(VICT) Sad news about Sundance

  • From: AnnaLisa Anderson <annalisa@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: vi-clicker-trainers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:15:51 -0600

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 Christmas, 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 cover 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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  • » (VICT) Sad news about Sundance - AnnaLisa Anderson