One of My Worst Fears Happened…Dexter Was Attacked
So Yesterday one of my worst fears I had before we started traveling full-time happened…our dog Dexter was attacked by another dog in camp!
Jamey was taking Dexter for a walk to go potty and a new group of campers had just arrived 15 minutes earlier and were setting up camp. While walking by their camp the dog they had tied to a tree broke his lead and harness and charged. She grabbed Dexter by the back leg, threw him up in the air and dragged him a few feet. Jamey said he was just thrown around like a rag doll.
The owner of the attacking dog immediately ran over, tackled his dog, then stuck his hand in her mouth so she would release Dexter. The man got tore up pretty good, but if he wouldn’t of reacted so quickly and intervened Dexters damages could of been so much worse. I was by the lake taking pictures and could hear a dog screaming so ran up to see what was happening. Dexter and Jamey were on the ground surrounded by a couple women.
Dexter was barking and barking for like 5 minutes straight and didn’t move. Obviously he was terrified and in shock. We took him to the pop up to assess his injuries. He had a small puncture wound on his haunch and a nickle size tear in his skin 1/2 an inch from the puncture. A few small scratches could also be seen on his tummy. On his back he had a 3 inch long area completely missing all the hair and extremely raw.
We thoroughly cleaned his wounds out, disinfected with peroxide, then applied antibiotic ointment. We then gave him pain medicine and about a pound of treats through this whole process. He was a little out of it for the first hour, but then seemed to be back to his old self. Our neighbor, who we had been hanging out with for the last few days, came over and we went on a walk with her dog Bo. Dexter and Bo had been playing together a lot so he enjoyed the time with him.
It’s been about a day and a half since the attack and Dexter seems to be ok. We called our daughter who is in vet school and are following all her directions for his care. If his wounds become infected or he starts acting strange we will immediately take him to the vet. I think he is gonna be just fine though. His wounds were not as severe as they could of been and mentally I think he has not been damaged. I do believe I have been more traumatized by this than him.
The owner of the attacking dog offered to pay for any vet bills and immediately crated his dog. Always keep an eye on your pups at all times while camping. Dexter is almost always on his leash or tie out while we are in camp. When he is in the screen room with us is usually the only time he is not tied up. Occasionally we will let him run loose to play catch, but only if no one else is in camp.
Our take away from this, we bought pepper spray to attach to Dexter’s leash for when we walk him and we will be much more leery of dogs now.