TheBanyanTree: Tilly

[PJMoney]

Last March, when we took her for her vaccinations, Tilly weighed in at well
over 14 kg.  She was supposed to weigh around 12 kg.  We reduced her food
intake and waited for the weight to come off.  It didn't appear to do so.  I
blamed the treats my husband kept giving her.

We took her for more walks hoping that would do the trick but she couldn't
go far.  She'd have to stop and rest several times on the way home.  We
presumed that was because she was so fat.

About four or five weeks ago I noticed that she seemed to be constipated.
There was a lot of work being done for very small results but they looked
quite normal and she wasn't eating much so I didn't think too much of it.

Then one night, about three weeks ago, she was lying at Sean's feet when he
looked down and said in a concerned voice, "What's that lump?"

She had a ridge along her belly on the right side and whatever was causing
it felt firm.  Given her recent constipation I wondered if she was impacted.
Next morning I went to the pet shop to look for dog laxatives.  The only
thing they had was a concoction based on paraffin that came in a tube.  The
directions said it was palatable and that the dose was 30cm, 2 - 3 times a
week, and there was a warning that vitamin supplements might be necessary.

Tilly didn't find it palatable at all so I tried mixing it with milk (which
is, according to some website, a natural laxative for dogs).  She didn't
find that palatable either and I finished up squirting it down her throat
with a syringe, all the while worrying that she'd inhale the stuff and
finish up with some sort of pneumonia.  It was not a satisfactory solution.

We took her to the vet and told him that she was constipated and had an
abdominal mass.  Paul thought her gums were pale and that she was anaemic
but the vet said no.  That was the best thing he said.  The worst thing he
said was that she had a large tumour originating in either the liver or
spleen and that we should give her soft food mixed with bran and paraffin.
Our aim should be to keep her as comfortable as possible.  He mentioned
surgery but only to suggest that it would likely be of no value.

So we took her home.  But over the next few days we got more and more
unhappy.  Her gums really were pale and this was the vet who hadn't bothered
to take Toby's temperature before he gave him his four and six month
needles.  We decided to get a second opinion.

I found a lady vet close by and off we went again.  About the first thing
she said on examining Tilly was that she was obviously anaemic.  That gave
us confidence that we'd picked someone who knew and cared about her stuff.
Then she said that it was probably a splenic tumour and had probably been
growing for quite some time.  That would explain the anaemia all by itself.
If we were contemplating surgery she would do blood tests first to gauge
Tilly's fitness to have an operation and then, depending on those results,
she would do an X-ray to try to determine exactly what sort of operation
would be required.

After having those tests done we decided to go for having the surgery.  The
problem was that this all occurred just before Christmas and the practice
was closing down for two weeks.  We booked her in for their first day back,
January 7th, which is tomorrow.

Tilly got progressively weaker.  By New Year's Eve she could only walk about
10 feet before having to lie down and rest.  I began to fear that she
wouldn't live long enough to have her surgery.  Every morning on waking I'd
grab my glasses and look for her to see if she was still breathing.  And she
was.  Her strength amazed me.  

But on Thursday she stopped eating.  She couldn't even be tempted with her
favourite tasty cheese and certainly not with the raw liver we'd bought in
the hope that it would help her make lots of new red cells.  On top of that
we had to take care not to let her drink too much water at once or she'd
vomit it all back up.  

We had arguments about what to say to the vet on the 7th, presuming Tilly
survived till then.  I couldn't see that the vet would agree to operate on
her in her weakened state.  Paul agreed but still wanted to take her in for
assessment.  I began wondering if we had some sort of basket we could carry
her in to minimise her discomfort in travelling to the vet.  I began
worrying what I would say if the vet wanted to put her down right then and
there.      

Yesterday Tilly stopped drinking except for little tastes.  In the afternoon
she started vomiting even those little bits back up, and the vomit was blood
stained.  

She died in the evening.  We buried her next to Taffy.  She was only 8.  She
was our last connection to the time when our children were still children.
She was a source of amusement, fun, admiration and joy.  She was the only
other female in this house and she showed Toby the ropes.  And now she's
gone.  These last two weeks have been very hard.  

Janice