October promised to be a busy month for showing with 2 weekends of good entries for Borzoi, so we were looking forward to bringing out one of our youngsters. As previously noted, we had been getting Blazer ready for showing, so were especially anticipating these shows.

The week before the first shows, Blazer was bitten by something that was making his muzzle swell up very quickly and of course it all flared up over the weekend. After several trips to the Vet and the emergency Vet over the weekend, it was decided that he had been bitten by a spider and he was getting antibiotics and warm compresses.

He was oozing blood from his muzzle and this quicly turned into a very raw looking area the size of a silver dollar. It was so nasty looking that I took him back to our Vet for an inspection. She determined that the bite was definitely from a spider because of the pit in the center of the wound so she gave us a medication called “Tripzyme” which we applied twice a day to the area. It is a very thick liquid which clears out the dead cells and promotes quick healing-it was amazing how fast the area began to heal. The other important thing to do with a wound like this was to scub the area often so that no scabbing or granular areas developed which could become infected and cause it to spread.

Of course, we had Blazer entered in several shows and his muzzle was nasty looking but we attended the shows and actually showed him so that we would not break the major on one day and kept the points at 2 for the next day.

By the following weekend, the wound was healed over but still not pretty but Blazer did manage to be named BOS in the Sweeps held at the PVBC supported entry show.

It is now 5 weeks since he was bitten and the wound is pretty well healed, the hair on his muzzle has grown back but he may have a small scar there but it is hardly noticeable.

Check the photo gallery- I have posted some photos of his face during this ordeal.

The weekend of Oct 21/22,2006 I attended the shows in Cumberland, MD with friend, Jill Woith along with her boy, CH Phoenixx Song of Solomon,JC and our pup, Phoenixx Golden Trail Blazer. We were there to honor the memory of Donna Maharan,who had been the show chair for these shows for several years and who was tragically murdered in Nov. of 2005.

Solomon was being shown for the first time as a Champion and at the Saturday show, under judge Terry Stacey, Solomon was chosen as BOS to Rose as BOB. Rose is currently the number 1 conformation Borzoi in the US.