I think that I'm just going to buy a tent and a sleeping bag and live outside the vet's office for the next few weeks. It might be easier. I have to take Bella back once a week to have her bandages checked until the splint comes off. Since I went in Monday, I wasn't going to go again until next Monday, but for the last two days I have caught Bella licking the top of the cast. Since she broke her foot, not her leg, I knew that the licking could only mean one thing; she had gotten a hot spot, just as I predicted she would. As the dog gets a hot spot every time she wears her collar for a couple of hours, it was pretty much a given that she was going to get one from wearing several inches of padding, bandages, and a splint for several weeks.I took her back to the vet this morning. They cut the bandages away from the hot spot and told me to keep baby or corn starch powder on it. They also told me if I didn't stop her from licking the cast, they would have to replace it. I guess they were under the assumption that the licking caused wet bandages, which in turn caused the hot spot. It didn't. The hot spot caused the licking, and I have stopped the licking every time that I have seen her do it. Thus, the bandages haven't even gotten damp, let alone wet. I've told them time and time again that the dog is allergic to everything. She's probably even allergic to the bandages. What is it going to take for them to believe me, for her whole leg to start oozing puss? Even then, they'd probably say I dropped her in the pool I don't have or somehow allowed her to get her leg wet another way.
We have at least another two to three weeks in the cast left to go. If the visits become more frequent, I may have to put L.L. Bean and its outdoor department on speed dial.
