9.17.2014

Poodle Project

You know how it all starts - you have some time to kill and an idea for a project.

If you're a poodle and your knitter has had the audacity to go get her hair cut and maybe do a bit of yarn shopping while she's out and you are left all alone you wonder how to pass the time and come up with a great idea - How about chewing off a small benign bump from your toe!


As with many projects though the thing takes on a life of its own and it turns out the mess you make necessitates a trip to the vet and sedation the next day to repair the damage to toe and/complete the removal now underway.

Inc. 3 sts.

"At the same time" (Oh dear, we all know how tricky "at the same time" can be!) another wee bump on the flank gets removed.

Inc. 3 sts for a total of 6 sts.

But knitting friends we all know how frustrating it is to have stitches you just aren't happy with...how they nag at you until you rip them out to do over...

In the case of this "project" despite the presence of "Bitter Yuck" generously sprayed around the wound on the flank to discourage licking, over three nights while your knitter sleeps, remove flank stitches. 

3 sts decreased. 3 sts remaining.

Monday, back to the vet, 3 stitches to re-close flank wound. Oral antibiotics started. New "extra long" cone substituted for obviously inadequate "large" cone. We all know sometimes it takes a few tries to get the right gauge for the project!

 Inc. 3 sts for a total of 6 sts.

Tuesday, I had to go out without him for one hour. (You can guess where this is heading.)

While alone (again for second time in a week!) remove sock covering foot wound, held in place with vet wrap by stepping on toe of the sock with other foot while lifting the one with the stitches to step out of sock. Then using new extra long cone as a kind of scraping tool apply downward pressure on the cone against foot until nose and tongue reach wound to remove stitches.

3 sts decreased. 3 sts remaining.

Hudson kindly demonstrated his technique for me, that's how I know what he did. Just like a knitter - always happy to help show someone else how they accomplished something tricky!

Back to the vet's.

To recap the varying stitch count then...

3+3=6 -3=3+3=6-3=3

and that's where we are now with the addition of vet-recommended surgical tape to "hitch" sock to fur way up on leg preventing "step on" removal - kind of like putting underarm stitches on strings.

Finally put your feet up and have a good sleep. She might go out again for a bit today and you want to be all rested up and ready in case you get another bright idea!

2 comments:

Lorraine said...

Oh Hudson-

You have to give him credit for his tenacity.

Steven said...

Hah! This is so funny and so wince-inducing at the same time. Love that dedicated attention to stitch counting.