[Dailydrool] My Evil Annie Is Sick

Wed Sep 9 14:26:07 PDT 2009

A loving arhooo to all DD foodslaves and precocious pups,

An advanced apology for the length of this post as well as the undoubtably dozens of typos, as my fingers are flying, fuled by emotion and i cannot bear to re-read to proof...

I am a fairly new member of DD, foodslave for the past 8 yrs to my sweet Maxie boy and princess Masami who, after blessing my life with more joy, laughter, love and craziness than I could ever have imagined, crossed the bridge suddenly just 23 days ago...

My heart just sank as I read your post about Evil Annie becoming sick...I don't mean to scare you any more than you understandably already must be but i felt i must share my experience of the sudden loss of our precious Masami...

She was 9 and a half, and had started slowing down a bit over the past few months, but she was never the most atheletic inclined girl anyway, preferring the couch over pretty much any other form of activity other than eating or whatever she had to do to get to eat something! She still did her Basset 500 laps after her weekly spa shower, ocassional "Wild Kingdom" antics with buddy Max, flipped on her back like a turtle wallering around to get attention then the "imoingagetcha" game where i straddled her and grabber her "chickee/bunny legs", clamping onto our arms like a vicious attack dog play biting, and snarling at daddfoodslaves attempts to pull of dem wicckers" game...anyway...other than noticing that she did not care to go on a "W" (walk) as much/far/long as she used to,she was still her typical "I am the Queen of the Universe" self and we did not suspect anything could possibly be so wrong. She was always a "pooker" cause she was never all that discerning about what she put into her mouth or considered food (bottle of White Out, pounds of chocolate, sockies- preferably stinky used ones, i could go on & on but you ALL know the list!) so we did not think much about finding a pile of ickiness in the living room on Thursday afternoon (a few weeks ago). She then remained lethargic, sleeping, not getting off her chair AT ALL, and the symptom which frightened me most of all, she refused food, of ANY KIND...i was petrified...this continued through the rest of the afternoon & evening...she had no interest in food or much of anything, and we had to help her off the chair to go potty before bed. Since she had eated countless items of questionable nature before, we thought maybe she had gotten ahold of something particularly nasty in the yard earlier that morning that just really did her tummy of steel in for once...a slug? a posionous plant? other animal doo-doo? We knew that if she woke the next morning in the same sad state, she was going immediatley to the vet. We tucked her in and said extra prayers as we tried to go to sleep worrying about her (around 3 am)...The next morning (Fri), we came downstairs to find her up and waiting by the gate, all perky, and po'd that she had to wait for us to get her day started...she proceeded to gulp her breakfast, run around outside a bit, play goofy on the floor with us, beg for treats, be a prima dona when max dared to get in her chair, do all her tricks, take a short walk,cuddle with me in a chair as i read (but still act put out that she had to share the chair space with me!), etc. all just like her usual i -run-the show-self...WHEW!!!! We showered her with extra extra super duper love and attention all day and night in our relief...went to bed that night syaing prayers of thanks that she was ok again, laughing at the question of what the heck did she eat that might have finally shown her who's boss?!! The next morning (Sat), we came downstairs to a horrible and completley unexpected sight...3 huge icky piles of vomit, pee spot and 2 poos on the living room carpet, and she sat shaking and heaivng near her chair...I went on my knees next to her and held her as she vommited again...daddyfoodslave carried her outside to potty as i called the vet...she peed then collapsed in the grass...we warpped her in her blankie and sped off to the vet (about 2 miles away). We had never seen this vet, we had moved since their last neccessary visit, so i just picked the one closest to us. As i filled out paperwork, daddyfoodslave held her on his chest, face to face with her...she didn't move and showed no interest in anything around her...i finished the paperwork and sat next to them stroking her and talking to her about how she was going to be alright, the dr. would make her better, that we loved her, how pretty she was, how ugly all the other stinky dogs in there were, etc. She turend and layed her hed on my arm, gasxing out the windiw of the room, and i kissed her and talked to her. About 3 min later we were called in, and the tech asked if she could stand to get weighed...surprisingly, she did...then we went into the room and the tech said the dr would be right in. we layed her on her blankie on the floor and sat down there with her...after about 30 seconds, she layed her head down...about 10 seconds later she stretched out in a relaxed position that she liked to rest in...and i leaned over to stroke her...suddenly, her head snapped back, her back arched and she was gasping...i yelled to her daddy to get someone in her RIGHT NOW! He opened the door to yell for help...i was holding her head and sobbing & murmuring to her...within about 10 seconds, the vet rushed in, and i yelled "WHAT IS HAPPENING"? she quietly replied "she's in cardiac arrest"...i buried my head into her neck and nuzzled her, sobbing and talking to her for just a few seconds as she took her last breath...and then she was gone.  i shant go on with the sorrowful details of the next moments...but i just wanted to warn you...we could not bear the thought of leaving her that, having her cut ipen, etc, to find out with complete certainty what had happened, but the vet's best guess was that she likely had a tumor on her spleen, which ruptured and she bled internally, until it killed her. There is no way to detect these tumors other than an ultrasound on that specific organ...she assured us that she had been in no acute pain, just felt lousy, tired, weak, icky...not getting enough blood pumped through her as it was leaking out into her body, probably just for a few days, although it is uncertain how long she actually had the tumor growing...there were absolutley NO SIGNS of anything wrong until it was TOO LATE. Our sweet girl blessed us by not allowing us to even have to know she was sick, to have to choose to go through so much terrible treatments with no guarantee (vet said 65% of tumors are malignent, and after months of treatment, which is so hard on dog, esp. older ones, and she may not have even survived all that, that 70% die within 6 months anyway) or to have to wrestle with ending her misery...she gave us one last perfectly wonderful normal happy amazing day with her, and even allowed me to hold her as she crossed the bridge. sigh...i just want to warn you that Evil Annie's vomitting COULD be a sign of so much more than the usual bad Basset got summpin in the tumtum that wants OUT...please god, i pray not for your sweet girl...but make sure you ask your vet about that...we are hearing soooo many of these tyoe stories now, form other basset owners...it is a silent killer, but as far as it robs, we are grateful that our story is one of the "easier" ones all told...as horrifying and sorrowful as the experience was, we know it COULD have been so much worse on us ALL. My heart is so broken and if not for the saving grace of still having her partner-in-crime, mild mannered Mr.Love Hound Maxie Boo Man,i fear i would be in a much much deeper sorry sad can't bear this pain state. My complete love and many buckets of healing drool go out to you and your lovebug Evil Annie...please let us know how she is. thank you all for letting me share my story, in the hope that somehow it can help someone else  in time. 

Laurie & Jeff

foodslaves to Max and our angel Basset princess Masami Lady Jade

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