Abby

Sorry to disappoint, but you'll have to wait on the potentially funny entry, I'm not feeling very funny today.

I mentioned yesterday that I was taking my dog, Abby, to the vet last night. Well, below is a copy/paste of an e-mail I sent out today to some of my family and closest friends (don't be offended if you consider yourself one of those and didn't get the e-mail; I am sure I consider you that too but I am not thinking too clearly today. I can already think of 3 folks I left off of the e-mail):

Hi all,

I took Abby to the vet last night, because as I have mentioned to some of you I heard her cough once on Saturday night and I have unfortunately neglected to take her by lately to have her heart murmur checked. It is supposed to be checked every 2 months or so because I was told at some point she would probably have to go on heart medication if the murmur worsens so that there is no build up of fluid, leading to congestive heart failure, which is how my other darling dog, Nikki, died a couple of years ago. Coughing is a sign of this.

While fortunately the murmur has not progressed and an x-ray showed no fluid build up around her heart and/or lungs, the rest of the news was not at all positive. The vet found a small tumor on her belly, basically kind of in the fold of her back leg, some place I would never see it because she doesn't really roll over on her back anymore (the x-ray also showed a little arthritis in her spine) and I wouldn't feel it there when I pick her up. That is why they did the x-ray, the vet is pretty sure the tumor is the equivalent of breast cancer in dogs, and it spreads easily.. She said there are no spots on her heart or lungs, but her liver looks abnormal. She also said that while there is no fluid near her heart or lungs, her heart is slowly enlarging and causing the main valve, which is supposed to be straight, to start to curve up against her spine, which is beginning to slow the flow of blood slightly.

So, to sum it up, it would be $800 for a sonogram and heart work-up to find out what specifically is going on with her heart and liver, and they probably can put her on heart medicine to correct the heart problem. They don't know exactly what it could be with the liver, cancer having spread there is a possibility but there are other possibilities, so right now it's unknown what course of treatment for that would follow the sonogram. $500 to remove the tumor, and at this point they feel they can get it all, but there is no guarantee that it hasn't already spread and just isn't showing spots on the x-ray yet because they aren't large enough to show up yet. There is also no guarantee that it won't simply grow back. Or, another one could form on any one of her other 3 mammaries. If it is cancer on the liver, then the surgery to remove the tumor would be much more extensive as they would go in to the liver, too, and therefore cost much more than $500, though she didn't say how much more, and again, may not even be effective to the point of getting rid of it all.

I asked the vet the bottom line - that being, if I do nothing, how long will Abby have a good quality of life. She said she didn't know, it could be 6 months, it could be year, or if there is indeed a tumor on her liver, it could possibly rupture at any time, meaning she could be fine one minute and 15 minutes later...

Needless to say, my heart is breaking. Abby seems perfectly fine now, I only heard her cough that one time (which apparently was just a routine cough) and no other obvious signs of anything, but apparently that could/will change. I will pursue a quote for the treatment from her regular vet (the place I took her last night has seen her before, but is a 24-hour clinic and routinely kind of expensive) but I don't really expect the financial aspect of treatment to change that much. Not having yet won the lottery, I doubt I will financially be able to pursue the treatment, and am not even sure I would want to put her through all of that for quite possibly the same outcome as if I do nothing. Because of her heart murmur, just putting her under anesthesia is a bit of a risk.

I know I have had just over 15 wonderful years with her, but this is going to be very hard. Please pray for her. And please please please, if/when you get a new female puppy, have it spayed as soon as it is old enough, before it even comes into heat the first time. The vet said that if you do that, the odds of their developing this type of cancer go down to almost none.

Sorry for the long rambling email but I wanted all of you to know and I really don't think I could even verbally talk about this right now, much less several times....