A couple of weeks ago, Shakespeare was injured. Shakespeare and Inky were both out playing with us, when one chose to run clockwise around the house and the other chose to run counter-clockwise. They met at a blind corner at full gallop, with a sound that could be heard in the next county.
Both thought the other one did it on purpose. Neither apologized. We cleaned them up after the fight and treated them appropriately.
I knew Shakespeare’s head was swollen and sore, so I pulled him from that weekend’s Schutzhund obedience routine and entered him in tracking, instead. (I wanted to make sure our club had the minimum number of entries for a valid trial.) It was a poor showing, and we failed, and a few minutes afterwards someone reminded me that many antibiotics interfere with the sense of smell. Oh, well.
Anyway, two weeks later, Shakespeare’s head still had a sizable knot on one side, and it was pretty firm. I worried about calcification — ye gads, had he fractured his skull? — and took him in for x-rays.
Well, yes! The impact of Shakespeare and Inky running into each other around the corner had knocked a pretty big chunk of bone loose!
More, their heads had to collide at exactly the right location and angle that it struck his skull where there was no overlying musculature to cushion the impact, where there would have been merely bruising or damaged muscle.
I’d originally told my vet that I could have set up the situation, each dog running around the house in opposite directions) at least 50 times and maybe once have seen them collide like that. Now, with all these tiny details lining up just right, he amended my statement to once in 500 times or more. He suggested we play a lottery ticket on him.
So if anyone needs a number this week, Shakespeare’s ILP is 91434. And he would appreciate a share of the winnings to go toward his medical bills. 🙂
(He’s going to be just fine, by the way. Just a little lumpy for a while.)
Thank goodness. I was worried about him.