(VICT) Re: Sad news about Sundance
- From: "kitty hevener" <khevener@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <vi-clicker-trainers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2011 11:00:23 -0500
AnnaLisa, am soo sorry to hear the news about sundance. Sounds like you did
the right thing for her.
----- Original Message -----
From: "AnnaLisa Anderson" <annalisa@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <vi-clicker-trainers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, January 21, 2011 12:15 AM
Subject: (VICT) Sad news about Sundance
> Hi All,
>
> First before I share my news, I just wanted to say thanks Karyn for the
> update, I'm glad you and Thane are doing so well together. Also great job
> to Race for behaving so well. And happy 10th birthday Panda!
>
> Speaking of dogs' lives being too short... The list has been so quiet
> lately, and I realized I hadn't told you about my Sunny. It started in
> early December, maybe even late November, when I started noticing things
> were just not right with her. Her appetite was falling off, she was
> drinking more than she used to, she would get cold very easily even if it
> wasn't all that cold outside. So on Dec. 17, I took her in to do some
> blood work, and the vet gave me the shock of my life. I thought maybe she
> was becoming diabetic or something... No. She was in the later stages of
> kidney failure and her red blood cell count was low, her body wasn't
> producing red cells anymore so she was anemic, and he told me she had
> maybe another two or three weeks to live if things continued to progress
> as they were. He gave me some powder called Canine Renal Support to put
> on her food, which he said might help her. It did, for a while. She
> rallied and became her normal happy self again over Chris
> tmas, and I thought things were looking up. It seemed to be confirmed
> when we went to the vet again on Dec. 28 for follow up blood work, and the
> numbers were going in the right direction, things were looking pretty
> good, so we were extremely hopeful that she would pull out of this... But
> it wasn't meant to be. Literally a day or two after that happy moment,
> she started sliding down hill again, not wanting to eat and such, though
> her work was still stellar. I was in denial, thinking that she was just
> being picky. She would still eat treats, after all, and when I tried new
> foods with her, she would eat them just fine. Also she decided she didn't
> like that powder on her food any more, so I had to come up with creative
> ways to give her that too. Well, then she vomited a couple of times on
> Tuesday night, Jan. 4, which I thought was because something I gave her
> didn't agree with her. But the vet had told me that vomiting could be a
> sign of bad things to come. I had to cove
> r her with a blanket that night because she just couldn't stop shivering.
> And the next morning she was no better, didn't want to eat much at all.
> So back to the vet we went, and he did blood work again, and it wasn't
> looking good at all. From there over the next two days, she just
> continued to get weaker until she couldn't stand any more on her own. I
> had to help her up. Once standing she could walk, but she was very weak.
> I decided to take her to the university vet hospital on Thursday, Jan. 6,
> and they ran all sorts of tests and did more blood work, only to come up
> with the same conclusion my vet had. She wasn't any better either on
> Friday morning after having been given supportive care at the hospital
> overnight. The university vet, a very kind lady, called me and told me we
> could try a feeding tube and dry a couple more drugs, but she said she may
> rebound, she may not. I decided that I couldn't put her through that, or
> put myself through that, because bottom line
> , her kidney disease had progressed far enough that there was no reversing
> it, so she may get better for a while, but then she would only end up
> right back where she was. So I made the very painful decision that she
> had suffered enough, it was time to let her go. She went peacefully to
> the Rainbow Bridge on Friday afternoon, Jan. 7, at around 3:30. Both vets
> she saw at the university were so kind, and they gave me an impression of
> her paw in clay, and I took some of her beautiful strawberry blond hair,
> hair that people always said almost matched mine.
>
> the cause for her kidney failure was never definitive determined, the only
> thing the vets could point to was that she had a positive on her Lyme's
> disease test. But she had been vaccinated for it, and had contracted it
> at some point in her past and her body and the vaccine fought it off; she
> didn't have an active case when this started happening. No cancer or
> anything else was found.
>
> Sunny was with me for nearly six years, much too short a time. I miss her
> terribly, though it gives me peace of mind to know that she is in a much
> better place now, and she is romping with my first guide Megan, and my
> kitty whom I had to put to sleep in January 5 years ago.
>
> So tomorrow is two weeks since Sunny went away, and I am starting the
> process for getting a new dog. I'm not emotionally ready yet, but by the
> time all the necessary stuff is done, I will be. As much as I miss her,
> part of me is starting to get excited about the prospect of a new partner,
> though part of me is nervous too, because I don't want to go through this
> pain again any time soon. But I can't imagine my life without a dog in
> it.
>
> Sorry this got so long, but it's been a while since there has been any
> activity here, and I wanted you all to know.
>
> AnnaLisa
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