I miss my sweet baby so much. But I am so glad that we decided to amputate his leg a year and a half ago. Yes, 1.5years!!! They gave him a 3-6 month estimate, probably closer to 6. Boy, didn’t he impress his doctor!!! She kept on calling him her miracle dog. The only treatment we did cancer wise was the amputation.
His recovery from surgery went very well and he was up and at it in no time. He was still able to steal food off of the counter and put his front paw up on my shoulder. He really didn’t slow down at all.
We had one scare when all of a sudden he stopped eating, threw up what he did eat and could barely stand up without falling down. We thought the worst and were preparing to say goodbye. Turns out all he had was an ear infection that made him dizzy and nauseous. Phew!!
Then at about June he started to slowly go down hill. He was growing a new tumor on his hip on the same side as amputation. This sucker was fast growing too. But he still was doing relatively well. His legs were getting swollen so they put him on steroids. They did the trick! The swelling was gone, he was able to get around a little easier and he had a new appetite for food that we hadn’t seen in a while.
While they were beneficial they also started to make his muscles in his head change and that in combo with the cancer was effecting one of his eyes. So the vet gave us some drops to help which did make an improvement. He was getting a little more sluggish and needed help getting up more often. Still we felt his good days were more than his bad days. The vet felt that we should make a decision soon but he kept on pepping back up. Then Saturday I noticed that he wasn’t as interested in food. He would take a few bites and had no trouble keeping it down, he just didn’t want much. Even bread (which he usually loves) wasn’t fully appealing to him. I talked to my husband and we decided that Monday would be the day. We would have our vet come to the house and put him to sleep after the kids went to school. They are so young and we didn’t want them seeing it. I read them a book about dogs going to Heaven that day. My husband and I both had to work Saturday evening. We got a text from our sitter that he was breathing hard and had urinated on himself. In the process of her getting towels under him, he took his last breath. She said it was only about 20 minutes from the start of the labored breathing to the end.
We came home after work and spent a little time with him before my husband transferred him to a 24 hour vet to await cremation. I brought back his ashes, paw prints and a lock of fur on Wednesday. Man I miss him so much already. I knew that this day was coming for a while and I feel like we had so much quantity and quality than we should have expected but it is still something that you are just never ready for. He was always there for us and was such a gentle and loving dog, a constant companion. He would have turned 15 on September 24th.