A D.C. Fire and EMS K9 named Kylie is healing after impaling her paw during a search in a wooded area in Northern Virginia on Wednesday, D.C. Fire officials say.

Kylie was searching for an odor in the woods when she pierced her paw on a piece of hidden metal fencing, says D.C. Fire spokesperson Vito Maggiolo. The metal severed a main artery and two veins in the dog’s leg, and she began bleeding profusely, per Maggiolo.

WJLA was the first to report on the dog’s injury and eventual recovery.

Kylie’s handler, EMS Sergeant Gene Ryan, carried Kylie on his shoulders about a mile back through the woods to get her to safety, Maggiolo says. Ryan tried to apply a tourniquet to the dog’s leg, but she bit him whenever he tried and did not want the area to be touched, so he applied pressure to the area with his hands, according to Maggiolo. Other safety personnel had to clear the way back through the woods with machetes.

Kylie was airlifted back to the District via a medevac helicopter, and then taken to the Friendship Heights Animal Hospital, where she underwent a two-hour surgery, Maggiolo says. “The outcome is looking excellent,” he says, and the dog should be back on duty when her injuries are healed.

“It was Sergeant Ryan’s opinion that if they had tried to transport the dog on the ground, she would have bled to death,” Maggiolo says.

Kylie is six years old, and has been working with the fire department for five years total, including two years of training, Maggiolo says. She lives with Ryan and his family.