Sam's Mom
01-20-2006, 08:25 PM
I posted about my dog Samantha in December. She had cushing like symptoms but the vet couldn't confirm the diagnosis because not all of her symptoms fit. We were going to do an abdominal ultrasound but the women who travels the north to perform these ultrasounds had an extremely ill child an was not able to work. As Samantha was not improving, our only option was an exploratory surgery to determine what was going on. The vet stated that upon opening her up, her gallbladder was distended and filled with sludge, her liver was discolored but everything else looked great, including her adrenals. Her gallbladder was relieved and biopsies of the gallbladder and liver were taken. The vet said that this did not look like cancer but we were going to analyze anyway. This was great news as the gallbladder may have been the cause for the symptoms and the abnormal levels on her blood test. We took Sam home the next morning. The poor thing couldn't be on painkillers because of her liver and the fact that when they had given her morphine the night before it gave her severe diarrhea.
We gat her home and she pretty much just lied on the floor in the kitchen all day. It was so hard to watch her in that kind of pain but I kept thinking that it was only going to get better and it would be worth it when she was able to play again with our other dog Echo. Sam kept putting her head in her water dish and I could tell she was thirsty but she wouldn't drink. I spent most of the day on the floor with her giving her droppers full of water to keep her hydrated. At about 8:30 that night, she got up and moved around and appeared to be doing a bit better. About half an hour later, her breathing started to increased and I measured her respirations at 60 per minute, this compared to Echo's at aproximately 20. At this point I paged my vet at his emergency number. I heard a little whimper from her, the only whimper I heard all day. Her eyes were open but she was not responsive to voice or even painful stimuli. I'm entering a career as a paramedic and I knew this was not a good sign. My vet called and when I told him about her respirations he was worried and said to meet him at his office. When we got there, he took her temperature. It was 106 degrees. The vet said we were in trouble. He loaded her up with antibiotics and morphine and said he was going to stay the night with her. He said her temperature dropped a degree around midnight but her breathing never slowed down and she died at about 4 am. My precious little girl that gave us so much spent her last day with us in horrific pain only to die.
The vet asked if he could go in and look to see what had happened. Samantha had developped acute pancreatitis which caused her pancreas to perforated and killed her. When they went back in her liver was also further discoloured. The biopsy wasn't sent away yet as it was to be sent Monday, so we didn't bother sending them.
I thank all of the members of this site. This is a great site for information when you baby is sick. In this world, not everyone feels a dog is the gift that they are and the loss we have felt is not always understood. It is great to have a group of fellow dog people to talk to.
May you all have many wonderful years with your precious dogs. They give so much and ask for so little.
Sam's Mom, Dad and Echo.
We will never forget her.
We gat her home and she pretty much just lied on the floor in the kitchen all day. It was so hard to watch her in that kind of pain but I kept thinking that it was only going to get better and it would be worth it when she was able to play again with our other dog Echo. Sam kept putting her head in her water dish and I could tell she was thirsty but she wouldn't drink. I spent most of the day on the floor with her giving her droppers full of water to keep her hydrated. At about 8:30 that night, she got up and moved around and appeared to be doing a bit better. About half an hour later, her breathing started to increased and I measured her respirations at 60 per minute, this compared to Echo's at aproximately 20. At this point I paged my vet at his emergency number. I heard a little whimper from her, the only whimper I heard all day. Her eyes were open but she was not responsive to voice or even painful stimuli. I'm entering a career as a paramedic and I knew this was not a good sign. My vet called and when I told him about her respirations he was worried and said to meet him at his office. When we got there, he took her temperature. It was 106 degrees. The vet said we were in trouble. He loaded her up with antibiotics and morphine and said he was going to stay the night with her. He said her temperature dropped a degree around midnight but her breathing never slowed down and she died at about 4 am. My precious little girl that gave us so much spent her last day with us in horrific pain only to die.
The vet asked if he could go in and look to see what had happened. Samantha had developped acute pancreatitis which caused her pancreas to perforated and killed her. When they went back in her liver was also further discoloured. The biopsy wasn't sent away yet as it was to be sent Monday, so we didn't bother sending them.
I thank all of the members of this site. This is a great site for information when you baby is sick. In this world, not everyone feels a dog is the gift that they are and the loss we have felt is not always understood. It is great to have a group of fellow dog people to talk to.
May you all have many wonderful years with your precious dogs. They give so much and ask for so little.
Sam's Mom, Dad and Echo.
We will never forget her.