death is a beautiful thing @bleachedbonesandoldskins - Tumblr Blog

tsalala

Trail of a leopard dragging a carcass. Photo by Lex Hes.

herpsandbirds

Mainland She Oak Skink (Cyclodomorphus michaeli), mother with pups, family Scincidae, eastern Australia

photograph by Ken Griffiths

wilderun

Hey y’all, I hate to ask for help like this, but Basil is at the vet after a severe attack from a loose dog during our morning walk.

Right now, the biggest concern is that he almost certainly has a fractured skull. Initial exam upon intake indicates that it appears to be a sinus cavity skull fracture rather than damage to the brain cavity itself, he wasn’t exhibiting neurological symptoms and was able to stand despite being in shock and the wounds on other parts of his body, responsive and mostly alert etc, so it’s possible that we got very, very, VERY lucky, but we will need to take him to a larger veterinary hospital once he’s stabilized here in town, since we’ll need to do a CT to get better imaging and determine if surgery is necessary. The other injuries are all pretty superficial (bruising, lacerations, damage to his ear, etc) in comparison to that.

This level of specialty care is very expensive and will push me past my emergency savings. If you’re in a position where you can chip in a few bucks towards his care, I would really, really appreciate it. My PayPal is [email protected] and Venmo is @gabriel-ogle-wilderun, but if a different method works better just send me a DM.

Basil is one of those once-in-a-lifetime dogs. Within days of him being dropped off as a foster I knew that he was never gonna leave, he just fit in so well with my crew and I fell in love. He is so, so special to me, and I’d do anything for him including ask for help.

I should be hearing back from our vet soon with an updated quote and some referrals out to specialists & their quotes, and I’ll share those here ASAP.

wilderun

An update for everyone, Basil is hospitalized overnight. X-ray findings confirmed the sinus cavity fracture, his ear is torn up, he has some lacerations on his back leg and the hip was dislocated but was able to be put back in place. I visited him for about an hour this evening and he’s a trooper 💔 tomorrow, if he continues to stabilize, he will go in for a CT which will help us determine if he’ll need surgery or not.

wilderun

Basil is heading back home with me for now. They want a little better idea of his current neuro state and to see him eating and drinking before they’d recommend to put him under full anesthesia for the CT, but he was so shut down at the vet office that it wasn’t gonna happen there. It’s hard to evaluate a coyote pancake for mobility and mental status 😅 I had to carry him to the car but once we got in and away from the vet office he perked right up and was standing and responsive and slowly started to relax. He’s napping now while I grab a bite to eat and we’ll head home. He’s going to decompress on a whole lot of pain meds (tramadol, gabapentin, and carprofen) and then we’ll take a better peek at his noggin tomorrow or Monday, depending on how things go. The lacerations have been sutured up, but they left the punctures open to drain. His dislocated hip has stayed in place after it was fixed, which is also good news ❤️ he’s got a fancy new dent in his head that they say will probably be a permanent fixture.