o'cockaigne

February 28: Cwillyaigne O'Cockaigne breaks her lower jaw. Our bad luck bird. The coursing season has started again for most hounds. Not for our Cwillyaigne. She was born for the accident and has had to skip many coursings because of serious injuries, almost all of them accumulated in the free field during a walk or bike ride.

Last February 28 the weather was hit. We were walking in the fields behind our grove. The hounds ran a bit to rummage on a meadow where normally Belgian draught horses run and suddenly a hare popped away. 

Calhoun, Caintha and Cwillyaigne shot at the back. Since it is actually very safe, no roads or cycle paths and little barbed wire that they know exactly how to get around, I did not get busy and walked quietly with the other hounds that side where they would come from again. The hares usually shoot the forest or tree plantations and then the boys lose them, but this hare decided otherwise. Calhoun and Caintha came back quite quickly and after a few recalls I saw Cwillyaigne in the distance a corner perish. Something was wrong, she didn't get crippled yet.. When she came closer she shot a hare near her, but she just looked… did not react. Not good, I thought. When she was at a distance of about 10 meters, I all saw blood flowing out of her mouth and tried to claw something out of her mouth with her front legs. A branch or so, I thought but after I had persuaded her to jump over the ditch and took her head in my hands, the courage fell into the shoes. Her lower jaw was broken at least in three places. The hare was apparently a concrete diver, I believe there are two or three under the paths and she was happily pushed behind. Anyway, the vet has been tinkering three hours to get the puzzle back together, the jaw appeared to be broken in four places, and she survived. Unfortunately, after 9 weeks it appeared that on the right side (the broken side) had not grown together and that there was botoplossing place at the places where the screws were sitting. So again under the knife, metal plate out there and now just wait and see if the ignition wants to heal. It is now starting to become less thick, but we are still far from there. Pathetic Cwillyaigne, our otherwise cheerful girl is now a heap of misery, she can only occasionally wagging and is constantly afraid that one of the other hounds runs against her yuling. Fortunately, eating (practically liquid) and drinking is good and she can walk with you, just on the leash!   How it went with our bad luck bird. On July 20, Jl. Our Cwillyaigne has been operated again. She obviously suffered from the semi-detached lower jaw, and I dared to let her run away from what was not exactly conducive to her spiritual wellbeing. She is a renmonster.    After many deliberation and roads I decided to go to Luc Janssens, a specialist surgery where I had been with other hounds before. He has a modern clinic, Anubis, just below Antwerp, with all the scanning and X-rays and a whole team of specialists around him. Wednesday morning 9.00 hours we were at places and after the story was heard Cwillyaigne got a antidepressant and was transported to the scan room. After a 20 minutes I could see the images. The left and front side of the lower jaw had grown nicely together but the front screw of the metal plate that was left in it, caused in the right jaw half, where the screw was also fixed, botoplossing. So this plate had to be out again. Right in the back there was a large empty space of about a thick centimeter. Luc Janssens told me, before we took the treatment, that he didn't really find this a present, it would be a heavy operation but especially recovery period. Anyway, the treatment would consist of; Left plate out, right jaw tip clean up, cavity fill with bone marrow from the humerus and antibiotic sponges and then fixate again with a picture. Cwillyaigne stayed behind and I went through gritted teeth home.                                                                                                                               At 13.00 am I got a phone call that the operation had gone well and that I could pick up Cwillyaigne against the six. However, they also had to pull a top notch to allow the jaws to close properly, so the lower jaw had changed so that the Rechterhoek tooth came to the cutting tooth.       For six o'clock we were in Aartselaar. Cwillyaigne was still asleep, she had been awake for a while but she had left her in the drip until we were there. After having spoken all through, we left with a large bag of medicine and an even sleeping Cwillyaigne. I had prepared that she would awaken panicky, which was one of the last times at least so but now she stayed very quiet until one hour or half two at night. Then she started to squeak a bit and lifted her yuling on occasion. At half past three I asked if she had to do a pee, she was right and walked barely Kiebel and did a huge pee. Then I knew that it went well with her and I could with peace of mind to bed.                                                                                                                                 The first week was a tough week. There were days when she had so much pain that she didn't want to drink, let alone eat. It was a crime to get the medicines in, but after a week it went a little better. Everything of course very liquid but we got it in it. The medicine I made in a mortar fine. Her tail we did not see so much wagging and of the walks she enjoyed yet.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             It was striking that after the surgery her Babu was not thickened and I could get there well to keep it clean as she drooled terribly. After two weeks this was fortunately a lot less and she could lick her mouth a bit better. Also the food, still almost liquid, and drinking went well. After three weeks she was clearly a lot happier and we stopped with a part of the painkillers. That went well. In The fourth week we could stop the antibiotics and another week later I stopped the Rimadyl. It goes well, she is cheerful, wants to hunt again love but may not yet of me, eats well although her speed has diminished clearly and even gives kisses again.                                                                   Because of all the anesthesia, her fur was totally down to the buds, so I decided to strip her completely. And what appeared there??? A beautiful "Greyhound"! Personally, I find my "Greyhound" more beautiful than the real.    About a week and a half, we have to go back for control, hopefully the images will show a completely growing lower jaw so that we can close this chapter again after a thick six months.       Bad luck, bad luck and another bad luck for our bad luck bird. 5 September we had to come back for control. We had good hope and Cwillyaigne behaved like old: happy. After an exploratory interview, Cwillyaigne got a whirl so she could be well researched. After some time, Luc Janssens came back with a distressed face. I knew enough; Her jaw had not yet grown to each other. But it was even worse, the space between them was too large to spontaneously grow together, there had been rejection of part of the bone marrow placed. We decided to repeat the operation a week later. On 12 September, Luc placed a second dose of bone marrow between the jaw surfaces. The operation was successful but three days later it was inflamed and the metal plate was exposed a bit. Straight back, let it be cleaned and attached. Cwillyaigne was heavy on the antibiotics and I rinsed her mouth clean after every meal. On 23 September I noticed that the metal plate was visible again, a part of the gums had disappeared. Luckily I was right at Anubis and there they made it as well as possible to sew it back. Unfortunately, it was again open on Tuesday. Luc and his team have beaten five books to find a method to close it right. Eventually they decided to use a part of Cwillyaigne's lower lip to close it. While I was in England to cover Cheytah, Simon panicked that Cwillyaigne scratched the whole lot and was totally panicked. He could go to the vet on Friday morning, but he could do nothing more than just give a hood and painkillers. Saturday I was back home and beholded the drama. Cwillyaigne was our Cwillyaigne no more. This was the well-known drop that caused the bucket to flow. She accepted the strange feeling that her stuck sewn lower lip gave, absolutely not. As long as she was quiet on her bed, nothing was going on but as soon as she got up for a walk or to eat she became wild and tried to scratch her beak with her paw. This could not continue so naturally for a few weeks. I decided that the metal plate had to be out and that her lips had to be sewn together again so that they felt normal for her. On Monday 3 October, Luc Janssens did this and when Cwillyaigne came out of the anaesthetic and moved her beak a bit I saw the change. She was a piece of more relaxed. It is very unfortunate, because the lower jaw was busy growing together, a very fragile bridge was created. But unfortunately, through the operation and because there was no further support, the jaw parts were separated again and the Cwillyaigne's lower jaw was skewed again. Her tongue hangs more outside her mouth than in it and she still has occasional pain but it goes again in the right direction with her, spiritually. It is sin but yes, sometimes you have no choice. On October 25th, almost 8 months after the adventure, I have the last stitches removed. Also the "soluble" which did not want to solve and gave a lot of irritation. Now she gets calm, first everything healed well, both physically and mentally and next year we see again. I just hope that she can go on course again because that is still her lust and her life.