Wednesday, December 01, 2010

G'Kar almost killed Londo today

Take this as a bit of a cautionary tale, if you will. G'Kar got his teeth caught in Londo's collar tonight while they were playing. He twisted and then couldn't disengage. They started to struggle. Londo started to choke, then started to desperately fight back. As she twisted, she just made it worse. She was terrified. G'Kar was terrified. I wasn't far away. Her collar was so tight and the clasp was too small for me to get my fingers around (it was between G'Kar's front teeth) and both of them were so terrified they were snarling and snapping and it was almost impossible to get them to stop moving. I ran for the scissors. When I tried to use them, I was barely able to get the blade under the collar, it was so tight to her throat, but I managed to cut the collar off.

I've never heard a dog scream before, and I don't want to hear it again.

G'Kar sat by the table like a statue for 20 minutes after the collar was off. When I went to pet him, he didn't move; he was stone. Londo, of course, was the first one to make an overture and approached G'Kar to sniff him, her tail and head low. He barely moved. He was very, very freaked out.

Londo is breathing a bit harshly - a slight wheeze to each breath. The vet thinks she'll be ok, but we need to watch for pneumonia because she probably has blood in her lungs.

Blood. Yeah, there was blood. Probably from the strain of her trying to breathe and screaming. She coughed up a few lines of bloody foam a few minutes after I freed her, but then was ok. G'Kar's lower lip was covered in blood, but I can't see where it came from - his teeth seem fine. Londo had blood on her chest, but doesn't seem to have any wounds. I'm guessing some of it came from a tooth or two from Londo as she bit at G'Kar.

They both seem fine, if incredibly subdued; in fact they've never been this quiet since we've had them together.  I'll be watching both of them for the next couple days, but it looks like we're lucky.

I know two of my friends never have one of their dogs (the smaller one) wear a collar indoors exactly for this reason. I have to admit, it seems like a fairly good idea now.