Daisy Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 (edited) Two of my dogs do not get on. After a few fights, they are now kept permanently separated, it is not worth the risk. But on Thursday night a door had been pushed closed but didn't catch. I came home late after being out and as usual they were all very excited, and the worst happened, dog jumped on door, it opened, and a fight was on. Because I know these two WILL injure each other I was desperately trying to break it up. My daughter was in another part of the house, she heard the noise and came running and between us we managed to break up the fight, but not before one of the boys had grabbed hold of my hand... I screamed and he let go very quickly, but the damage was done. It was my own fault for sticking my hand in between them, but I really wanted to break it up before they hurt each other. They are both fine, but I have a very deep puncture wound on one side of my hand and it is swollen up like a balloon. I cleaned it, betadined it, and bandaged it all up, then went off to work yesterday, and off to the doc after work. The doc went crook on me for going to work (and I was not very useful there anyway). I have now had a tetanus shot, am on antibiotics, and heading off for an x-ray soon. My hand is very sore and I cant use my fingers much. I can wiggle them but cant lift or do anything that puts pressure/weight on my fingers These two dogs are very people-friendly guys, and I think it was actually my old greyhound Clyde who accidentally grabbed my hand. He is a very placid, loving and laid-back dog, who is so well-behaved and easy to get on with, and normally I would say he would NEVER bite anyone, and I am positive he didn't intentionally try to bite me, so just goes to remind everyone never to stick your hand into a dog fight Edited February 10, 2011 by Daisy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirislin Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Oh dear, I hope it heals without any problems. You cant help things like that, you just reacted on instinct, and so did he. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSoSwift Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 In the heat of the moment he wouldn't have known it was your hand. It is very stressful living with dogs who will fight and injure each other, I had two the same. And yes you are right don't put your hand in vetween but when you have seen what they are capable of you are doing whatever you can to get them apart before one of them is seriously injured. Hope your hand feels better very soon, and yes your doctor was right you are very naughty for not going straight to the doctor! Fingers crossed for no broken bones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koalathebear Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Daisy - so sorry to hear this. I'm glad that you're as ok as you can be given the circumstances. It must have been extremely upsetting for you I'm not sure what I'd do if faced with this situation - from memory, people have said to grab one of the dogs' hind legs like a wheelbarrow... Please take care! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Ouch ! been there, done that . Hope there's nothing broken! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monah Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 :D I do hope your hand is OK re the xray. I'm sure I would have done exactly the same thing. The dogs would have been "in the zone'. Fingers crossed there is no bad damage done to your hand. On the 'upside' (if your hand heals..) is that you hopefully have been saved a large or several large , vet bills. I am very sorry this happened to you, dog fights are very distressing. I hope I never ever have to break one up.xxxxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burkes Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I had to break up my first fight last month. It is just instinctual to get in there and pull them apart. Hope your hand is ok. I got bitten once on the finger when my dog and I both went to grab a pinecone at once. I was down the lake with three dogs, blood everywhere, in shock. Haha, I washed it in dirty Lake Burley Griffin. So wasn't thinking. Its ok now though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadine83 Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I hope your hand is ok! And I agree in that your dog would not have known it was your hand. I have been reading a good book and it says to pull the dog away by it's tail if they are fighting. So maybe try that if it happens again.....hopefully you won't need to though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancinbcs Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Once dogs are fighting I only ever grab tails or back legs, well away from the bitey end but I have been bitten on the hand four times. Twice while trying to prevent a fight. Each time I grabbed for the one about to launch into a fight but wasn't quite fast enough and ended up being the first one bitten. The bite that ended in 11 stitches was not nearly as painful as the one where I just had a couple of small punctures, but the soft tissue damaged caused the hand to swell to about 3 times it's normal size. The dog obviously spat out my hand when he realised it was me because the punctures weren't deep, but he still did some damage. The other two were accidental play bites. As a child, both my dog and I grabbed for a bouncing tennis ball. Neither of us got the ball but he got my hand. The other bite was a deep puncture in the centre of my hand from a very excited obedience dog, learning jumps. He was having a great time barking with enthusiasm, I held out my hand to indicate the jump, he jumped, barked and managed to catch my hand in his mouth accidently. He refused to look at my hand after. I'm sure he knew he had caused it and didn't mean to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poodlemum Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Ouch ! been there, done that . Hope there's nothing broken! Me too - I have quite a scar on my left arm from trying to break up a fight between my GSP & a Dobe (it was MY dog who bit me) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmolo Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Ouch- hope you heal fast. :D I think 2 of the most painful bites i have had didn't even seriously break skin- one was on a hand that was already bruised. I was playing tug with my kelpie x and she grabbed my hand by accident- dropped me like a sack of potatoes. My OH was watching and had turned around for a second he didn't understand what had happened- one minute i am happily playing tug next i am on the ground in tears!! The other one was with my big bull arab type during agility- he was wildly excited missed the tug and got my hand instead- let go instantly but i still thought i had broken something, it hurt so much!! I haven't been bitten breaking up dogs fights yet (touch wood) but sometimes adrenaline makes you do strange things without thinking about the consequences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tilly Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Hope your hand is feeling better soon. It is just plain instinct that makes you want to grab the dogs to seperate them. For a while there our older dog would have a go at the youngest to the point we never left them together unsupervised. He would normally back off when told .. expect there was one day when I was getting their food ready when the older boy got stuck into the youngest and refused to break it off. I tried seperating them with a broom but when that didn't work I grabbed the older dog (who was closest to me) by the back legs and pulled him backwards into the garage ... I don't know what I would have done if the youngest had wanted to continue the fight and came with us. I was shaking as I was checking both dogs over for injuries ... which thankfully wasn't too serious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blakbelgian Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Sending you fast healing vibes. How did the x ray go? Some one told me once to seperate boys just grab them by their Nuts if you can to seperate them. My worst dog bite was when I was young and we had a Foxy x JRT. I tried to get a bone off her and she lunged for my breast. (even then I was well endowed in that area) and boy did that hurt. :D She punctured it & bruised really bad as I didn't ice it, I did wash it & didnt tell mum until a long time after the fact. BB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snow_wolf Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Thats exactly why i usually go in with the boot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corvus Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I did that trying to prevent a fight the other day. It worked, but I was lucky the dog wasn't going in to do damage. He was just making a point. I did end up with his mouth on my hand and got to learn how inhibited his bites are when he's passionate about something. I will undoubtedly do it again. When I see something about to happen I tend to just grab first and think later. It's worked so many times for me that it'll take a serious chomp or two to teach my amygdala to talk to my cortex about it first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bully Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Ouch!! Hope there's no serious damage and you are OK soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daisy Posted February 11, 2011 Author Share Posted February 11, 2011 good news, luckily nothing is broken, just one very swollen hand! Yes I really should know better than to stick my hand in, and maybe next time I will remember, although it always happens so fast! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSoSwift Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Great news The worst injury I had was when our cat nearly escaped out the door(they were indoor only cats) and I garbbed him just as he was about to break free. I scared the poor little thing half to death and I ended up with one claw going into a knuckly and another going through the webbing between fingers. The one into the knuckle actually damaged my tendon adn I ended up with and infection in the tendon. I washed it for ages, got a syringe and cleaned out the holes and by the next morning my hand was three times normal size and oozing green gunk. TWo lots of antibiotic later and it was all better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vickie Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 (edited) Owww you poor thing, hope it heals soon. I've had a couple of bites from playing tug with young dogs, it bloody well hurts! Especially when infection sets in Edited February 11, 2011 by Vickie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monah Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 That's a relief Daisy. Hope it heals up very soon...xxxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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