*#&@%! and Other Choice Words

SUMMARY: Not now, Tika, no injuries!

This morning, warming the dogs up out in the extra soccer field, I thought I saw Tika limping after chasing Boost down the field. She stopped to sniff at a gopher, and I watched her carefully, and saw nothing else. Wouldn't that just suck, with 3 weekends in row of agility and nothing for 2 more months, and her doing so well, for her to come up injured halfway through the 2nd weekend?

I looked at her feet just in case she'd picked up a burr or a foxtail or something, but nothing.

Before coming home from the trial, running the dogs on the lawn with a friend, I commented that Tika didn't seem to be as fast today in competition as last weekend and maybe the novelty had worn off (no competition for over 2 months, almost no agility classes, then 4 whole days of agility! Wahoo! But now, been there, done that).

This evening, i realized she was lying on her bed, licking at her ankle area. Upon closer examination, I see that she has sliced off a penny-sized flap of the carpal pad on her right front foot. But not cleanly off; it's like a flap.

It's not bleeding, doesn't seem particularly sensitive to the touch, doesn't look dirty or jagged.

I've slathered it with neosporin and put vet wrap around it--which I suspect she's now off in a corner carefully removing--and now I have to decide whether I want to spend a chunk of $ and a couple of hours to have the vet look at it in the next day or two. I don't think I want to try to snip off that flap of skin on my own; I'm afraid it's still "live."

And I don't know whether that means she shouldn't be running next weekend.

This sucks.