Small Setback

For the most part this week Raven has been going well. We went to training on Tuesday night and she was jumping out of her skin so I put her over a simple novice jumping course a couple of times. She was starting to show her old self again and was barking at me too. It's always a good sign when she barks at me, means she's feeling good. I then put her over a basic agility course once and then put her back in the car. I trained Cypher for a while and then sitting in the back of my car with Raven I wondered if she felt like doing a few more contacts - I like the fact that she loves doing them and that I can get lots of treats into her - I bought the 4legs this week deciding I was being pathetic about whining about the mess this stuff makes (the coconut gets everywhere!!) and Raven loves the stuff. So she came out again (mistake #1) and we went off did the seesaw a few times no problems and then came over to the dogwalk(mistake #2). She did it twice very happily and then the third time (mistake #3...why didn't I just stop there?!?!?!) managed to catch her toenail in the gap where the up plank joins the flat plank. Well that's what we think she did, she was completely silent, ran onto the walk fine and I didn't know she'd done anything till she was standing in her usual two on two off position holding her left paw off the ground. Others went and checked and noticed the gap there was certainly big enough for a dog to catch a toenail. I said a not very nice word and ran over to check it out. There was quite a bit of blood however she clotted well and it stopped fairly quickly after pressure was applied. We wrapped it in a towel and a vet nurse cleaned it up, trimmed some of the hair and washed it in a betadine solution before wrapping it with some gauze and vet wrap bandaging. I of course started running through all the implications for a cancer dog who does this and is in the middle of chemo treatments and then mentally kicked myself up and down for allowing this to happen and went onto to feel like absolute crap about the whole thing for two days. Stupid dogwalk equipment!! Stupid handler...stupid toenail!! I emailed Ken next morning and he said he'd give her half a paracetomol for the pain but did not mention any need for antibiotics as a precaution which is good.
Anyway here we are at Saturday. She's hardly limping now and I check the nail twice a day. Its quite firmly attached and looks healthy. She's been crated mostly for the last 3 days and is out today. She's eating well and apart from being pissed off about not being allowed to run around, play or do any training she seems quite well within herself. I am boosting her fiber intake this weekend (she's getting a pear each day) in preparation for her treatment Tuesday with Doxorubicin the most toxic drugs of the protocol.
So that's the latest in Raven's upates...she can have a rest from anything agility wise for at least a week probably longer (nearly two weeks). At least after this treatment Tuesday she has two whole weeks off from treatment as well.