Lease2u Loses An Old Friend
Some bad news:
Jan and I had to rush Max to the vets last night at 7.30 we hadn’t seen him for about three hours and at 7pm when we called him, there was no sign. We went out into the garden and found him in bushes looking very sorry for himself and he was very cold. I helped him up and it was obvious that he was in pain so we got him indoors to warm him up. After about 20 mins or so, he got up, somehow made it outside and was sick, then collapsed. His tummy was distended and he was uncomfortable and in pain. I suspected internal bleeding.
The emergency vet confirmed it with immediate blood tests which showed him to be anaemic and his gums were pale. He put him on a drip. He then shaved him and did extensive ultra sound exams and could see the fluid between his organs but the blood was pushing the organs so much he couldn’t tell what organ was what. He was sure it was blood but it could have been a perforated bowel and the fluid could be from that so to be sure he did a little extraction of the fluid from his tummy which turned out to be ‘free’ blood which had escaped from one of the organs. However, he couldn’t see where from. He did find one tumor which he thought was on the spleen and a couple of others where he could not identify the organ. By 10.30 he was sure it was either the spleen or the liver that was bleeding. If it was the spleen then there was a 30% chance it could be surgically removed if it was the liver the there was no hope of recovery. The only options were to have him put to sleep there and then or elect for surgery. If we elected for surgery then the vet would call in a specialist immediately (the founding partner of the vets and the areas top surgeon) to do his own examination and operate immediately if possible. So we did this. He arrived within 15 mins and the difference in the skill levels was immediately evident. He positioned Max and within a few seconds showed us the extent of the internal bleeding and estimated that there was between 1 ½ and 2 liters of blood in his abdomen he then quickly found the spleen and one tumor which was irregular and looked like a burst abscess and was a probable the cause of the bleed but then he found several tumors in a similar condition all over the Liver and the conclusion was that it was inoperable. This had obviously been going on for some time without notice. He said the only thing to do was put him to sleep but he could inject him with pain killer and we could take him home but he would have to remain sedated to relieve the pain and may die that night or in a few days but that the kindest thing was to give him pain relief now, for us to spend some time with him while he was pain free and then put him to sleep. That’s what we opted for. He gave Max some pain killer and within a minute he had relaxed and fell into a deep snoring sleep as Jan and I sat with him talked to him and stroked him. The ordeal had obviously taken a lot from him. At 11.30 while he was sleeping, pain free and resting peacefully, he was put to sleep as we held him.
He was a gentle and peace loving dog and a cuddly bear who was coming up to 11 yrs old. We got him from Battersea dog’s home when he was 20 months old after having 6 months of abuse and then 14 months in Battersea. He was the longest kept dog (14 months) in Battersea at that time and one of the ‘Battersea 10’ that were featured in the National newspaper of dogs who had been in care for a long while without being homed.
We are burying him today on our land with our other past dogs: Sam (the faithful) Chloe (the protector) Samantha (the guvnor) and Max (the gentle).
Fred & Jan.
Chasing Bones In The Sky
Max was an absolute gem of a dog. Even though he was old he still acted like a pup at times, he would mouth your hands just like a puppy and he always welcomed us when we opened Fred’s gate. he was really gentle especially with my two year old son. As a dog, you really could not have asked for better.
Peter, Lease2u.
