We would like to tell you a story about Grace. Grace is a Queensland Heeler who loves chasing things that wiggle and make noise. Unfortunately, Grace got a little too close to the paper going down the paper shredder and got her tongue stuck in it. Her mom, Lisa, rushed her to Stenner Creek Animal Hospital just before closing on Saturday, October 11th, handing her over to our technicians with the top of the paper shredder attached to her tongue and severely bleeding. Knowing that Grace’s life was in our hands, our doctor and staff got to work right away. We stabilized her with intravenous fluids and administered pain relief medication. Then we anesthetized Grace and formulated a plan to remove the paper shredder without further damaging her tongue. During hours of work, we cut apart the paper shredder to free her tongue and Dr. O’Reilly surgically reattached Grace’s tongue that was 75% torn from its attachment on the back of her mouth. It took over 80 stitches to repair her tongue. Over the next few days this brave girl started trying to eat on her own and learned to love our staff. Unfortunately after about a week, Grace had to undergo another surgery to remove part of her tongue that had started to die from a lack of blood supply from being crushed by the paper shredder. She has begun to regain use of her tongue since and it is healing well. Our staff, and Lisa, wanted to share Grace’s story and remind owners to keep your pets away from the office paper shredder to prevent this happening to your loved one. Now 2 weeks later from initial incident, Grace is happier than ever and doing very well, though she will have to find another toy to play with. We wish Grace the best of luck in her recovery!
Here are pictures from her recovery, the 1st taken just before surgery with the paper shredder still attached, the 2nd taken on our front lawn the day after surgery, the 3rd taken in her kennel during lunch time 4 days after her first surgery, and the last taken during her recheck appointment 2 weeks after the initial incident.
