[Dailydrool] Farewell to Jodie

[Katie Hartsell]

I am very sad to report that we lost our girl Jodie on Wednesday.  She went
from being perfectly fine on Saturday, to acting odd and pacing and circling
and trying to get into small, dark places on Sunday, to having slight
difficulty walking on Monday morning (she walked like she was drunk), to
having great difficulty on Monday night.  We saw our vet then, and she gave
her a shot of buprenorphine as well as a prescription of Tramadol.  She ate
her dinner and slept soundly until 1AM when she woke and began whimpering
with pain.  She was shivering and whining all night.  We saw our vet again
on Tuesday, by which time Jodie could hardly walk, she couldn't seem to
control her limbs or what direction she was going. She did full neck and
spine xrays, chest xrays, and took a lot of blood for testing.  The xrays
showed absolutely nothing wrong.  She gave her another shot of
buprenorphine, and sent us home with oral doses of buprenorphine as well as
Gabepentin in case it was nerve pain, and predisone in case it was some
inflammatory process at work.  We couldn't start the pred until she had been
off Rimadyl for at least 24 hours, so we went home expecting the
buprenorphine to work as it has the night before.  Unfortunately after only
an hour or so she began whimpering and shaking again.  Nothing seemed to
help her.  I was up all night with her on Tuesday.  I talked to the vet on
Tuesday night and again on Wednesday morning. We started the prednisone,
kept up with the buprenorphine, gave the gabapentin, and still she
deteriorated rapidly.  By noon she couldn't support her own weight, and if I
used a towel as a sling to lift her, she couldn't hold her head up.  With
extreme sadness we decided it was time to send her to The Bridge where she
wouldn't be in pain any longer.  We have no idea what was causing her
illness, she never gave any indication that anything was wrong until
Sunday.
She was 9 years old, the most beautiful basset I've ever known, and her
personality was equally beautiful.  She was the best behaved basset I ever
knew also--she almost never got into any trouble, never barked, walked great
on a leash, slept well, ate well, truly amazing. Her best friend and
"sister" Rosey with home she'd been raised passed away last November of
cancer.  It give me some solace to know they are together again,romping with
joy and enjoying The Buffet.

Farewell my Jodie, we will always love you.

-- 
Katie in Eureka CA
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