Anyone who has visited our home is more than familiar with our big friendly lab-border collie, Bear. She was the most loving and adoring dog there is, at our side 24/7. So much so that I often yelled at her because of it. When Abbi started talking in full phrases, one of the first things I could understand her say was, "Move, Bear!" Most likely because we said it all the time. Bear would constantly shuffle her feet on our floor in excitement when she couldn't get traction quick enough, drove me crazy at the time, now I miss it! She always slept at our bedside, causing us to often trip on her in the process of getting up in the morning. She was an attention seeking dog who would be present when guests arrived until they left, in hopes that she would get some love and attention. Who can forget the licking she did in the summer, she would lick our legs clearing us of any sign of sweat for long periods of time. We often came home to our garbage dumped all over the kitchen or spread into the living room, because Bear was searching for something yummy. She was very good at finding an unattended diaper, tearing it apart and clearing out all the nastiness, leaving us with the filling and shell to clean up. All of the above things drove us crazy from time to time when we had Bear home with us, now they're things we miss dearly. Just today I cut up apples for the kids, leaving the core on the floor (as I always did for her) because she would always come and gobble it right up, I came home tonight and its still there.
This past week, a time of celebration for the Christmas season, a time when loved ones come together and prepare for the joyous holiday about to come, was an exhausting, emotional week for our family. Last Sunday evening after we returned from seeing the lights at Sibley, Jeremy said to me, "I think we need to take Bear in, somethings not right." She had been sulking around, eating less and less of her food (she always ate her food and whatever Ruby left behind) and not having as much spunk as we'd seen, she struggled to get comfortable in one position and wandered frequently.
We agreed that we'd consider taking her in the next day if things weren't better, however shortly thereafter Bear threw up a large amount of blood on our living room floor. After that she was unable to find a comfortable spot to lay at all, her abdomen was extremely firm and uncomfortable, her breathing was rapid. We called the on call vet, who said we should bring her in the following day, which we did. Following a thorough work up with blood work, xrays and monitoring she was sent home with a diagnosis of probable ulcers. A huge load of stomach coating pills and an order for homemade food (rice and cottage cheese or rice and chicken) I spent the next 24 hours or so forcing pills down her throat (she wouldn't take them, which is unusual for her) and attempting to get her to eat human food (another odd thing for her not to do). Finally at midnight on Tuesday I was able to get her to eat a serving of chicken and rice, which she immediately threw up. That initial throw up was followed by continuous attempts to get more stuff out of her stomach, the force she used was unbelievable and the sounds that came from her throat were something I'd never heard before, I described it as a plastic bag blocking her esophagus and attempting to get something threw there. She threw up a ton of mucousy/foamy/phlegm and eventually seemed to settle slightly.
We called the vet on call (who happened to be the one who had treated her the day prior) she offered to see her emergently, but warned of a fee just for her driving in as well as the cost of examination, or we could bring her in right away in the morning. I took her in bright and early the next morning, Alex in tow as he was heading to school after we finished at the vet. As the vet took Bear out of the room, Alex said to her, "Bear's our good dog, she actually listens, we have another dog Ruby who does whatever she wants." They took Bear back to complete an xray prior to us leaving and located a triangle shaped item in her stomach. I consented to having a scope completed to find out what that item was and then have it removed (hopefully via scope vs. abdominal surgery). Jeremy got a phone call once the scope was completed telling him that they found the item in her stomach as a triangular piece of glass and had to surgically remove it. No damage to esophagus was noted during the scope and she should stay overnight and recover prior to coming home the following day. We had another update later in the day with the same report, Bear was doing well, good as always and would be ready to head home the next day.
After school pick-up, I took the kids over to the vet to drop off her stomach coating pills (she was on quite the regimen), the techs were so kind that they made a CD of the x-ray images for Alex to take into school. While we waited for the CD to be completed, they let us go back into their kennel area and visit Bear. She was thrilled to see the kids and the kids enjoyed seeing her.
The following day at about 8:15 am the vet called and gave us another update, Bear was doing well, no adverse effects noted, she wanted her to stay until the afternoon and then we could bring her home. The billing department called 15 minutes later and left a message about payment. At about 11:15 the billing department again left a message and about 15 minutes later the vet called and didn't leave many details, just asked that we call her back at our earliest convenience regarding Bear. Jeremy spoke to her around 12:30/1 pm, Bear had started coughing and seeming uncomfortable, they were completing some tests to see what the cause was, she'd call us back with an update when they have one.
I got a call at about 2:10, just prior to needed to head out to get Alex from school, Bears xrays showed that there must have been just a slight nick in her esophagus that had leaked stomach contents, food items or anything else at some time, they were going to complete xray with contrast to determine if it was an active leak or a resolved leak. They used iodine instead of barium, because if the leak was active barium would be toxic in her body, the xrays were not as conclusive due to this. I went in to speak with her after dropping the kids off with Kate, preparing myself for the worst, bawling my eyes out and hoping I was overreacting. The vet showed me the xrays, the enlarged mediastinum, her shifted esophagus, and explained the concerns. She provided me 3 options: 1) thoracic surgery in the cities with a specialist, estimating cost at an upwards of $3,000; 2) An overnight stay one more night, to have her pumped with fluids, motility drugs and heavy antibiotics in order to attempt to work the fluid out (in hopes the leak was healed over); 3) load her up on antibiotics and take her home where we would thin food for her and coddle her into hopeful recovery. I reflected back to the three days prior and the anxiety I had experienced and decided to keep her there overnight to treat her prior to taking her home no matter what the following day.
I asked to see her prior to leaving, at which point she had mucous coming out of her nose, was coughing continuously and looked miserable; the vet said that she had gone down hill since she'd seen her 15 minutes ago. Our poor Bear looked miserable, I couldn't stand to have her suffer any longer. The vet informed me at this point that her impression was that the leak was still active and the only option was surgery, which wouldn't have a guaranteed outcome, otherwise euthanasia was recommended, as she didn't know how long the process would take and the process would be extremely uncomfortable for Bear. I left the vet in hopes of reaching Jeremy, so that he could see her prior to putting her down. He was able to get off work, we loaded up the kids and headed over to see Bear one final time. She was just as sweet as she always was, giving kisses, flopping to the floor for us to pet her and tolerating the kids so well. Jeremy and I were present with her as she passed, so peacefully. We miss you Bear, you will always be in our hearts!
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