Post by Kit on Feb 17, 2015 23:58:10 GMT -5
Monday morning, after a horribly long night, we lost Nick.
We got lucky 4 years ago when his first cancer tumor was removed. It stayed gone for a long time. He had a couple other small tumors, but they weren't growing, so we were hopeful that it wasn't cancer. Last September, his right front leg & shoulder swelled up, and he could hardly walk. No definite cause could be found, but a few Lymphoma cells were found under his shoulder muscle. We decided after the first tumor, that we could not put him thru treatment. We were armed with painkillers to keep him comfortable, and luckily, he rarely needed it.
He was fine for a few months, with only a slight limp, if he overdid it. The last couple weeks, he has INSISTED that I take him for a short walk after work.
Sunday morning, he was showing slight signs of pain, not putting much weight on his foot. I gave him a dose of Tramdol to ease the pain. DH & I went grocery shopping and when we got home a couple hours later, he was MUCH worse. He was dragging his foot and his shoulder was swollen.
We loaded him up and took him to the ER clinic. They sedated him, took x-rays,(clean) took a sample of the fluid in his shoulder (it was MOSTLY blood, a few cancer cells)Their conclusion was Brachial plexus avulsion, and he basically had not feeling in his leg. NO idea how it could have happened. It's usually found in dogs that are hit by cars.
They gave him pain meds and gave us a couple options. They talked amputation, MRI, euthanasia, etc, but felt we didn't need to make an immediate decision. They said to think about it, take him to our regular vet in a couple days and go from there.
We took him home, and as soon as we got him in the truck, he started moaning & crying. He has always done that when coming out of sedation, so while it sounded horrible, I wasn't super concerned.
By the time we got home, he shoulder was swollen even more. I got him situated in the living room and I stayed on the floor with him
He moaned & cried pretty much non-stop for hours. Around 2am, he moved a bit, fell on his bad shoulder, and kind of screamed. I got him up, he laid on the other side and seemed much more comfortable. The crying lessened a lot and we both dozed a little. He's cry every few minutes instead of constantly.
DH left for work about 4am Monday and the crying wasn't too bad. I dozed off about 5am, and when I woke up about 7:30am, he was gone. :-(
There was a ton of bruising around his leg and chest, so, it appear that he had some sort of internal bleeding from something.
I REALLY wish I hadn't been so tired and was able to take him back to the ER to be put down, but I was really thinking/hoping most of the crying was from the sedation.
Rosie & Frankie stayed with us all night, and were pretty upset. I left him where he was until DH got home (he came home early) so they girl were able to sniff him and get an idea what was going on.
DH is pretty upset, Nick was his dog and his shadow. He couldn't do anything without Nick being right there.
He was a pain sometimes, but he was also a great dog and will be greatly missed. He left way to early. He was just 8 years old, and we'd only had him 6 years.
The gang is smaller now.
We got lucky 4 years ago when his first cancer tumor was removed. It stayed gone for a long time. He had a couple other small tumors, but they weren't growing, so we were hopeful that it wasn't cancer. Last September, his right front leg & shoulder swelled up, and he could hardly walk. No definite cause could be found, but a few Lymphoma cells were found under his shoulder muscle. We decided after the first tumor, that we could not put him thru treatment. We were armed with painkillers to keep him comfortable, and luckily, he rarely needed it.
He was fine for a few months, with only a slight limp, if he overdid it. The last couple weeks, he has INSISTED that I take him for a short walk after work.
Sunday morning, he was showing slight signs of pain, not putting much weight on his foot. I gave him a dose of Tramdol to ease the pain. DH & I went grocery shopping and when we got home a couple hours later, he was MUCH worse. He was dragging his foot and his shoulder was swollen.
We loaded him up and took him to the ER clinic. They sedated him, took x-rays,(clean) took a sample of the fluid in his shoulder (it was MOSTLY blood, a few cancer cells)Their conclusion was Brachial plexus avulsion, and he basically had not feeling in his leg. NO idea how it could have happened. It's usually found in dogs that are hit by cars.
They gave him pain meds and gave us a couple options. They talked amputation, MRI, euthanasia, etc, but felt we didn't need to make an immediate decision. They said to think about it, take him to our regular vet in a couple days and go from there.
We took him home, and as soon as we got him in the truck, he started moaning & crying. He has always done that when coming out of sedation, so while it sounded horrible, I wasn't super concerned.
By the time we got home, he shoulder was swollen even more. I got him situated in the living room and I stayed on the floor with him
He moaned & cried pretty much non-stop for hours. Around 2am, he moved a bit, fell on his bad shoulder, and kind of screamed. I got him up, he laid on the other side and seemed much more comfortable. The crying lessened a lot and we both dozed a little. He's cry every few minutes instead of constantly.
DH left for work about 4am Monday and the crying wasn't too bad. I dozed off about 5am, and when I woke up about 7:30am, he was gone. :-(
There was a ton of bruising around his leg and chest, so, it appear that he had some sort of internal bleeding from something.
I REALLY wish I hadn't been so tired and was able to take him back to the ER to be put down, but I was really thinking/hoping most of the crying was from the sedation.
Rosie & Frankie stayed with us all night, and were pretty upset. I left him where he was until DH got home (he came home early) so they girl were able to sniff him and get an idea what was going on.
DH is pretty upset, Nick was his dog and his shadow. He couldn't do anything without Nick being right there.
He was a pain sometimes, but he was also a great dog and will be greatly missed. He left way to early. He was just 8 years old, and we'd only had him 6 years.
The gang is smaller now.
