. I have been looking myself at those barbed wire covers, more incentive to get one for the next shooting season!
The worse thing was realising that my dog was badly hurt and being completely unable to get to him. Even the high padlocked gate was covered with barbed wire! Never felt so helpless... once I had seen his injuries I was much better able to cope.
Poor thing. You must have been pretty distressed yourself. Something similar happened to us a couple of years back, but we got off lightly in comparison. My daughter and her friend were off hiking up an adjacent hill to the field my OH was exercising Lilly in - we were on holiday. She saw and heard them laughing and running and took off after them, jumping the barbed wire fence. My OH was videoing at the time so we have a lot of this on camera. Totally unlike him, he saw what was happening through the camera, Lilly screamed as she got her back leg twisted in the wire, he dropped his camera (his pride and joy) and hoofed it to the fence. We are lucky Lilly is pretty light and he managed to get her back over the fence fairly quickly. She had some superficial grazes to her belly and was a bit stiff and sore for a day or two. We were pretty lucky. A friend of ours who shoots with his dog ended up having to extricate his lab from a shoulder height fence. The dog was well and truly mangled in the wire and needed extensive stitching, as did my friend who had quite a severe bite to his arm due to the dog's distress. Luckily his wife is a vet. He is a pretty sensible guy but was really shaken up. Both of them were ok , luckily. Since then he has always carried some wire snips with him when out walking (a Leatherman multi-tool) I must say I have NEVER encouraged fence jumping its one of the things I would really worry about with gun dog training. I really hope little Pear Dog is okay x
Oh no, I am so sorry that sounds absolutely awful, you must have all been terrified. My Charlie has been in a cone for over 3 weeks due to a barbed wire fence injury to the inside of his back leg, really nasty hole and cut, a trip to the vet for ABs but no stitches The damn stuff should be banned, it's just everywhere and it makes me so angry. Get better soon Pear Dog xx
Oh no. Hope this heals up quickly. While we have not had a barbed wire fence incident our ESS did run smack into a page wire fence and hit the wire with her eye. There was a dent, horizontally, across her eye but no more apparent damage than that. Nevertheless, straight off to the Vet who cleaned and gave antibiotic (old rusty fence) and she was fine. It didn't get infected or anything and she had no vision problem, as far as we could tell. When OH was a game warden he said some of the worst things he had to do was take deer out of fences. They'd jump, miss, their front legs would go under the top wire, the body would go over, the legs would break, the wire would twist around the legs and there they would hang till they died. A farmer would find the poor things after it was all over and OH would have to go cut them out.
What a horrible fright for you, I'm so glad you were able to help her so well ,she was so lucky wasn't she ? Barbed wire scares me ....we don't encounter it a lot where I live but when I was in the UK I had a little set of wire cutters in my back pack....just in case .I've heard some horrible stories about dogs being injured with it. I hope she recovers well x
The wire cutters are a good idea. I hate barbed wire with a passion - when we have to cross it we use our barbours as protection. I do hope your poor dog is ok.
Pear dog is much better this morning. Thank you for all your good wishes. He's eaten a special breakfast (tin of Lilly's with loxicom sauce) and is now having cuddles on the sofa with Mr P.