Our last picture with Sammi right before we left to put her down. The red bandage on her leg is where the IV had been all weekend.
We have had a huge loss in our family. Our beloved dog - who felt like a family member to us - has passed on. She started throwing up last Tuesday and we realized she hadn't eaten since Monday.
On Wednesday we called our Vet - Dr Pam Nichols in Bountiful @ The Animal Care Center - http://www.utahanimalcare.com/ saying she was shaking and throwing up and they said to bring her in Thursday AM.
We brought her in on Thursday and they did an xray of her hips and her back because she was exhibiting pain. They found a slipped disk in her back and sent us home with pain medication.
On Friday she was still throwing up and I called the vet. She said to keep giving her the pain medication. Sammi wouldn't eat so I had to crush up the pills and put them in a water bottle and squirt it in her mouth. She couldn't even keep the water down.
Saturday afternoon she was still throwing up and becoming lathargic so we took her to an emergency care Vet close by - Dr. White in Farmington (since our Vet is closed on the weekend) and he said her liver was shutting down and how he could see that was that the whites of her eyes were bright yellow and so were her gums which is jaundice. He put her on an IV to rehydrate her and pumped her full of antibiotics. He kept her overnight and told us he would follow up in the morning.
We got a call Sunday that he had done bloodwork and it didn't look good. He hoped that another day on the antibiotics and IV would help fix what ever was going on. He thought maybe she had eaten something and gotten Hepatitis.
On Monday morning he called us and said her bloodwork was worse and that now her kidneys were failing as well. She still wasn't keeping anything down and was in a lot of pain. I drove down to Dr Pam to get her opinion and she sat and cried with me. She said that if you look at this same scenario with a human, if they had been on an iv for over 48 hours and pumped full of antibiotics and bloodwork showed that organs were shutting down, then you are looking at something major and she figured cancer. She sat with me and cried and asked if we would bring Sammi down to her office to let her be the one to put her down. She also asked if she could keep her and open her up to see what really was happening to her body. We brought her home around noon and it was awful. She kept going outside and eating snow so she could throw up. She was shaking horribly. I finally got her to come inside and lay on the floor with me. When I was petting her, trying to ease her pain, her hair was falling out in handfulls because of the dehydration. Her breathing was so shallow I knew she was close to death.
Austin Eborn came over and Jason, Austin and I took her to Dr. Pam's office. By the time we got there, she was moaning with every breath because she was in so much pain. First they gave her a sedative and then laid her in Jason's lap. We were all sitting on the floor and Dr Pam sat there crying with us. Dr. Pam told us to say our goodbyes and it was so hard because she was still wagging her tail at us. Then she gave her the medication to put her to sleep and it didn't even take 1/10 of the medication for her to stop breathing. Once Jason and I said our goodbyes, Austin knelt on the floor with Sammi's face in his hands and had his face buried in hers sobbing. It was so awful. We finally left and came home. We set Sammi's collar and leash on the counter and Jason went back to work and Rachel kept playing with Abby Kennedy. A while later I heard Sammi's tags on her collar jingling and I jumped out of reflex/fear/question. Rachel had taken Sammi's collar into her room and had been sitting on her floor crying. She kept asking why the doctor couldn't save Sammi.
Later that night, Rachel struggled to go to bed because Sammi would lay on the foot of her bed every night and Rachel would tuck her feet under Sammi. Rachel asked us to lay pillows at the foot of her bed so it would feel like Sammi was still there. I thought after our tramatic day was over, Tuesday would be easier. In the morning, it almost felt worse because we didn't hear Sammi's collar jingle from Rachel's room as she was waking up ready to be let outside. Then as the day went on, I realized how much of my daily routine included taking Sammi out, letting her out the door when I knew Rachel would be walking down the street ater getting off the bus, etc. THIS IS THE DOG THAT I DIDN'T EVEN WANT THAT JASON BROUGHT HOME ANYWAY!!! Jason was supposed to be having a harder time than me!!!
I got a call from Dr. Pam in the afternoon that when she had opened Sammi up Monday night, that there was cancer all over. It had not only taken her liver and kidneys but her spleen as well. Again relating to a human, they would have said that the person had 3 months to live but with a dog you have to divide that by 7 because they age so much quicker than us. That is why it only took 1 week to go from sickness to death. We are grateful to have such a caring Vet and appreciated her concern for us during our sadness.
As I am washing the cover to her bed, the blanket on the end of Rachel's bed and putting away her leash and dog toys, I am so sad but glad that she is out of pain. At this point, I am too sad to even think about another dog where Jason is ready to get a puppy tomorrow! We will start thinking about another dog in the summer but for now, we are happy with our wonderful memories of our great Sammi dog!
We love you Sammi!
