About two weeks ago, Gloria discovered a growth inside his lower right lip. We got him into the vet and they said it was cancer. This was only about a month after we had to Say Goodbye to Sadie. so it hit hard. We took him in for blood work and x-rays a couple days later and they told us he had an enlarged liver.
They said we should try and find out what was wrong with the liver before we tried any surgery for the cancer on his lip since some of the sedatives need to be processed by the liver and just to know if the cancer had spread to the liver. If it was not cancer then it was probably cushings disease. If it was cushings then there was a treatment, but it was for the rest of his life, and could get expensive with the meds and the tests to be sure that the meds were at the right dosage.
So, we got him into the Greater Annapolis Animal Hospital yesterday for an ultrasound to see (hear?) what's going on. We found out he has a large mass in his liver and the bile in his gallbladder is thickening. Either one of these could be addressed, but with the combination of these two and the cancer in his mouth, there is too much to overcome, he probably would not make it through all the necessary surgeries
After talking with the doctor at the hospital, and a call with our family vet we know what we need to do. We're going to watch him and focus on providing the best quality of life we can for his remaining months.
After the two consultations yesterday, we're thinking he probably has three to six months left. We will cuddle and snuggle and continue to spoil him as much as we can in the time left. If he looks like he's in pain, we have some painkillers, but once he starts losing his appetite we'll know it's time to say goodbye; again.
We don't think he'll object to the extra cuddling and snuggling. A couple years ago we had some friends over to the house after we had gone out to dinner and were sitting in the family room visiting. I was holding Austin and petting him. After awhile I put him down and he walked over to Gloria and she picked him up and held him for awhile. When she put him down he came back over to me. This went on for most of the visit and finally our friends were laughing and told us what was happening. We never noticed, but he had us trained very well. He would walk in front of us and sit down and we would pick him up. We've been onto him ever since, but we let him get away with it as much as he wants.
On another front, Hardy is not doing very well. He is slowly deteriorating and suffering from dementia.
He is almost 18 years old now and is totally blind and deaf. He spends most of his time sleeping. When he is awake he walks in clockwise circles most of the time. He has even worn a bare spot in the grass in the yard right where he likes to pace in circles. We can also see him having a more difficult time laying down and getting up. We think it's arthritis and are giving him what we can to make him comfortable. But lately he's been getting stuck more and more around the house. He seems to have forgotten, or lost, the ability to back up. We've found him stuck a couple times between the toilet and the bathtub and he can't turn around or backup to get out.
I've been talking to Gloria about his quality of life and we have been working ourselves up to the point of letting him go, but now with Austin, I don't know if we can say goodbye to three (including Sadie) in such a short time. But we know that we need to make the tough choices.
Giving Mommy Kisses
It's part of fostering and adopting the older and special needs dogs that we've been taking into our lives for years. It just seems so tough right now, to have to make the hard choices for so many in such a short period of time. And we don't want to lose sight of Truman. He's doing fine, but not getting as much of our attention as the others.
We'll make the choices we need to make and I'll keep posting pictures and reflections of the process we're going through.
While the garden outside is getting almost too much rain (I really need to do some weeding, but it's raining and I don't need to do it that urgently) thie rescue garden inside is weathering stormy times as nature follows her course and we have to learn to say goodbye again.
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