UTMC

Well, it looks like one of our dogs will not go on much longer. He's been struggling with lymphoma since the beginning of the year and the chemo has helped, but his health has rapidly declined in the last two weeks and at the vet's today they confirmed that his heart is failing. My wife and son are taking him home with some palliative meds tonight and the vet is coming by the house in the morning to put him to rest. That assumes he makes it that long, according to the vet a heart attack and/or stroke is imminent. We've made what peace we could with this when we got his cancer diagnosis this past spring but it still hurts like hell. TBH I was just happy he made it through the weekend, its bad enough with me being 2 hours from home for work much less 6 hours by plane and trying to take part in DOOM.
We have a spot picked out in the yard and a sapling in a pot that we've been meaning to plant for a while, so that will likely be my job for tomorrow evening when I get home.

Give your pets all the love you can, they are giving you all of theirs.

Sorry, man.

That's the problem with getting attached to critters: those relationships basically always end the same way...

I still have a pic of Char up on my wall, and it's going to stay there.

--Jaeger

As predicted, he passed away last night. Thankfully it was while he was sleeping and was relatively peaceful.

Bigshankhank wrote:As predicted, he passed away last night. Thankfully it was while he was sleeping and was relatively peaceful.

Godspeed, dog. If you looked over BSH for all those years I hope there's some reward in the after.

--Jaeger

I am so sorry to hear about your dog passing on.
I have lost two cats in the last five years. They were more interesting and more concerned about me than any people.
I miss them a lot.

I'm so sorry man.

It's been 12 years since I took my last dog to the vet to be put down. His body was riddled with melanoma, he was in constant pain, it was an act of mercy.
I think of him on more days than not, and I still have his leash. Once I get the insurance thing settled, and can move to a larger place, it's the leash I will use with my new dog.
A dog is a wonderful companion. They developed symbiotically with humans, they just fill a dog-shaped hole in your life. They stay with us a long time.

You took more than good care of him (I had never even thought that there was chemo for dogs). You gave him a loving home, evidently, and he passed peacefully. You done right by him.

DerGolgo wrote:I'm so sorry man.

It's been 12 years since I took my last dog to the vet to be put down. His body was riddled with melanoma, he was in constant pain, it was an act of mercy.
I think of him on more days than not, and I still have his leash. Once I get the insurance thing settled, and can move to a larger place, it's the leash I will use with my new dog.
A dog is a wonderful companion. They developed symbiotically with humans, they just fill a dog-shaped hole in your life. They stay with us a long time.

You took more than good care of him (I had never even thought that there was chemo for dogs). You gave him a loving home, evidently, and he passed peacefully. You done right by him.

My son is going to keep his tags and use them as his keychain fob. Lease and collar will be donated to a shelter. His sister (same age, different breed mix) is mourning him more than we thought she would, and the house is just, quieter than normal.
Chemo for dogs, as it was explained to us by the veterinary oncologist, is not to cure so much as it is to ease suffering. A human can understand that aggressive chemo will make them sick in an effort o make them well, but its hard to make a dog understand that, so they get a pretty light dose and just hope to extend their life rather than really beat the cancer.

Sorry for the loss of your pup. It will be 2 years on the 21st, that I lost my first dog. It's damn hard to lose them and they take a piece of us when they go. But, on the bright side, you can fill that spot with another pup that needs a great home.