Post #236,215
11/27/05 6:30:08 PM
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Had to put down one of our dogs today
Timmy, our first dog. Had him for four years. Hard to believe how attached I'd become.
He started acting strange, really lethargic about 10 days ago. Took him to vet on Friday (week ago). Vet didn't see or hear anything wrong. Took him home. By Tuesday he was still lethargic and started snapping at the other dogs. Back to vet. This one suspected back problems, which Timmy has had before, and dehydration. Kept him overnight. Xray showed two bad disks in back, and he was dehydrated. The vet had given him two units of fluids. When I picked him up on Wednesday, the vet prescribed pain pills to ease discomfort and said he should be fine. He was a little better. Thursday he laid around, ate his meal and accepted his pills. Friday morning was ok. Friday evening he was hunched over and wouldn't eat.
Saturday morning after picking up my daughter from work at 6:00, I went to feed Timmy. Wouldn't eat. Force fed him some water. Put him down. His head was cocked to the right, took a couple of steps and then "tipped" over. Off to ER vet.
Vet came back after initial exam and asked the standard questions, indoor/outdoor, could he have gotten into anything, any chance of poison, etc. No to all. Went back for further exam. Came back a said that Timmy was having a balance problem. Vet had noticed Timmy's eyes "twitching". Vet said (I may have order wrong) up-and-down twitching/balance was ear problem. Left-to-right twitching/balance was brain. He suggested I take him to the U for CT. Cost would be $800-1200 for diagnostics. ER care estimate was $650-$950. Plus whatever the CT disclosed. I asked the vet about Timmy's chances for recovery. Reply - "Very guarded". Vet also stated that the blood work would probably NOT disclose anything. So I passed on the CT and the blood work. Just fluids, steriods, and antibiotics to see if that helped.
I called vet at 5:00 p.m. Timmy had made a little progress. Recommended keeping him overnight for observation and continued fluid. I ok'd.
Next shift vet called at 3:30 a.m. Timmy had had a seizure. They gave him valium to control seizure and Timmy was now resting, but this was a bad sign.
I picked up my daughter again at 6:00. Dropped her off and went to the Vet ER. It was horrible. Went back to see Timmy. He was lying there like a lump. I called him and he lifted his head and started to wag his tail. Just a little wag. I petted him and talked to him, all the while he kept wagging his little tail. Then he stopped. Laid his head down again.
Vet came over. She again recommended CT if we wanted to get to the root cause. And when I asked her about Timmy's recovery possibility, she confirmed what the first vet had said. Very slim. "We don't do many brain surgeries on small dogs."
I made the decision to have him put to sleep. Completed the necessary paperwork. Then the vet assistant took me to one of the counselling rooms, and then brought Timmy to me. I held him, petted him. And while I holding him he had another seizure. I just held him. The seizure passed. I called for the vet. She described the procedure. I said I wanted to hold him the entire time. Vet administed the drugs and Timmy was gone.
Didn't realize how much I had become attached...
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail ... but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn...that was fun!"
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Post #236,216
11/27/05 6:54:31 PM
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I'm so sorry.
Wishing you consolation for the loss of your little friend.
Peace and hugs,
Amy
"It's never too late to be who you might have been." ~ George Eliot
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Post #236,219
11/27/05 7:09:45 PM
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Sorry
Terrible choice to have to make.
You did the best you could.
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Post #236,222
11/27/05 7:20:20 PM
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Condolences Joe. I'm very sorry. :-(
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Post #236,223
11/27/05 7:20:32 PM
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I'm so sorry...
[link|http://www.runningworks.com|
] Imric's Tips for Living
- Paranoia Is a Survival Trait
- Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised...
- Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win.
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Nothing is as simple as it seems in the beginning,
As hopeless as it seems in the middle,
Or as finished as it seems in the end.
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Post #236,224
11/27/05 7:21:35 PM
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I'm so sorry, Jrabeck
I know that's hard to do, but you made the best choice. He's not suffering anymore now.
Wishing you peace and comfort in your beloved pet loss.
Brenda
"I'll rock the darn boat all I want to, and if it's meant to stay afloat, then it will. If not, then we'll just all go down with the bloody ship!"
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Post #236,225
11/27/05 7:36:30 PM
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condolences :-(
Darrell Spice, Jr. [link|http://spiceware.org/gallery/ArtisticOverpass|Artistic Overpass]\n[link|http://www.spiceware.org/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
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Post #236,233
11/27/05 8:38:21 PM
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I feel for you.
I've said goodbye to several pets over the years. Especially when they are attached to you.
Wade.
"Insert crowbar. Apply force."
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Post #236,237
11/27/05 9:31:07 PM
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Painful. Sympathy.
I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
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Post #236,239
11/27/05 10:11:33 PM
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Sorry man, know how it is.
--
Steve
[link|http://www.ubuntulinux.org|Ubuntu]
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Post #236,240
11/27/05 10:24:21 PM
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condolences, losing a pet is very traumatic
my dog is now nicknamed little boy by my wife who was culturally unable to consider a house dog. She now babies him.
thanx,
bill
"the reason people don't buy conspiracy theories is that they think conspiracy means everyone is on the same program. Thats not how it works. Everybody has a different program. They just all want the same guy dead. Socrates was a gadfly, but I bet he took time out to screw somebodies wife" Gus Vitelli
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 49 years. meep
questions, help? [link|mailto:pappas@catholic.org|email pappas at catholic.org]
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Post #236,254
11/27/05 11:48:49 PM
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Condolences, Joe.
I've walked in your shoes twice. We live so much longer than our dogs, so it's pretty much inevitable. But, that doesn't make it any easier to accept.
Alex
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. -- Bertrand Russell
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Post #236,261
11/28/05 1:30:25 AM
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it's never easy to say the final goodbye to a friend
hard as it is, you did the right thing.
peace be with you.
Have fun,
Carl Forde
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Post #236,268
11/28/05 2:54:33 AM
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You did the right thing. You know it, we know it...
And if Timmy could grasp these things, he'd know it.
[link|mailto:MyUserId@MyISP.CountryCode|Christian R. Conrad]
(I live in Finland, and my e-mail in-box is at the Saunalahti company.)
Yes Mr. Garrison, genetic engineering lets us correct God's horrible, horrible mistakes, like German people. - [link|http://maxpages.com/southpark2k/Episode_105|Mr. Hat]
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Post #236,276
11/28/05 5:13:44 AM
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Sorry
They don't diagnose human brain disorders all that well.. and we can talk. Were my jelloware going South, under some prognoses I'd try to accomplish a similar exit - before I could accomplish nothing. Save moi from the Pro-Life brigade.
You know you chose wisely. (Agree too, that if he could have grokked the situation: one of those wags would have been for, Thanks!)
Condolences on the loss,
A.
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Post #236,280
11/28/05 8:03:41 AM
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So very sorry, man. It's very hard, I know. I sympathize.
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Post #236,285
11/28/05 9:05:21 AM
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The attachment comes so very easily...
Especially when the dog really "fits" you.
I had one for Four months. He got hit after he got away from my daughter.
I was totally in anger fits about the whole. I was and still to this day (18 months later) in agony.
Sure, we have another dog, Weimaraner-Boxer mix, just as outgoing, playful, annoying, obsessive with playing etc... Nearly the same dog personality-wise. It just isn't the same. Bryn, she will never be able to completely replace Cinnamon, he isn't replaceable. She takes her own-space.
Just typing about it is making me cry out of sorrow. Dammit. Why is it, that sometimes, the ones around the shortest, have the largest effect?
Just try to remember the good, it makes all the difference in coping.
-- [link|mailto:greg@gregfolkert.net|greg], [link|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry|REMEMBER ED CURRY!] @ iwetheyFreedom is not FREE. Yeah, but 10s of Trillions of US Dollars? SELECT * FROM scog WHERE ethics > 0;
0 rows returned.
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Post #236,297
11/28/05 11:33:17 AM
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Thanks all for the replies
As Greg so aptly stated, Timmy cannot be replaced. There can only be one first. His replacement (if wife still wants to breed them, we need a new stud) will never be Timmy. He'll be just as big a nuisance, annoyance, pia, look like, act like, but won't BE Timmy.
The really amazing thing is that I had become attached to him. I thought I had immunized myself to prevent such an occurance. While I've never had to put a pet to sleep, I have "lost" many pets, some disappeared (indoor/outdoor cats), some died, and one was "lost" due to divorce. Putting Timmy down was the hardest.
I know it was the best/right/only thing to do. Sometimes rational and emotional do not equate.
He's a sad memory today.
And thanks, you've been a big help with my coping.
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail ... but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn...that was fun!"
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Post #236,298
11/28/05 11:35:18 AM
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Miserable end to a weekend! Sorry to hear...
These things that come on all at once are the hardest, because you can't prepare properly for them. My condolences to you and to your daughter, too!
jb4
shrub●bish (Am., from shrub + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating the facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf. BULLSHIT
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Post #236,365
11/28/05 10:49:14 PM
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I add my voice to the others
I'm sorry for your loss. Napalm the Wonder Dog is a vigorous 13, but he's lost a step in the decade since I joined his pack, and I dread the inevitable. One does bond with the creatures...
cordially,
Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
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