Wishing my dog-son is ok....

Oh, I am so sorry to hear about your poochie! I feel your pain and sadness in the words you have written. I have had animal companions all my life and still do. I have 3 bichon girls, a ducorp cockatoo and 4 cockatiels. I could never imagine life without them. Some times I think I prefer them to people. They are so understanding and give us unconditional love in return. I have only put 1 pet to sleep and will never do that again! I researched what they and their bodies go through before they pass away. I can't ever go through that again. That is a personal choice pet owners have to make for themselves. I've had a lot of companions that had terminal illnesses. I took the best care of them and gave them whatever they needed to make them comfortable. Even when I knew death was near, I let them decide when they could no longer stay and had to leave this place we call earth. I always feel so much better for doing so! Sometimes I wonder why we put ourselves through all of this...and the answer is all the unconditional love they give us back in return. There is always hope and you never give up! I had a bird that had a life threatening illness that should have died within 9mths. Instead with my care and treatment he lived 9 years!!! I currently have another bird with the same illness. Today shows no sign of the life threatening liver cancer!!! My avian vet and dog vets were so impressed that they started using the same treatment on all of the very sick and termal patients at their office. They also starting attending alternative and holistic seminars for the health and treatment of pets. There is a book that you should read. I can't think of the name of it, but it is all about your pet eating healthly, organic and wholesome foods. It's just like for people! I also have two of my poochies with pancreaitits. One almost died. You may wish to talk to your vets about alternative/holistic treatment for your poochie! I believe it works and my pets blood tests have proven it! Since your dog is drinking water you will want to try this as a starter. You will need 1 gallon spring water or non chlorine water as it won't work with this. You will want to get a bottle of Naturemade Alox Detox, organic apple cider vinegar, a container or organic honey any flavor is fine. Mix 1/2 cup Aloe Detox, 1/2 cut organic apple cider vinegar and 2 tablespoons of honey into the gallon water. Shake and refrigerate. Use this as your dogs drinking water. What this does is detoxifies your dogs organs and blood. It gets the impurites out of their systems. When one or more of their organs are functioning properly, it puts more stress on the others to keep up and make up for those not working up to 100 percent. I give this to all my pets and take it myself! You may also want to check into natural herbs and probotics. The reason I got into this was because I was tired of the high vet bills and figured that there has to be a better way for treatment. A lot of us bird owners swear by this and all use the same things to keep our pets healthly. Just a little info for you to sleep on and check into. As I said, there is always hope! Keep believing and be positive as your poochie can read you and knows how you feel...

Beech - So sorry to hear the bad news. I know your heart must be breaking and you have some difficult decisions to make. I certainly can't advise you with any sort of qualified opinion but I can offer my sympathy and prayers for the best possible outcome for both you and Fugger. Keep us posted please.

Dan

So sorry to hear about your dog. I lost my Rottie last November but it still seems like yesterday. Enjoy the time you have left with Fugger. My Rottie held on for 8 months after the discovery of a tumor on her spleen. Some days were bad but there were a lot of good times as well. We had 10 great years and she died at home in my arms.
Nothing anyone says will make this any easier for you or your family but my thoughts and prayers are with you all.
Dorothy

Thank you all for asking about Fugger and sharing your stories. It is such a sad time right now, but we did take him to our cabin this past weekend and he got to eat steak, chicken and some pork. It may not be what he should be eating but we figure if he will eat it, then we will grill/cook it for him. He won't eat any regular dogfood...not even the better food I bought. He won't eat the Benefuls either, which I figured looked a lot like human food. He still isn't dragging his heals but you can tell he is slower than usual. We took a nice beach walk and I think that wore him out for the rest of the weekend because he usually runs to the door when we get his leash, and he didn't get up off the couch much after the long walk. We feel like we are on borrowed time right now since he's been on heart medication for over a year now for cardiomyopothy (sp?). The vet said he could go at any time with that.
Thank you all for your help too with what we should do. It's always good to hear how others dealt with this hard decision in life! We are enjoying EVERY moment we have with him and he will be with us everywhere we go until he decides he has had enough.

I'm glad you're spoiling him Mishelle, with the unconditional love they give, he deserves it and so do you.

Thanks guys. We are spoiling him like crazy. I grilled him a steak this morning for breakfast. He isn't into much more than that and chicken now. The lumps are getting bigger and I know it's going to be decision making time. We don't want him to suffer and have to suffocate himself. He is still drinking water so until he is gagging or having a hard time breathing, we will keep him on the pedastal he's been on his whole life in our lives.
I hope your bichon is ok and will pull thru this. Hopefully by removing the whole lump she will be ok. I'll keep your baby in my prayers. Thanks again everyone for thinking about Fugger. He's the best!!

I wish I could say it was filet, but it was a cheaper piece of meat...for now. Filet will come at a later date when he doesn't want to eat! I'm sure that would tempt his tastebuds!

Aww Mishelle, I'm so sorry. I know what you're going through, I had to do it for two of my dogs. One was due to old age and the other cancer. It was so hard and I cried for days but now I'm so glad that I had the courage to take them in and hold them while we said good-bye. I wish I could be there to help you through it.

It's awful to watch our family going through this. When I had to say goodby to my Candy I felt like my world had fallen apart. I think she knew though, and I think she understood. Just before the sedative took over she gave me a big lick and nuzzled my chin. I still feel her. She wouldn't eat and then her legs gave out. I took her to the vet - bawling all the way there. Poor puppy had to see that. She was 18. You'll know. In your gut, you'll know. It's getting your heart to understand - that's the tough part. My thoughts are with you. I wish you the best.