Uker down

I did something stupid, that may put me out of playing for a week or two. I gave my dog a pork chop bone to knaw on for awhile, and when he widdled it down to not much left, I didn't want him to choke on it, so I decided to take it from him, Well, safety tip for the day. Do NOT stick your finger in a dogs jaw that is chopping on a bone. He didn't mean to, but he was chewing on the bone pretty hard, and as I reached my poor left hand index finger in his jaw to pull out this half dollar sized chunk of bone, he clamped down on a chomp. I mean HARD. Not trying to bite me, but I assume thinking he was clamping down on the bone. Well, he did, but it wasn't the one he intended. I yellped like a school girl, and it scared him. He thought he really hurt me, and was trying to comfort me. But, let me tell ya, he crushed my finger tip pretty good, and drove a pretty deep hole on the top on the edge of my finger nail, and the bottom on the pad of my index finger. It's bruised big time, and two knarly puncture wombs. Owwy, owwy. It is sore as heck right now, and I can imagine will be for several days. I can't even type with my left index, let alone play the uke. That sucks, because I was planning on playing awhile at my Moms house for a back yard cookout with family and a few friends. This sucks.. I don't know what hurts more, my finger, or the fact I can't play for awhile..

Oh so sorry that you have a hurt hand. The pain of not playing will probably out last the pain of the bite. Your dog must feel so bad. The"drop it" command would have come in handy today. However sometimes that translate to swallow real fast their comin' to take it away.

Well, no blame to my hound at all. it was totally innocent on his part. He know the "no bite" command very well. In fact when he is playing with us, he'll bite our arm with the gentlest of pressure. He is not a biter at all. But, he was chomping down pretty hard crushing this bone up. It was so fast, there was no time for command, only "AHHHHH", lol... He knows that command too because as soon as he realized he chomped the wrong bone he completly let go and pulled back then came to went directly in saying he was sorry, and trying to assure I was ok. He's really a great dog. The finger is throbbing like a gang bangers low rider car speaker right now. It's gonna be sore for a few days I am sure. I can feel it's bruised pretty deep other than the punctures. Fortunatly, I have a very high pain tollerence, but, not so much the pain of wanting to play, and can't. No pill will take care of that Im fraid..

Im sorry to hear about this. Shame you cant play uke but it will seem so much better when you can play again. Good luck with the recovery.
Best wishes.

Bummer! I've been there. As a vet, I'll give you a couple of words to the wise - if the wound doesn't improve daily go to the doctor. Antibiotics can be your friend. Not getting care when you need it can be disastrous (I'm talking the whole arm getting involved in badness). Secondly, I see the bad side of giving bones every day - those bones won't cause him to choke, but can make his stomach sick (gastritis - vomiting/diarrhea/pancreatitis). Your choice there. One of my favorites - when a round bone gets stuck on the dog's lower jaw. You just have to keep fiddling with it until it comes off (often with the dog sedated). It's like one of those chain puzzles, I've never had to saw one off.

Get well soon!

ckellogg said:

Bummer! I've been there. As a vet, I'll give you a couple of words to the wise - if the wound doesn't improve daily go to the doctor. Antibiotics can be your friend. Not getting care when you need it can be disastrous (I'm talking the whole arm getting involved in badness). Secondly, I see the bad side of giving bones every day - those bones won't cause him to choke, but can make his stomach sick (gastritis - vomiting/diarrhea/pancreatitis). Your choice there. One of my favorites - when a round bone gets stuck on the dog's lower jaw. You just have to keep fiddling with it until it comes off (often with the dog sedated). It's like one of those chain puzzles, I've never had to saw one off.

Get well soon!

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Thanks for the advice, and I agree on what ya said about giving these bones to em. We don't do that often, but every so often as a special treat. We generally give him the dog chew bones and raw hide type. But as a treat I hope it isn't too bad. We eat a greasy hamburger every so often against our better judgement, so I guess it's not to bad on rare occations.. I hope anywho.. My neice would spank me on that too, she just graduated after a long schooling of vetinary medicine herself. She did very well an I hope she has a long fruitfull career. It was a tough long haul for her, but she is now finally a vet. Knowing what all she went through, I tell ya, I have a new great respect for vets now...

maybe you can improvise and set up your uke to play like a steel guitar. Get a "slide" for the finger and go to town!

Aloha Tudorp,
Sorry about your little mishap, know exactly how you feel not being able to play your uke. When I was 15, I worked at the Dole Pineapple cannery in Honolulu. My left index finger got caught in a turntable for the cans and nearly cut if off at the first joint. I could'nt play uke or guitar for a long time and that hurt. Anyway, hoping for a quick recovery for you my friend. And when you are able to play, you'll come back with a vengence and a renewed sense of what you love...........................BO......................

Aloha Tudorp,
Hope it heals soon and doesn't get infected...Yup against your better judgement eh...Auwe...I bet he just made a mistake like you said...sheeh no playing for a week.. At least you have a
story to tell at mom's house...Take Care and hope you get back playing soon.. Your friend, MM Stan

Ouch! I am sorry for your mishap! My parrot used to nail me good before I learned to leave her alone when her pupils were dilating and she was doing her war dance.

Try using your middle and ring fingers. My index fingers often hurt like hell from arthritis flareups, and I just can't use them, so I exercise all the others. You can try an ice pack on and off for the pain and inflamation, and I hope you packed antibiotic ointment into the wounds. Watch out for infection. If you get any red lines going up your finger into your hand, get to a doctor right away.

Also pork chop bones can splinter and cause a bowel perforation or obstruction, so be careful with those. Any cooked bone can cause problems. You can get big knuckle bones at the pet store that are safer for both of you.

Jeeeez Louis!

Now that Bites! Speedy recovery to you ukie!

I hope your finger heals fast and your back to setting up uke's in no time.
As an aside re dogs and bones. Recently we gave the dog a salt meat bone (local fare, salted meat...anyway). We went out and left him happily chewing away on it. When we came back home an hour or so later, he was trying to use his paw to hook something out of his mouth. His paws were covered in saliva and he was gagging a bit too. I grabbed onto him and opened his jaws for a look and a piece of bone was lodged across the roof of his mouth, stuck between his top molars on each side. Had to use a pair of needle nose pliers to reach in and yank it out from between his teeth. No damage to him, just stuck in there with more pressure than what his tongue could remove. The weirdest thing. He was sure glad to be free of it.

Dang this sucks to hear, hope you have a fast recovery on it.
I would hate to have that happen and not being able to play, thats like torture. XD

Sorry to hear about your injury. I strongy echo what people have said about the possibility of infection. The big risk with puncture wounds is not always the thing that punctures you but the fact that we all have bacteria on our skins that are harmless unless they get into your body by way of a cut or puncture. (A friend of mine almost lost his arm to flesh-eating bacteria when he got scratched with a clean safety pin -- he was told that it was bacteria on his skin, and nothing on the pin itself, that was the problem.) So even if your dog's tooth was absolutely clean, be sure that you've cleaned the wounds thoroughly and that you apply antibacterial medications. To be safe, you may want to go to the doctor even if it seems to be okay for preventative antibiotics. Anyway, I hope you heal quickly and are back playing the ukulele in no time.

v30 said:

I hope your finger heals fast and your back to setting up uke's in no time.
As an aside re dogs and bones. Recently we gave the dog a salt meat bone (local fare, salted meat...anyway). We went out and left him happily chewing away on it. When we came back home an hour or so later, he was trying to use his paw to hook something out of his mouth. His paws were covered in saliva and he was gagging a bit too. I grabbed onto him and opened his jaws for a look and a piece of bone was lodged across the roof of his mouth, stuck between his top molars on each side. Had to use a pair of needle nose pliers to reach in and yank it out from between his teeth. No damage to him, just stuck in there with more pressure than what his tongue could remove. The weirdest thing. He was sure glad to be free of it.

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One of the, um, more amusing part of being a vet is taking care of the dog that comes in with a round bone around their lower jaw - they chew on it, and it works its way back behind the canine teeth, so it's stuck just hanging there on their jaw. There's no magic to getting it off, you keep moving it around until you miraculously find its way off, it's like one of those chain puzzle games. That's one of the best feelings ever, for us and the dog, I'm sure.

Doing allot better today. Still pretty sensitive, but allot better. Yesterday my finger tip was swollen pretty good and throbbing like mad. I soaked it in a shot glass full of alcohol for about an hour yesterday and wrapped my poor digit in a drawing agent salve that we use that does very well pulling all kinds of bad stuff from cuts, wounds etc. Wrapped it up good and this morning, still sensitive, but the swelling is gone, and I can at least move it now. Not nearly as sore as it was yesterday. So, if I keep an eye on it for a few days, I'm sure I will be back at it.

Ouch! That sounds painful so I can only imagine how painful it really must be! And double sucks that you can't play! I'm playing a song for you later! You'll have to try to curb the urge to play before it heals up!

Take care!

I believe I'm gonna live. I played most the day tomorrow. Almost no hurt. Gonna keep the nail, because it is almost totally back to the color it's supposed to be, lol.. There is only a slight blue at the edges now. I wish I had taken a picture of this when it happened. It was narley, and now looks 1000% better and definatly feels better. I can almost put full pressure on it now, whoot whoot..

Ouch.. so glad that you are feeling better today!!