[Nomini]

So this week my 9 month old puppy got hit by a car. She's a pointer-y looking hound something that wandered starving onto the farm last summer. Somehow climbed over her 5 foot fence in the yard (with a doggy door into the house) and stumbled home when I went looking for her after I got home from work. She had an appt to get spayed and I think she climbed out to play with an un-neutered stray hound dog someone abandoned. Emergency vet visit at midnight, 3 days in hospital, and 2k later (I usually leave it to the horses for these kind of panics and bills!) shes home. Broken pelvis and foot, but luckily no internal injuries.

The issue: She is a super active, bouncy, in-your-face-going-everywhere-all-the-time kind of dog. The vet wants her crated, no running/ stairs/ jumping for 8 weeks. I have a large crate she can stay in, but I'm really worried about her mental state. She has never been confined. She loves to chew and I already bought her a smorgasbord of yummy long-term chewies, but an ideas on what I can do to keep her still and happy for 2 months? As of right now, she still hurts enough and her meds make her tired enough that we are OK, but I am anticipating issues in a week or two...

[jetsmom]

Clicker train her to put her nose on a target.

Hide treats under an object and have her try to touch that one with her nose.

teach her "catch" with treats/soft toys.

kongs stuffed with peanut butter or canned food then frozen to chew on.

Puzzle toys with treats.

Teach her to get her nails trimmed. Start slowly desensitizing her to it. (Only on the Good legs/feet...not the injured ones).

[BLBGP]

Kongs stuffed with peanut butter can be entertaining. Try mental stimulation - tennis balls placed on muffin tins with treats hidden underneath so she needs to figure out which balls to move to get to the goodies. There's a board game called My Dog Can Do That which will have some fun games to try (some active, some not so much).

I almost hate to ask, but if she got out to go see a boy dog...did you get her spayed while she was undergoing everything else? I'm sure you don't want puppies on top of all of this.

[threedogpack]

while in a down:

right paw
left paw
touch *this* with right paw
touch *this* left paw
any childrens toys that she can paw wack that might have pop up characters

head down

head up

curl paw under

[FlightCheck]

Been there!

Our (rescue) hound puppy came to us with a broken leg, and had to have a rod on the inside of her right hind leg for several weeks.

One of the things we did was to put our Dalmatian in the same room with her (she in the cage, he outside) when both Mr. FlightCheck and I were not home. That way she had company.

I second the KONG toys, etc...ripping the squeakers out of cheap toys was also fun.

It was amazing to me that a 4month old puppy adapted so quickly - we had a few "oops" moments, usually when she was being walked - I learned to keep her on a really short leash!

Good luck to you and your puppy!

[eponacowgirl]

I had to live with my brother for 3 months when I moved to Nashville with a high energy JRT cross. I was getting up much earlier than he, so I got three Kongs and filled them with all kinds of craziness- yogurt, melted cheese, peanut butter... I would layer it all, stick it in the freezer to make it harder to get at. I'd put a plug of PB, then some cheerios, more PB, more cheerios... anything to keep him quiet in the crate until my brother woke up. It worked brilliantly.

[Nomini]

Thanks for the tips! I do have a Kong or two, but I never thought of freezing them with yumminess. She's really smart so I think we will work on some new tricks.

Yes, I had a long discussion with the ER vet about the whole pregnant thing. They would be mutt puppies in an area where hunting hounds get abandoned every day, so we sure don't need anymore! We couldn't use the shot of estrogen to "abort" since it suppresses bone marrow (not a good idea for a broken pelvis). She couldn't get spayed immediately because laying on her back with her legs spread was not an option with her injuries. She has a surgical consult for her hip in a week and if he gives the OK she will be spayed the next day by my local vet. Her pelvis will not be healed enough to give birth in 9 weeks, so aborting if there are puppies is a matter of her safety.

So far she is handling this like a champ. I think it hurts enough that she is OK with being still. I will see how she likes the stuffed kongs for tomorrow!