Just 3 weeks ago I posted about my wonderful dog Taz and our trip to New York to appear on TV. Today, my heart is shattered as I had to put this amazing, wonderful,
cherished 13-year-old dog to sleep. When I got up today he was fine (I was up very late last night so only got up around noon), although he was not as perky as usual and refused to eat (something he never does even when sick), by 4 pm I noticed when he stood up to follow me out of my office where I was working that he was very unsteady on his feet, almost falling over, and looking quite perturbed, so I immediately called the emergency vet to let them know we were coming but they were busy with other cases and just made us an appointment for 8 pm, 4 hours later. His temperature was normal but I was very worried as this seemed to come on so sudden, so I watched him closely, becoming more concerned as time passed and 45 minutes later I noticed he was definitely going downhill, not able to stand up on his own now, so I called them again and they said I could either come in and wait until someone could see him, or drive a hour to the next closest emergency vet. I called the other office and they felt they would be able to take us, so I made the difficult decision to drive him that far away, took off and got him there still conscious but now laid out on his side obviously in real distress. A hour or so later after working on him, it was clear that it would take extraordinary measures to save him, he was continually crashing and needed CPR at that point, blood work indicated he was bleeding out and didn't have the platelets needed to deal with it. (The vet that worked on him and I both think it was hemangiosarcoma, a very aggressive cancer in dogs that attacks the blood vessels and spleen and can commonly cause a sudden collapse like this.) Even if we were able to get him stable enough with blood transfusions and even if they could determine if it was operable, and even if he survived the surgery, his life expectancy would not likely be good, maybe only a few months. I made the difficult decision to say goodbye, kissed him on the head and at about 7:30 pm we ended his valiant struggle to survive. Just a few short weeks ago we had been to the vet and even had some blood work done to see how he was doing and not found anything to worry about, so it's a sad reminder of how quickly we can lose them.