All Creatures Great and Small

It's been a tough week on Clearfield Farm thanks to our ten-year old beagle mutt, Belle.   

After dinner on Monday night she began to display some obvious discomfort.  When I called the vet clinic and recounted her symptoms, they wanted to see her right away.  A few x-rays confirmed some sort of abdominal mass but it was unclear what it was.  An ultrasound was also inconclusive.  The vet, who happens to be a good friend of ours, set out our options which included supportive care, euthanasia, or surgery.  I told her I would get back to her first thing on Wednesday.  My darling husband and I had to talk.

It's an agonizing decision when it comes to spending significant sums of money on a pet, particularly an aging one (and one who is not so friendly to those outside her pack).  My husband offered this advice...WWJD.  "What would Jesus Do?" I asked skeptically.  "No, what would James [Herriot] do?"  "Well, because of the lack of technology available at the time, he probably would have put the animal to sleep if she was in as much discomfort as Belle currently is" I answered.  My husband concurred.  He added that if we were striving to live simply (I have often touted the "just because we can, does it mean we should?" philosophy), euthanasia would be our best option. But is that what we would do for Belle?  What if it was just a simple mass that could be removed and give her several more years of quality life?  But what if it is malignant?  What if whatever it is was going to come back? Of course, it was impossible for us or the vet to determine any of this without going in in the first place.

She obviously needed something done because she was suffering.  Euthanasia or surgery.   After a quick discussion of our own financial situation and an understanding that extraordinary measures (say a trip to Cornell University) were out of the question, we decided that she deserved this one shot to continue on in this world.  We agreed that if there was a relapse or if there was no improvement then we'd put her down if it became clear she was suffering.

When I called the vet on Wednesday, she agreed with our decision.  She did want to know whether we wanted her woken up if the mass could not be removed.  We said yes because Bud had not yet said his goodbyes and we felt this was very important.  The surgery was scheduled for that afternoon.

Unfortunately, the surgery did not turn up good results.   The mass is really coagulated blood and cannot be removed.  It is unclear where this mass originated from or why.  The vet and her colleagues felt that if they tried to remove whatever it is, she would bleed out in a "terminal event".  So they ended up sewing her back up.

She spent two days at the clinic and was doing all normal doggy things (eating, peeing, pooping) so it seems like she feels a little bit better, although the long-term prognosis is relatively poor.  Our vet was very realistic with us saying it could be weeks or months or it could be days.  The best case scenario would be if this mass was the result of some sort of trauma and shrunk on its own after a bit of time.  However, the onset of her discomfort and the unlikelihood of her getting hit by something without us noticing render this trauma hypothesis relatively weak.

Daisy

Luke and Belle

So we will just wait and see.  Daisy is happy to have Belle at home and takes turns with Luke the cat watching over her.  Belle, whose favorite activity has always been lying out in the sun, seems relatively peaceful at the moment.  As long as she doesn't complain we will give her as many sunny days as possible.