Post by moncheri on May 1, 2013 14:17:31 GMT -5
Life can change at a moments notice and for me it sadly took a surreal turn for the horrible this morning.
Buffy had a wonderful night at the farm last night and I have been meaning to post pictures of her farm adventures from this past Sat as it was a glorious day but only got them as far as facebook.
Here she is "grazing" on the nice fresh spring grass.
Hanging out with her buddy "Shadow"
Family portrait to celebrate the 16th birthday of my horse "Maverick"
Catching some zzzz's after a wonderful walk through the woods while I grazed Maverick.
She woke me up this morning just after 4am that she needed to go out (panting heavily) and sure enough once we got out of the condo complex she had a pudding poop. She did a nice pee as well and we walked back home and all returned to bed by 4:20.
My alarm went off about 5:45 and I hit snooze. It went off a second time and just as I was going to turn on my bedside light I heard Buffy scrambling on the kitchen ceramic floor just outside my bedroom. When I got out to see what was going on she was halfway off her bed in a strange position. When I attempted to help her she scrambled off the other direction stood up very wobbly and then fell right over on her side! It all happened so quickly that I could not get to her in time to catch her. I managed to get her back to her bed and tried to figure out what was going on with her legs. It was like her back legs collapsed under her and her front legs stiffened straight outwards. I immediately thought she must have had a stroke. I got her resting on her bed comfortably, but she was panting heavily again but she seemed fine otherwise. She did not want to get up. I had a quick 5min shower & got dressed. I was gathering up various rug mats to give her a path to walk to the garage door as she seemed to be having great difficulty on the ceramic tile (but normally doesn't). As I was preparing to take her to the Emerg Vet Clinic here in London. As I am doing this she throws up - liquidy yellow but no odour. I managed to lift her up to her feet but she was listing to her right side - we shuffled along to the garage door (about 15 feet and she was leaning against me the entire time - her front legs wanted to splay outwards, her tail tucked up as tight as possible to her tummy and her back end sagging down. I am crying and trying to encourage her at the same time. Before we make it to the door she loses control of her bowel and it was a dark, liquid poop. Managed to get her in the car by myself and had 15 min drive to clinic - she throws up once along the way.
They took us in right away but by the time I fill out the paperwork, the Vet Tech does her triage and then attending vet comes in and does her own assessment an hour has passed. Several things come to the vets mind but she did not feel Buffy had a stroke (I cannot even remember our conversations now - almost need someone to accompany you to write notes or record conversation!) Anyways top priority was to reduce her pain. Several doses of morphine had to be administered by catheter. Several more assessments took place to see if her rigidness improved. It did not. Then muscle relaxant was administered as she was not in a state that xrays could be taken. It had to be administered in 2 separate doses before she reached this point. They were amazed at how good she was throughout all of this but she would clearly give signs that the base of her neck was where the problem was. Xrays did show arthritis in several sections of the neck verterbrae and a suspicious mass alongside one but the location was difficult to get a good look as it was right at the base of her neck and alot of soft tissue was "fogging up" the view. Without a MRI nothing could be decisive. One option was to send the digital films to a radiologist. After a lengthy discussion with the Emerg Vet my head was spinning and my eyes were aching from crying. I needed help on what to do so I asked her if she would mind speaking with my niece who is a vet in BC. She agreed so we called her. They discussed at great length and then my niece Laura spoke with me and told me what I already new. The hope of Buffy recovering from this was next to nil. Best case scenerio is pain management given intravenously over the next few days and she would have to stay in the hospital to see if it works and then slowly wean her off to oral pain meds to see if she could live at home, but the chances of walking without pain or not falling & hurting herself were slim. Worse case scenerio is surgery but that itself is riscky due to her age and 50/50 chance of paralysis. Her life out at the farm would come to an end no matter what course of action chosen.
Her life as I know how Buffy wanted to live ended last night. As I promised to my first hound "Chicky" I promises to Buffy that I would give her the best possible retirement and she would live for her quality of life not for my needs of quantity.
So I said goodbye to my beautiful girl who gave me joy beyond belief. Who mended my broken heart after losing Chicky and who loved the outdoors as much as I did.
Buffy was 2 months shy of turning 12. According to Greyhound Data she raced in 72 races from 2003-2004 at Wheeling Downs and won 8. She then took up the career of Motherhood and had 32 puppies from 2007-2010. I think 3 of her puppies have made it up to GRA and since been adopted out. She began her retirment with me in Nov 2011 and I truly think she enjoyed every minute of it.
It doesn't seem possble that yesterday I had a happy, carefree hound but today she couldn't walk.
Run pain free my beautiful Buffy. I loved you from the first day we met and will miss you dearly but I know that one day we will join up again and continue our outdoor adventures.