Losing a pet

[Stigmorgan]

Is that a springer or cocker?

I adore spaniels, they are wonderful dogs, they have lovely friendly faces and I’ve not come across an aggressive one.

My MIL has a Cavapoo and you can really see the King Charles spaniel face and beautiful soft fur.

Springers are of course a working dog so have high energy, incredible sense of smell and can be quite foodie

She was a small Springer, right up to the end she always looked like a young dog, partly caused by having to be spayed earlier than normal due to 2 phantom pregnancies in her first year. Her mum was a champion show dog and her dad was a champion gun dog but to us she was our daughter and perfect in every way

 

[scooby]

'He's just a dog' is something we regularly say,

People who say that, truly need a slap. If you're not a dog person, then keep quiet instead of spouting rubbish like that.
Dogs are a gift, albeit expensive ones (purchase, vet bills, etc) but the joy they bring is priceless.

 

[BC'er]

Kipling sums it up all too well in his poem 'The Power of the Dog' - " Brothers and sisters I bid you beware, of giving your heart to a dog to tear"

I seem to recall something about "a rag, and a bone and a hank o' hair".

Oh, hang on that wasn't about pets.

"Master, a quick release", yes that was it.

 

[BentonTool]

"Buddy" & "Bronco" enjoying the snowfall; both are now gone...
(130 & 110 pounds respectively. Tore a hamstring lifting the little one!)

 

[BC'er]

Veterinary medicine seems to have largely become an industry much like our own in ways it never was in the past. Not surprising as we live in an age when "charge what you can" has mostly overtaken "charge what it is worth", and where there is money there are all the usual suspects and mentalities.

Huge bills, all manner of drugs and shots and expensive interventions, which collectively don't seem to have led to any increase in the average lifespan of dogs, for example. A decline of about 10% in lifespan in ten years is mooted I see; with some suggesting much more dramatic declines for certain breeds. Breeding practices are no doubt part of that of course.

Is it really best for the animals, or the owners!? A quick search online produces pages of huffing and puffing from the industry, but just the stuff most dogs and cats are fed...yikes. We've all seen the rise in human obesity and ill health due to "factory foods" and sedentary lifestyles. The animals seem to be going the same way?

"Unplanned obsolescence" in pets, or is it? This all crossed my mind being reminded here how pets perhaps mean more to us than ever before? And of course more than they should some people say, but that's matter.

Would be an interesting subject for a study, but which of the stakeholders would want to fund it?

 

[RobinBHM]

Veterinary medicine seems to have largely become an industry much like our own in ways it never was in the past. Not surprising as we live in an age when "charge what you can" has mostly overtaken "charge what it is worth", and where there is money there are all the usual suspects and mentalities.

dont get me started!!

when people go to their "local" vets, what they dont realise is most of them are owned by large corporates, there is no corporate branding anywhere its all kept hidden so you think yuo are dealing with your local town vetinerary practice.


My local vets is owned by IVC Evidensia, if you google them the reviews are shocking -they just cream off profits for shareholders

in 2020 our dog had a problem with her legs, she struggled to jump over the door cill or up onto the sofa, the Vets insisted it was her cruciate ligaments and would need an operation............but we gave her Numove supplements and gave her frequent gentle walks, and she got better and was able to jump up on the sofa pretty much until a few weeks ago

but just the stuff most dogs and cats are fed...yikes. We've all seen the rise in human obesity and ill health due to "factory foods" and sedentary lifestyles. The animals seem to be going the same way?

We fed our dog top of the range kibble for breakfast, roast chicken for a lunch snack and Cotswold raw for her main evening meal. The Cotswold raw food is literally raw meat, either lamb, beef, tripe etc mixed with some vegetables like peas, sweet potato, carrot etc. No added grain or anything like that

We gave her dog treats like duck strips, which are supposed to be all natural, but I wonder

We were careful with her weight and kept her around the 5.8kg to 6.2kg range

we also treated her monthly with Prinovox which is a treatment for lungworm and heartworm.......I wonder if that can cause cancer?

 

[RobinBHM]

I am very grateful to everybody who has posted in this thread and all the lovely pictures, so I thought I should add some pics and a bit of context to the behind this thread

So 4 weeks ago about, Tilly started drinking loads and loads of water one afternoon, so much she was then regurgitating it and drinking more. We took her to the vet who looked gave the usual probiotics and anti sickness injection, she ok but not improving much so we took her back and the vet said they could do some blood tests they came back clear but the vet said she could feel a swelling in her abdomen, so we agreed to an ultrasound, 3 hours later we had the phone call that the ultrasound images showed a large mass in the spleen, high chance of malignancy, we agreed to a biospy which came back inclonclusive.

The vet at the time offered to remove the spleen saying that would be the only guaranteed way to diagnose........but if it was malignant it would give her a few weeks more life but at the cost of suffering from an operation.

So we chose to have a steroid injection basically palliative care to reduce the inflammation and see how she was. It was scary because googling it showed there was a high chance of rupture leading to rapid decline........so we were getting up in the night to check on here

Anyway, after a few days Tilly improved, she stopped being sick, her appetite improved and she went back to being on her normal walks and seemed happy without any symptoms really

After 3 weeks had passed Tilly was still really well, so we werent sure if it was just the steroid or could it be something not malignant, so took her back to the vet, who did a ultrasound while we were there it was clear the mass had grown so we decided to have an operation to remove the spleen knowing the chance it was malignant was high.

Anyhow 3 hours later we got the phone call that the vet had opened her up and she didnt have a splenic growth, it was outside the spleen and it was attached to the duodenum and pancreas, so we had to agree to her not come out of the operation but to be put to sleep. The hard thing at the time was we took Tilly for a walk early that morning, she trotted round happily then we took her off to the vets, we expected to get her back probably with just a few months to live, so when we left her at the vets we hadnt made our goodbyes at all...........but it was the last we would see her.

Painful as that was, the decision was taken from us, we didnt have to make that journey to the vets knowing we were taking her to be put to sleep..........I can only imagine how painful that would be and I can tell from the comments made on here just how painful that can be.


Anyway here are a few pics of Tilly, I am tempted to say guess the breed but I dont think anybody would ever guess in a million years. She looks like a terrier but actually the breed is a Hound group

Tilly was a pedigree kennel club registered breed, a Portugese Podengo Pequeno, the breed is very rare in the UK...we went to Oxfordshire to the the main breeder who brought in some 40 dogs as breeding stock.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

We had a female English Mastiff, she was rehomed. She was a loving, gentle dog but she didn't like children - she wasn't aggresive, she she just went out of her way to avoid them. One morning my cousin visited - she was about eight - and the dog came in from the field, walked up to her, sat and held her paw up. Maria shook it, the dog turned, looked back at her and went back into the field. My cousin said how strange, she's never come near me before.
She went to the vet for an operation the following morning and the vet rang my mother and said Mrs. P. we'd better not let her wake up - she's cancerous from head to foot.

We took another female E. M. to the station to weigh her on the weighbridge when she three years old and fighting fit. She was 14 st. 4lb - 91 kg. My cousin used to ride her. She and my Pyrenean when pups would eat a whole raw tripe in one sitting.