Saturday my dog Soolin and I were out hiking on farmland. I was tossing the ball to her. She came back with the ball and I noted it was fairly bloody, so I called her back and to my shock she was covered in blood down her entire front. I grabbed her and started checking her and realized when I got to her mouth that she was bleeding profusely from a deep cut to her tongue – so deep that it was gushing and she ended up covering me in blood. I was 1/3 of a mile from my house, roughly, and I panicked – how does one apply pressure to a dog’s tongue? Meanwhile, she seemed fine with it and just wanted me to throw the ball some more. I started back towards the house at a jog, constantly having to call at her to follow me since she knew we were headed back towards home and did not want to go. I wasn’t sure exactly what I would do once I got back to the house, but I figured I would think of something on the way.

Fortunately by the time we got back to the house the bleeding had slowed and was no longer gushing. I washed her mouth out and cleaned off her coat with the hose and made her lie down and after a half hour or so things seemed to settle. Talk about a scare though, for maybe 10-15 minutes I was under the impression she might be bleeding to death. The wound did re-open several times over the weekend, but only mild bleeding occurred and it has not re-opened since Sunday morning over breakfast so I think she’s in the clear now.