Sunday, December 29, 2013

Saying goodbye to our baby dog

Yesterday was one of the hardest days of my life. I have never been an animal lover until we got our dogs. Something about them I fell in love with and after our last puppy was hit by a car and killed about a year and a half ago we decided we wanted another. Austin was cute as a button when we picked him up from our breeder. He was small, but we thought that he was okay and would grow with time.


He was the kind of dog I dreamt of; quiet, relaxed, obedient and little. He was funny and he had an amazing sense of humour and he was so much fun for our kids. He loved going on walks and he loved other dogs, even if they didn't want him around. He tried hard.


About a week ago we noticed he was quieter than usual. He was slow on his walks and he was doing strange things like peeing on the verandah. By Christmas he was not himself and was not eating much and laying about a lot more.


On boxing day he was very flat. We decided we would take him to our vet the next day as we were worried he was having another urinary blockage which he had had a month earlier, but it resolved.


We took him to our vets and they kept him to do some blood work. When they called us alarmed we were very worried. They had found awful things in his bloodwork and he needed to be transferred to the animal hospital for treatment. Upon arriving at the hospital he was still so flat. The doctor told us that she thought Austin may have a liver shunt which is a condition when blood bypasses the liver so that it is not working properly. She was also concerned about his bloods as his liver enzymes were hundreds of times normal and he had cancer markers in his blood 500 times normal levels. We left him there to have an ultrasound and start treatment.


The next day we heard from the hospital. It was not good news. He did in fact have the liver shunt and his bladder was also full of stones. They were waiting on another confirmation of the cancer markers but she said that his liver was very damaged and that he was a very sick little puppy with a lot of issues. We weighed up giving him the surgery but then he also had the problem of the stones if we didn't do surgery for that also and if he did indeed have cancer or his liver had been assaulted by something nasty, his liver was not in good shape and either was he. He would continue to be a sick dog that needed a lot of medical intervention and care. The decision was so heartbreaking and one I didn't really want us to have to make. Seeing the kids say goodbye to him broke my heart and they were just so traumatised and upset to see their dog have to be put to sleep. The vets were amazing and they gave us a room to all be in to say goodbye and spend our last time with him. I felt so much for him as he didn't understand what all the fuss was about. He was only 9 months old. We all left and hubby stayed with him as he went to be in heaven.

We will miss you faithful friend. xxxxx


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