Doggie end of life decisions
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Oh I'm sorry, Horace, that's awful. You're right, as least it was pretty quick and he didn't suffer too much. I know how difficult it is, though.
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Aww geez.
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Oh, no! So very, very sorry he's gone.
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Wow, I wasn’t expecting this. Sorry, man.
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Well...crap.
Dogs teach us how to love. How to care. How to be responsible. I've heard people say they would like to be half the person their dog thinks they are.
And mostly, we outlive them. They die, and leave pawprints all over your heart. But they are still teaching us. They teach us how to grieve. Lastly, they teach us how to remember.
I'd say Horace's dog was an excellent teacher. Good dog. Good dog, indeed...
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Thanks all. He had a good and extraordinarily healthy life, up to the spleen thing. I think last night when he lagged behind in his walk, was the first walk I'd taken him on after his surgery where he wasn't pulling and leading. His life force was ebbing. Over the past week he'd been dry heaving a few times a day, but I didn't think much of it. I didn't even know he was fighting, but this morning he stopped fighting. He was a pretty tough guy. I don't know what a vet might guess as to cause of death. He still had a decent appetite last night. I was worried after the walk and gave him a big bowl of milk, which he lapped up excitedly. His timeline coincides with the expectation if the spleen was cancerous. I wonder if a biopsy is an exact science.
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Wow. So sorry @Hoarace.
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Thanks Cathy. As I mull it over, my best guess is that the biopsy was a false negative. Or if it was a true negative, then he happened to have other cancers anyway. When the surgeon removed his spleen, he was going to euthanize if he found cancers on other organs. He did find small bumps on the liver, but they were small enough that he just cut them off.
I don't know how much real hope there ever was. I suspect the 30% chance of being cancer-free was wishful.
