Another sad day

Barney passed over the rainbow bridge this afternoon.  He was the first of our rescue dogs, arriving from Spain with George but coming to us before George needed a new UK home.  He had been unwell for a few weeks but nothing serious.  The vet gave him a course of Steroids to deal with an abscess in his ear where another dog had nipped him when playing.  He then developed a stomach but and was prescribed a course of antibiotics.  While he was on these he started to loose weight.  That didn't seem like a major issue as we were restricting his diet to cut out a lot excess calories from treats, in fact we were really quite happy as he came down to his target weight.  

Barney in the sun

The problem was that he continued to loose weight. We knew he had a liver problem which was responding well to a dietary supplement (with milk thistle extract what ever that is). It was when he started to be very quiet and not want to climb the stairs or go for walks that alarm bells started to ring. He was still eating though. In fact last night he ate a large part of my Pork Chop! What was really worrying was that he started to loose coordination in his back legs. Nothing major just occasionally skittering rather than standing straight up. That was until this morning when he didn't want to stand up and most concerning he had a nose bleed. So off to the Vets he went. They kept him in for some tests the results showed his liver function had improved, but his heart rate was high, he was running a temperature and his blood sugars were through the roof. we got a call to say that they were extremely worried. To carry out further tests would need him to be anaesthetised and they didn't think he would be able to cope with that. The incipient diabetes could be treated but the biggest issue was that he was probably had some sort of tumour in his nose or head which was causing his nose bleeds and general lethargy. We were given the choice of a lot of unpleasant tests he may well not survive and which probably wouldn't help or having him put to sleep. Not a great situation.

We drove over to the Vets, a drive of 30 minutes, and when we got there his condition had deteriorated even further.  His nose bleed was worse, he could only just manage to turn his head to look at us and couldn't summon up the energy for a tail wag.  His gums were very pale (which they hadn't been that morning) and generally he just wasn't in a good state.  The decision was as easy as it ever can be and he was PTS after we had time to say our goodbyes and give him a last cuddle.  He slipped away very calmly and quickly.  He was ten and a half years old.

Mrs E and I are very upset as you might imagine even though we know it was the right thing to do for Barney.  Whoever said 'Grief is the price you pay for love' knew what they were talking about.