Poor Clover...

I walked in the door last night around 5:30 and saw that Clover had a HORRIBLE nose bleed.  She is my nearly 14yr old basset hound, and she had an abscessed tooth or 3 that the vet pulled last Tuesday.  She had a couple of nose bleeds before the surgery, but nothing like this.  It looked like a slaughter house, blood everywhere!  Good thing I hate my carpet and plan to get rid of it as soon as I can find a hard floor covering that I can afford.  The vet had said this could happen, but I was certainly not expecting it a week after her surgery.

Poor baby, she was trying to remain calm, but you could just tell that she was getting very stressed out.  Of course, the vet was closed, and we don't have the money for an emergency vet visit.  It was storming, rain and thunder, which we think may have triggered her stress and caused the nose bleed.  She isn't normally a stressed out hound, so my suspicion is that a large crack of thunder or close lightning strike may have startled her and made the blood pressure jump, causing the nose bleed.  Since the area was still structurally weak from the abscess and the surgery to correct it, it just bled like a faucet. Her face has a lump where the bone is malformed from the abcess, and I don't believe it will ever go away.

We weren't home when it started, and this continued for a couple of hours after we came home.  Finally, after hoping it would stop on its own, we put her in a compression garment (snug fitting T-shirt) which calms a nervous dog (more on this below) and put her blanket into a crate and closed her up in it.  Clover had spent her first 7 years sleeping in a crate at night, and although we allow her to be uncrated, sometimes she just wants the comfort of a small space.  She calmed almost immediately and went to sleep, the nose bleed slowed way down and eventually stopped. We took her out to potty a couple of times between 10-midnight, and the bleeding was very slow and didn't get any worse. She was dry this morning, so the bleed must have scabbed over.  I left the T-shirt on her when I went to work, and she is free to roam the house and go out in the fenced dog yard at will.  I just hope that DH is paying attention so that she doesn't get tangled in the shirt.  I checked it out this morning and it still seemed to be fitted well on her body. If she moves around a lot it might come off her leg and she could trip on it.  Not much fun for an old lady with arthritis.

More about compression garments for pets:
You can buy very expensive compression garments for extremely nervous dogs.  They are made of a variety of materials, I think neoprene is a common one.  They have zipper or Velcro closures and give compression to the body from shoulders to hips, which either stimulates a bunch of nerves at once, or distracts the dog, or makes them feel protected from the outside environment (or whatever) and they almost universally calm down.  This is especially helpful if you have a pet with storm phobia or travel fears or anxious destructive behavior.  You should not leave your dog unattended while wearing the garment.  I have one guy who could benefit from one, except that he would most likely chew it and make himself sick.

The cheap version:
Take an old T-shirt that fits the dog well at the neck.  For small dogs you should use a toddler shirt, for medium dogs a child's T-shirt should be good.  Slit the shirt up the back, put it over the head with the front legs going through the arm holes, and cut a chunk of fabric out of the middle of the back of the shirt.  Now you will have to find a way to tie the shirt closed up the dogs back.  The shirt should be made snug from collar to hips.  I usually cut a couple of tie tabs out of the remaining material on both sides of the back opening, and tie once in the middle of the back and again at the dogs waist, just in front of the hips.  Tie it tight, but make sure that you can stick your hand inside the shirt from any opening.  You don't want your dog to struggle to breathe, but you want him to have compression over all the major organs.  Voila!  You have now fitted your dog with a very inexpensive, washable, disposable compression garment.  If the shirt is too big, you may have to cut off the sleeves and make a different hole for the front legs, but hey, how much did that grungy T-shirt cost you?  Go ahead and destroy another one if you need to.

Compression garments for dogs can be useful for a variety of reasons, including preventing the dog from licking a wound.  If it works for your dog, they will be SO MUCH HAPPIER than if you make them wear the stupid "cone of shame" from the vet.  I have personally used the T-shirt method successfully quite a few times over the years.

I hope that Clover has a really good day today!  So far, so good.  No nose bleeds at last report.  Now if she feels well enough to eat, we will know that she is just fine.