Dog Stress

Well what a few weeks we have had here.
Poor Wee Pup Badge has been in the wars.
First I thought he had something in his pad and it was causing it to swell and be a wee bit sore. Then the pad looked a bit 'wrong' so he went in to the vet to get it looked at a bit more closely. That meant a biopsy but best be safe than sorry. The biopsy came back saying that although it wasn't anything sinister, he had a calcifying lump in his pad and it would be rather painful and the best solution was amputation of his toe. Well this was rather a shock to say the least, strangley though, there was a three legged dog in the waiting room of the vets and he seemed to be ok so I guessed three toes would be a walk in the park in comparison.
So that was the first 10 days of visits to the vets every couple of days to get dressings changed, and the walk in the park was begining to turn into a long distance trek.
Then we discovered the same type of lump in between his pads on the other front foot, oh no! But the vet said she could take them out without any amputations required and I asked her to do that at the same time even though I knew it would be hard going for a few days but at least it would cut down on the number of operations Badger had to have and hopefully shorten the recovery time.
So off we went to the vet one morning about three weeks ago and I went off to work. I then whizzed from work to the vet to pick Badge up and he was quite rightly feeling very sorry for himself but everything had gone to plan and he would be alright, huraahh!
What I didn't bank on was quite how much hard work getting Badge back to alright was going to be, especially when I've been quite busy at work. Every two days I've had to bomb home from work, then bomb down to the vets to get his dressings changed. This in itself doesn't seem so bad but put that together with Other Half being away at the time and me having to do everything around the place and look after three dogs as well as work and work being ten miles down winding twisting roads in one direction and the vets being 18 miles down winding twisting roads in the opposite direction things start to get a little complicated and exhausting, not to mention somewhat expensive when the petrol station is 10 miles in an entirely different direction.
Anyway, we are finally through all of that and I will come back later and tell you more but Badger has finally come out of his bandages, and last night got all of his stitches out (and there were loads) and he is now on the road to recovery. It will be a long one as he has become a bit tetchy and growly and has even tried to bite the vet on several occasions all of which I'll have to sort out while he is still (just about) a pup so that he dosen't grow up into a dodgy scary collie.
The maddest thing about the whole episode though is that even despite everything he has been through he still drags me INTO the vets and greets everybody he sees in there as if they are his long lost friend, even though just about every time he sees them they do something to hurt him - amazing!