Saturday, December 01, 2007

The best dog ever


I'd like to take a moment to let everyone know that despite all our efforts Kyra passed Wednesday afternoon.

The Vet had called to tell us that over the course of the few days that Kyra was in their care they did everything they could to try to get to the root of the problem, unfortunately they had reached their limits as far as what they could do to help her. They wanted to transfer Kyra to a specialty center because her lab results kept changing, some for the better others worse and there was still no improvement. They felt that a specialist could find the underlying issue since so many things were being affected. They still had not received the actual ultrasound report from the doctor, they were going off what the stenographer saw during the test and they did additional lab work to rule out a few diseases, one was Addison's disease I don't remember what the other one was. Unfortunately, these labs are sent out and have a 24 hour turn around time so it's a waiting game for answers and stabilizing her is about all they could continue to do.

Just after having this conversation with the ER Vet we were preparing to go get her and take her to the specialist clinic when they called back to tell us she suddenly had difficulty breathing and had stopped. They performed CPR but they were not successful in reviving her. This was very unexpected. The labs that morning showed that her white blood cell count had gone back to almost normal as did her Albumin level. She did however continue to have extremely high kidney and pancreas levels but the Vet said she had urinated a ton that morning which was a good sign that the kidneys were functioning enough to at least push out the fluids they were giving her. Her temperature went up to 104 and by the afternoon when they called me it had only gone down to 103.1. Kyra was still very uncomfortable even on pain meds, she was also very depressed. I'm sure all the transferring back and forth from ER to Vet was painful and confusing to her.

The sadness our family feels right now is overwhelming but we are relieved that she is no longer suffering. I don't think that I could have put her down, I was going to do everything possible to bring her home healthy. Throughout all of this she never complained, cried or even whimpered...not once. She did her best, she was a very good dog, the best dog ever. They opened her up Wednesday night and found that she had a very large abdominal tumor associated with the liver or pancreas, possibly both. Apparently cancer is not uncommon in Rottie females.

I really want to thank everyone so much for their concern for Kyra and keeping us all in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. It really means so much to all of us.

4 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks for keeping me so well informed about what was going on hon I'm sure it was hard on you having to write it all down.
Like I said in my email, I love you guys and I feel so bad about what's happened with Kyra, she was such a good girl.
You guys are always in my thoughts.
*hugs*

10:13 AM  
Blogger Moon said...

All we could do is sent our best thoughts and prayers to u and Kyra. Atleast in her passing, like u say , she is no longer suffering and took away the need for you to make a difficult decision had she continued to suffer. She was such a good dog and so very loveable. I'm sure her place in heaven is with a very special angel. Lots of hugs from us.

1:48 AM  
Blogger Words Twice said...

I'm sorry about your dog. Mine was killed by a truck many years ago but I still miss her sometimes. Take care.

4:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well written article.

10:31 PM  

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