We just got back from taking our dog, Neala, to a
specialist vet. We had to leave her there for them to do a biopsy on her.
About a month ago, she had stopped eating her food, and at first we thought she
was just being picky, but a week later when she wouldn't even eat the scraps
that we gave her, we knew something was wrong. After we took her to
our vet, and he gave her some medicine, she got worse and didn't eat a single
thing. A second visit to the vet today confirmed that she had some sort of
growth in her throat and so this very same day we took her to a specialty vet. My
parents got a call about an hour after leaving her there and what the vet said
wasn't good. The thing in her throat is most likely cancerous and it seems to
not only be in her throat but throughout her whole body. Her kidneys are shutting
down so that her calcium levels are so high their measuring tools at the clinic can't even
read it. The treatment for this would be very expensive, and since my dad
will be losing his job next year, we most likely will only be able to afford to
put her to sleep. Even if we do let her live out the time she has left, with
medication, she will only live for about 4 - 6 weeks.
Quite some years ago, on
Christmas Eve, my family came home to find our cat, Rosie, dying underneath a
chair, later that night, my dad threw her body away in the garbage can. That memory was so sad and tragic for me that it will forever be seared
into my mind. It would be too much to have to watch our dog die before our eyes
also, so putting her to sleep is probably the best thing for her and for us. In this last week I have watched her grow weaker, becoming listless and when I looked
into her eyes, I saw suffering. We would be cruel to make her live longer in
her misery just because we want her to be with us. Now that I know we will lose
her, I look back and see how perfect of a dog she was. She is so smart, most of
the time too much for her own good. She became almost like a sergeant mother to
our three cats, nipping at them if they were up to no good. Neala is the most
well behaved dog we have ever owned, but since I can only remember as far back
as our last dog, Jenny the Devil Dog, as we nicknamed her, I don't have much to
compare her to. But I know she will forever be our princess.
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