I've been meaning to post since last time but there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day. While I'm not doing Jr Sx yet (see DVM Wannabee's post) I have been overwhelmed by other things. Sunday night my mom called me hysterical (ironic b/c she says I get too hysterical when my animals have an emergency) saying that my dog BlackJack grabbed my cat Mitzy again in the head & she has a big cut under her chin & her mouth wasn't closing. She didn't know what to do & she lives alone with the animals. I calmed her down & was asking her how it happened, what she saw, is she breathing ok, bleeding anywhere, & any other trauma? I told her to call the vet I work for @ home because she is about 1 mile away in the same town...she can look @ her & tell you what would be best to do. I told her she was probably going to have to drive her down to school so she could be fixed since everything is mucho expensive in the suburbs of Chicago & I get a pretty good discount @ school since I'm a student. When all was said & done a CT scan confirmed that she had subluxated her right TMJ (temporal mandibular joint), had a 1-2 inch laceration on the ventral aspect of her left mandible, & a few other minor wounds (one of which possibly cause a slight skull fracture). They reduce the luxation, put in an esophagostomy tube, splinted her upper & lower canines together, & placed a Penrose drain in the mandibular laceration. She is doing pretty good considering.
This is not the first time this had happened...the exact same thing happened last summer except it was just the subluxation & no other injuries. I'm not exactly sure if my dog is having medical problems (senility) or if it behavioral but this is the fourth time he has hurt other animals in our house (Mitzy twice, Pepper once, & Frisko once).