MAGGIE
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
In August of 1999, Maggie was born. She was a great puppy that Nov when I took her home. She learned to play without biting, knew all her toys by name, was trained to ring a bell by the door when she wanted outside, and gave me years and years of companionship. In 2004 Maggie got quite sick - her liver failed and her gall bladder was choked with mucous. The doctors at VCA Veterinary Referral Associates hospital took great care of her, removed her gall bladder, kept her alive and she healed fairly quickly.Now Maggie was on a constant dose of steroids and other meds to keep her healthy. She adapted well, took her meds, and was a good dog.
Maggie had several scares over the years - failed thyroid, liver issues and infections, so she was put on a permanent dose of antibiotics - the steroids had done bad things to her immune system even as they kept her liver functioning. 2-3 years ago she ruptured her knee joint - both tendons tore, but she healed enough to get around, even though she was in a lot of pain due to arthritis. We added Dasuquin to her meds at the suggestion of the vets at Greenbriar Veterinary Hospital, and that made a HUGE difference in her quality of life, she could run and play again, although slowly.
She started getting skin tumors, and got a tumor on her eyelid that bled sometimes, but she would likely not survive surgery so it was left at 'wait and see'. In the past 2-3 months, she got another large tumor below her tail, and again - surgery was unlikely to be safe, so we waited and hoped for the best.
This morning the tumor below her tail ruptured. She was bleeding and I couldn't get it to stop, I made a temporary bandage and got her to the vet. The vets and staff at Greenbriar are fantastic, but there was literally nothing they could do. Without surgery the most we could hope for was that she would live a few more months in a cage with an Elizabethan Collar on to keep her from biting the wound or otherwise aggravating it. With surgery they estimated her to have nearly no chance to survive the anaesthetic because her liver simply could not tolerate it, and even if she did she would again be confined to a cage with a E-Collar on until it healed, which would be slow because of her age and health, plus the chance of infection was very high due to where the tumor was and how poorly her immune system was working.
Sara and I made the decision to allow her to pass even though we were not ready for her to go. But she was ready. She was happy and wagging her stubby little tail, even though her butt hurt and she was bleeding. She was happy through it all.
We'll miss her.
Maggie
1999-2012
