I let Bleu out for bathroom break and he ran toward the bottom of the yard. He let out a cry of pain and came back to the patio. Something had slashed his legs, deep wounds about an inch apart, three of them. It didn't make a sound, and struck fast. Bleu is a weimaraner, about 85 lbs and isn't afraid of opossums or raccoons(which we have plenty of), but he is now afraid to go out into the yard. My yard is fenced with a 6ft solid wood fence except for the lower side which is 4ft. Wonder what it was? My porch lights don't shine over the entire back yard and I couldn't find anything with the flash light, but I wasn't about to go down to the lower part of the yard for a closer look!
Something BIG hurt my doggie
Sorry to hear about Bleu's injury. I hope he let you clean the wounds. Raccoons can inflict horrible wounds. If Bleu isn't afraid of them, maybe, he got too close. Getting injured would make me afraid to go out.
Oh, I'm so sorry about Bleu! I'd be a little freaked out about that myself!
Betty he let us clean them. One needed stitches but because it is in the bend of his knee, it couldn't be stitched. They aren't bite wounds, but slash wounds. Do raccoons have claws? How do I get them to leave? I don't want the raccoons to eat my cats for dinner!
You need to see if you can id the intruder's footprints in the daylight. Depending on what you have, maybe you can get a cage trap and bait it. Or call your local animal control group for help. That could have been a child!
Hope your pet heals quickly.
Sheila
Sheila, that's what I was thinking. My neighbors have small children.
I hope it walked in the corner flowerbed and left a footprint, I'd just watered there and that's kind of a scary thought cause it was dark when I finished watering!
When I said Bleu wasn't scared of raccoons, I meant that he runs out and chases them off. Whatever this was, he ran out barking and it hurt him and he didn't want to go back out. This morning he stayed in the area lighted by the patio lights, he didn't go down to the bottom of the yard and make his usual "possum patrol" to chase away critters.
We live right beside Laguna Attascosa Wildlife Refuge and I have seen large cat tracks in the mud at the edge of the resaca. We've seen bobcats and a large black cat, I think the locals call them pumas. From the marks on Bleu, I'm thinking it was a cat.
Oh I just saw Bleu was hurt. Poor baby! sounds like a feline. your guess is probably a good one.
Vossner, you should have seen him come running back to the patio last night! He sat down at my feet and held up his hurt leg. I knew he was cut when I saw the drops of blood hit the floor, but I have to say I was relieved that it wasn't a snakebite! At least he leaves snakes alone, he's afraid of them.
Snakes and dogs, a bad deal. My Kramer got bit by a copperhead which was hiding under a sheet of plywood. The thing is I picked a sheet from the top of the pile and doggie noticed something. That something was the snake which bit him in the face. His poor little head got to the size of a cow's head within 5 min. We went to vet, he got some medication and within 2-3 days he was OK, but he wimpered a lot during that time. That was a scare. He seems to be a lot more cautious about "investigating".
Suzie, that just sounds scary. Poor Bleu.
Suzie,
Both bobcats and puma (They are called that here, too.) can kill dogs so be careful. South of us some friends have lost some calves to pumas. Apparently, the puma only goes after the soft parts so it's supposed to be fairly distinctive kill.
Bleu is still not wanting to go outside after dark, so what ever it was scared him pretty bad. I looked for tracks but didn't see any. Something had knocked over a big red leaf hibiscus acetosella.
Betty, is the puma like a mountain lion? or a jaguar? We have some kind of really big black cat here too. I like the ocelots, they are beautiful and not big, just about 15-20 lbs and very shy.
A Puma would be big and black - My first thought when I read the description of the wounds was "big cat". Its good that he's scared - its probably still around and getting brave would not be a good idea!
Make sure you do your watering before dark! I'm with Bleu, if it was big enough to hurt me, I wouldn't want to go out there either.
I haven't seen one, but the folks around here say it's like a mountain lion. Maybe slightly smaller. It could just seem smaller. One of the things I've found is that black animals look smaller than they really are. Problem is that a puma would have done more harm. hsfrank2005 has a point. Both you and Bleu would be safer in daylight hours.
Instead of standing down there watering, I set the sprinklers at the edge of the beds and let them run. I'm a big chicken, better safe than sorry is my philosophy!
We've had a bobcat come in for water due to the heat and lack of rain. We live in a suburban area, but have some fields still nearby. I have been scratched and bitten by racoons before. My dog was in a fight with a possum. I don't think it was a racoon or possum because the claw marks were so far apart. I think a mountain lion would have finished poor Bleu off so, in all probablility, it was a bobcat. I hope he is healing well. I have learned to bring any left over dogfood that my dogs do not eat out of the yard and to dump water at night out of their bowls and any other containers so as to not attract any wildlife into the yard at night. I place containers of water outside of my privacy fence next to the field for thirsty animals that I don't want to visit me inside of my fence.
Bleu is doing good, the deepest cut is giving him a little bit of trouble, but it is on his elbow and when he runs around a lot, it breaks open.
I don't keep any food out at night but the resaca runs across the back yard and has lots of water!
don't know if this is true, but a vet told me once that if there is any dog food left, it means you're overfeeding. if doggie nibbles, then it's better to feed smaller amounts various times a day. My piggy dog eats all, so that's never a problem for me.LOL
My mother used to feed our dogs at noon so that at night they would be alert and not sluggish after a heavy meal. She was a nervous nelly about burglars, etc. but taking these precautions made her feel better. Our windows had bars, fences had broken glass to discourage climbing, etc, etc. We always had at least 2 dobermans or great danes in our home. Gentle creatures but very scary looking.
You'd have thought I grew up in a war zone. I didn't. But she sure was nervous about stuff like that back then.
Vossner, Bleu has to eat small meals several times a day because Weimaraners are susceptible to bloating. He gets food first thing in the morning, another meal at supper time and a bedtime snack(like a little kid, lol)
Calalilly, with the resaca running across your back yard, there isn't much you can do about water then. It is good to hear that he is doing better. I know about the bloating problem that dog's with Bleu's body shape have and found out about it in a very said way. My brother didn't know that his dog should eat several meals a day and not exercise after eating. He took his dog for a long walk/run about 30 minutes after Charlie (the dog) ate. After arriving home, he didn't notice the bloating until it became severe and we didn't know what was happening to him. It was a Saturday and the vet my brother's pets had seen over a 15 year period would not see him because "We aren't scheduling any more animals because it is near closing time" even though I told them that he appeared to be dying. I was visiting at the time and I drove my brother and Charlie to an emergency vet clinic. It took 40 minutes of very fast drirving in pouring down rain to get there and it was too late to save Charlie. His stomach had turned over and he was suffering from a heart attack from the pressure so he could not be operated upon. He died in my brother's arms. It was so sad. My brother openly cried for 15 minutes straight and has not recovered and probably never will recover from the guilt he has about not knowing about this problem that thin chested dogs have. We have a difficult time forgiving his regular vet. It would have taken 15 minutes to get there and perhaps something could have been done to prevent the heart attack. My brother changed vets of course.
vossner, you are right that if food is left over, the animal is receiving too much food. In hot weather, my big old dog (135 lb. Great Pyrenees) would leave some for later. He now stays in the house most of the time and is cooler. He eats inside. We have had to place him on a restricted diet to keep him slim and trim due to joint problems. So he gobbles it up pretty fast now. After obtaining an African Ridgeback/shepherd mix and a Great Pyrenes and having signs posted on the fences that shows a siloutte of each dog with a warning that they are guard dogs, our house has not been broken into. We had been previously burglarized 4 times even though we have an electronic security system. One time burglars stoled my small dog the night before we were burglarized so we would not be warned if we were home the next day.
oh wow hazel, that's a really sad story about that dogie.
Cala, I didn't realized weimeraners faced that potential problem. scary.
OMG, they stole your dog first??? Now that is mean!
The breeder told me about Weimeraners and how to feed him and not to exercise after eating. He tried to cover everything, but failed to mention that Bleu is afraid of thunder, gunshots and fireworks. He makes a good guard dog, he seems to know when noises are nothing to be concerned about and when action is needed(if he would just quit barking at the kittles, I'd be happy)
I think it's awful that the vet wouldn't see him knowing that it could be fatal. We have vets here that are not so good, but the one I use told me "if you can get him here fast, we will wait" and they didn't rush me right back out because it was closing time.
vossner, I cry each time I think about it.
Calalily, they stoled my dog and my neighbor's dog at the same time, but they didn't burglarize my neighbor. I searched for him for a year and finally gave up.
Our secretary had her dog stolen recently. They took it right out of her back yard, a peekapoo. They stole a bunch of dogs in her neighborhood. I need to tell her to watch for burglars!
There is a vet down here, he makes misdiagnoses all the time. Our friend had a cat, got real sick so he took it to the vet. It didn't get any better, so he took it back. The same vet said "If you'd brought it in two weeks ago we could have saved it, but it's too late now." He told the vet "I had it here two weeks ago." The same vet was treating another friend's dog but wasn't treating it for what was wrong. It had a thyroid problem. He found another vet who knew what was wrong as soon as he took it into the office because it had a funny odor that they get when their thyroid is not working right. I don't use that vet!
Scary. My "mother-out-law" always says about drs, you don't know if the dr you're seeing graduated 1st in his class or barely scraped by. Same applies to vets. (I know someone in Huntsville who went to the dr, the dr tried to take his blood pressure by wrapping the cuff around his neck!!)
Maggie, now you know why they call it a "practice." It's because they are practicing on their patients!
AMEN!!