A Rough Morning for the Old Boy

During our nearly-daily post-getting-Chloe-on-the-bus-in-the-morning walk, I noticed Chamberlain take a step and then wobble for a brief moment, but then kept on chugging along.  When we got back to the house, though, a light trail of blood made me wonder if there was something more to that wobble.  It was then that I noticed that the dew claw on his front left leg was practically torn off.  I blotted the area as best I could (and as much as he would allow) then had him lay on his bed to let him, literally, lick his wound.

Chamberlain and his new accessories

A couple of minutes later, I checked on him and noticed he completely removed his dew claw, and there were a couple decent-sized blotches of blood on his bed.  I called the vet to give them the heads up we were heading down, secured some paper towels to his paw with rubber bands, got him in the car, and headed down to the vet.  It was there he was outfitted with that ever-so-stylish cone and bandage for his paw, and given an antibiotic. 

As if the dew claw incident wasn't enough, the vet also check Chamberlain's heart (he has a murmur) and based on that examination, the vet felt it was time to add a diuretic and venous dilator added to the Ol' Boy's daily cocktail of drugs.