Our family dog is deathly ill

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This will not be a positive, upbeat post.  Sorry.  :-(

Our dog is very, very sick.  All week I have been watching him as he has been having "accidents" in the house. Then, yesterday, he didn't come downstairs in the morning - the first time in his life he wasn't among us causing chaos at breakfast time.  When he refused food and water and seemed lethargic, I took him to the vet.

What do you do when you are told your family pet is dying?  His liver is failing, and as a result his belly is bloated and full of fluid - so much fluid that his organs are so squished inside him.  Looking at the X-Rays brought tears to my eyes, but I had driven him to the vet alone, so I had to wait until later to cry the tears.  I didn't need to kill us both on the drive home by bawling.

Buddy came into our lives as a tiny puppy.  He was born in December 1999 and abandoned.  He ended up at the Humane Society, which is where we adopted him.

This dog survived being hit by a car, run over by our boat on the river (my husband reminded me of this yesterday, and how I had jumped in to save him), and has survived 3 young boys who terrorized him every day.  It's hard to believe that something like this will take his life.

He's become so weak he can no longer jump up onto the couch, so we lifted him onto the chair right next to me now in my craft/office room.  The vet recommended that we euthanize him today.  While I initially considered it, our oldest son is in school now and I want him to have the chance to say goodbye.  I think instead, I may opt for an IV today to get some fluids in his dehydrated body.  This may help him make it through the weekend and give us all a chance to say goodbye.

I have been reading a lot about canine liver disease this morning, and we are doing all we can to encourage him to eat (I cooked a special recommended meal, and I was shocked, he actually ate it and has yet to throw it up), and we are just trying to keep him comfortable and let him know how much he is loved.  We don't believe he is in pain.  He is taking medication, but the vet believes that he may be too far gone for it to work.

It's hard to say goodbye to a beloved family pet who has been with you for 10 years.

I hope we can give him a loving weekend.

Thanks for listening.


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