My dog nearly choked to death tonight on her own collar. It’s been at least 20 minutes since it happened and I’m still a bit shaky from the whole thing.
I had put the dog out in the backyard for a bit. Because of the way the land slopes beneath our house, the door leading to the backyard actually has a landing and then stairs that lead to the yard. Artie will go out and do her business and then either explore the backyard or come up and lay down outside the kitchen door until we let her back inside.
I’m not sure how it happened, but today when she laid down she managed to get her dog tags and part of her collar between two of the boards on the landing. The dog tags dropped below the boards and then twisted so that they kept her in place.
Artie could only lift her head about an inch and couldn’t move from her spot. She panicked (understandably) and twisted and kicked around on the landing. During her struggles, she knocked out two or three of the balusters near her.
I wasn’t that far away and I heard her struggles and came to see what was going on. Since she was right in front of the kitchen door, I really couldn’t see what was wrong. At first I thought she had a stroke and that was why she couldn’t get up. I managed to get out the back door and when I tried to pick her up I saw her problem.
I couldn’t get the tags out, either, and I didn’t have anyone around that could help me out. Luckily, I managed to force Artie’s head down against the landing and work the collar over her head. It wasn’t easy and I’m sure it hurt her but it finally came off.
She seems just fine now. She’s not acting hurt at all and I gave her a snack bone and she ate it right up. She still doesn’t have a collar on her, though.
Even with the collar off the dog, I couldn’t get it out of the space between the boards in the landing. It wouldn’t go up or down so it’s wedged in there pretty tight. I might be able to get it out from the bottom, but I’m not going to try that until tomorrow.
My cats all have collars that supposedly break away if the animal gets caught by the collar. I wonder if they make something similar for dogs.
