We lost PopCorn today. She’s been off her feed for quite some time and we’ve spent a small fortune trying to figure out what it is and get her to eat. We decided to have her teeth cleaned and perhaps one pulled to eliminate them as a cause. But her blood work was still way off and another xray shows the odd place in her abdomen has grown.
The first xrays a while back showed maybe something there, probably not. She was horribly infested with some sort of parasite so we treated her for that and, for a while, she got kinda better. Then she regressed. We treated with a more aggressive de-wormer since she was still testing positive. We used an ulcer medication, some antibiotics, and something else.
Then we tried an ultrasound and the area still showed something, although nothing definite. Her liver blood work was fine as was her kidneys. We changed to a stronger (and hellaciously expensive) antibiotic and yet more dewormer (she was still freakin’ positive!).
PopCorn did well for a few days then again, stopped eating. That sound so mundane doesn’t it? Stopped eating. Lorna, bless her heart, has been quite creative in trying to get Pop to eat. Baby food, boiled chicken, broth soaked dog food, expensive purposely bland canned dog food, hell, we even tried cat food!
So we decided to get her teeth checked. We knew several of them were bad but we put off treating it due to the risk of anesthesia. We dropped her off last night to let her settle (she gets car sick). They did blood work again to check the anemia and white blood cell counts. The anemia was very bad. 25 if that means anything. The white blood cell count was lower, but still kinda high. Dr. Knepshield did an abdominal xray again and saw that the suspicious place had grown. The stomach was now pushed out of place and the liver seemed to be as well. We were given the option of doing exploratory surgery but we all knew the cancer had returned. We were expecting it and was surprised it had been nearly a year and a half since it had first appeared. Oddly, her liver results were still normal.
After discussing it, Lorna and I decide it just wasn’t fair to Pop. If she was eating, then yeah, we would have waited longer. But she wasn’t. She was also getting quite grumpy and we’ve gone through the biting dog scenario before.
So we went in, spent some time with her, discussed it some more. PopCorn wasn’t helping at all. She was actually bouncy! We looked at the xrays, discussed it some more, then decided it wasn’t fair at all to Pop and we let her go.
Dr. Knepshield did an autopsy for her own education and called me with the results. Yes, it was cancer. It had abscessed and was spilling into her abdomen. It was attached to her liver. If we had chosen to do the exploratory surgery, they would have removed the mass and that lobe of her liver but…the rest of the liver wasn’t very healthy at all. We may have given Pop another week, probably less. It feels good, in an odd twisted sort of way, to know we did the right thing.
And so PopCorn has gone on. She went to chase butterflies on the hill. She never knew Zeus so we sent her to Maggie and Sparky instead.
I’m sorry to read this but I know you and Lorna made the right decision. Popcorn will be warmly welcomed by so many of our pets that have made their way across the Rainbow Bridge.
Beth
Even doing the right thing, your heart still hurts. May you only remember the good times.
And, just think, you can now leave a loaf of bread out on the counter!
No, it’s Sam that eats the bread. PopCorn stole Lorna’s beer. Lorna has to keep her beer either up where she can see it or up on a shelf. Else Pop’s drinking it.
We’re down to just 3 dogs now and, while I dislike thinking about it, 3 is rather nice! And they’re all decently trained, too. Pop, bless her heart, had only recently learned Sit.
I’m so sorry for what you’ve all gone through, Paula. My thoughts are with you.
Thank you, Sophia. I appreciate it.