A Walk On The Beach Ended With A Trip to the Vet

Barney's bite from a Pit Bull attack.  It tore the muscle.

Bill usually takes our three Siberian Huskies for a walk in the afternoon when it is cooler.  He starts out walking down the beach and then cuts back on Middle Street until he makes it back home.  It is pretty much the same route he has walked the dogs on for months now.

Everyone has dogs in Belize.  The bigger the better.  They are considered the best security you can have on the island.  The best security to keep those types out that tend to have sticky fingers and like to remove things from your yard and home.  But a walk on the beach yesterday ended up with a trip to the vet today and Barney being stitched up.

Shaved and prepped.  It doesn't look good, but the doctor said he has seen much worse.

I received a text from Bill that said "we have been attacked by Pit Bulls".  I write back, GREAT.  I call Bill on his cell phone and the phone call is dropped, so I call back again.  He tells me he has all the dogs and he is walking back to the house and he should be here in a minute.  I can tell he is out of breath, so I decide to go outside and wait for them not knowing what I am going to see when he gets home. 

While out walking the dogs on the way back home two pit bulls jumped their fence.   Bill has seen these two dogs many times before and they normally just run up to the fence and bark.  But yesterday they came right over the top of their fence in pure attack mode, as Bill called it.  They came straight for Barney our male Siberian Husky.  Both pit bulls had Barney down on his back and the pits went straight for Barney's throat.  There was nothing poor Barney could do.  So Bill grabbed one of the pits and he threw him down on the ground and jumped on top of the pit bull.  Now mind you, this was right in the middle of the street that all of this was going on.  So Bill is lying in the street on top of one of the Pit Bulls when the owner realizes what is happening and he comes out and grabs the other Pit Bull and pulls him off of Barney.  Once the dogs were off of Barney, Barney took off and ran.  Bill had also let go of our other two huskies, Snowy and Alina and wasn't sure where they had gone.

By this time now, there are about 30 people all in the middle of the street.  Cab drivers were stopped to help, the Belize Tourism Police were there trying to help.  It had become quite a gathering.   A lady that lived on the street had gotten both Alina and Snowy and she had them in her yard.  But we didn't know where Barney had gone.  The Belize Tourism Police went off on their golf cart and shortly came back and they had Barney.  He had gone quite a ways down the street and they found him in front of Marina's Grocery Store.  They brought Barney back and turned him over to Bill. 

Barney seemed ok, and even though both he and Bill had blood in many places we didn't think Barney had any open wounds.  His thick fur had basically saved  his life.  But this morning when Barney woke up he started whimpering and he wouldn't eat.  He was just lying around.  Bill saw a wet spot on his fur and sure enough it was a deep hole. 

An additional incision had to be made so the doctor could get under the muscle and sew up the wound.

So off to the vet Bill goes to take Barney.  He was going to walk Barney since we live just down the street, but Barney couldn't walk.  So Bill loaded Barney up on the golf cart and took him to the SAGA Animal Shelter vet to see Dr. Baptist. 

Sure enough one of the Pit Bulls had bitten Barney and he now had a big hole and it had torn the muscle.  The wound was going to require some deep stitches. 

All stitched up now.

 

Sorry if this picture grosses you out.

Barney was sedated and stitched up.  Dr. Baptist had to make another incision in order to get under the muscle.  A few hours later Barney was awake and back at home.

Dr. Baptist said he should recover just fine and should be able to walk again in about 5 days.  Barney has used up another one of his 9 lives.  Barney had been in and out of shelters the first three years of his life.  He had been taken to what is called a "kill shelter" back in Mississippi.  At that time Bill and I both had been volunteering for CARA (Community Animal Rescue and Adoption).  Someone came in to the shelter one day and told me about this beautiful husky that was in the kill shelter.  I went that day and rescued Barney.  It was not our intention to keep Barney.  We just rescued him from being put to sleep and then we would find a home for him.  But he was the sweetest and most beautiful dog I had ever seen, I knew then we could not let him go.  He is very special to us and we are so glad that he will live to see another day.

Barney is back home now, but is still a little groggy.  This was not how he had planned his day to be.

Total Vet bill for visit, stitches, meds and follow up $250.00BZ ($125.00)

Looks like Barney will be taking some meds for a few days.

Bill got off pretty lucky too, no real wounds only a few scuffs from rolling around in the streets with a Pit Bull.  The owner of the Pit Bulls was not so lucky.  He had numerous bite wounds.  Bill was very moved by all of the people, mostly Belizean that stopped and tried to help any way that they could.  They told Bill he was one brave guy to go up against a Pit Bull.  Bill said more like one stupid guy.

Bill's elbow.

Bill's knee.

Barney's fans came over to check on him today.

 

Barney getting lots of attention to help him feel better.

 

There are so many dogs in shelters, please adopt one if you can.  It will be one of the best things you ever did.