Maggie: March 17, 2001 to January 6th, 2009I know that this is extremely off topic but I have to post this. I feel like I must somehow pay a little tribute to the loved one that I lost yesterday. Maggie was our 7 1/2 furry child, golden retriever who was taken from us much too soon. Our world revolved around here. She was fiesty, smart, very comical, lovable, food obsessed, pool and swimming obsessed and just the bright spot of our lives.
A few days after Christmas she started with these spells of lethargy and what we almost thought was sadness. The first time it happened, she laid down in the backyard in the pouring rain refusing to move. She could barely lift her head. We took her to the vet only to have her recover in the waiting room and therefore, the vet couldn't see anything wrong with her as there were no obvious signs. We were sent home basically told that it would be "blind testing" as he couldn't see any physical signs of anything - no smoking gun.
The next time it happened, again she laid out in the snow this time, four days after the last episode, extremely tired and unable to move. Again, in an hour or two she was fine.
The last time it happened she could not snap out of it, and it lasted more than 12 hours. We brought her in, she was put on i.v. and they did literally test after test after test. The ultrasound finally showed that she had tumours in her spleen (and possibly other organs) called hemangiosarcoma. The prognosis was not good. Basically every episode she'd had previously was a tumour rupturing, her bleeding out and then somehow the blood stopped on its own. This time, she was just bleeding internally and it was not stopping. It is an extremely bad form of cancer for dogs - even with surgery the prognosis is something like 59 more days out the dog (while putting it through all the pain of surgery). It was so hard to make that decision yesterday but we had to put her down. It was not fair to her to make her go through the labour of surgery when in the end she'd at most get a few more days or weeks. If it was years, we would have done it in a heart beat...we would have extended our baby's life in a heartbeat.
We are in complete and utter mourning.
Dawn
A few days after Christmas she started with these spells of lethargy and what we almost thought was sadness. The first time it happened, she laid down in the backyard in the pouring rain refusing to move. She could barely lift her head. We took her to the vet only to have her recover in the waiting room and therefore, the vet couldn't see anything wrong with her as there were no obvious signs. We were sent home basically told that it would be "blind testing" as he couldn't see any physical signs of anything - no smoking gun.
The next time it happened, again she laid out in the snow this time, four days after the last episode, extremely tired and unable to move. Again, in an hour or two she was fine.
The last time it happened she could not snap out of it, and it lasted more than 12 hours. We brought her in, she was put on i.v. and they did literally test after test after test. The ultrasound finally showed that she had tumours in her spleen (and possibly other organs) called hemangiosarcoma. The prognosis was not good. Basically every episode she'd had previously was a tumour rupturing, her bleeding out and then somehow the blood stopped on its own. This time, she was just bleeding internally and it was not stopping. It is an extremely bad form of cancer for dogs - even with surgery the prognosis is something like 59 more days out the dog (while putting it through all the pain of surgery). It was so hard to make that decision yesterday but we had to put her down. It was not fair to her to make her go through the labour of surgery when in the end she'd at most get a few more days or weeks. If it was years, we would have done it in a heart beat...we would have extended our baby's life in a heartbeat.
We are in complete and utter mourning.
Dawn
5 comments:
I'm so sorry for your loss Dawn!
I feel your pain and I'm sorry you had to let your friend go.
Hugs!
Susy
I am so sorry for your loss. I've lost a pet too and I know from experience that's it horrible. My thoughts are with you. Tina
Hi Dawn:
I wish you strength in this difficult time. Dogs give unconditional love; that makes it even harder when they leave us.
David
Oh Dawn, I'm so sorry. My familyhad a dog who we lost to likely the same form of cancer when I was in my early 20's. It was devastating. I was in serious mourning for days. I'm really sorry to hear that you're having to go through all of this. My thoughts are with you and your family.
Cheri
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