Buddy has been sick off and on for a few weeks now in various forms and to various degrees. He developed this little light, rare, cough… Then a week and a half ago He was throwing up his food and we saw blood. We took him to the emergency vet and had him checked out, we had an x-ray done looking for blockages in his digestive track, there were none. We did see something in his lungs. The normal vet thought it was probably a little bronchitis or similar and advised waiting a few days to see what happened. It got worse and his breathing became labored. We got him back in for more X-Rays just this Friday, and the results suggested one of two things.

There is a very real possibility that he has cancer of some sort. There is a more slim possibility that he has a systemic fungal infection.

Of the two we’re hoping for the yeast infection (and 6-12 months of Meds.) Because of how the X-rays look and how bad shape he’s falling into so fast… If it’s cancer… It’s pretty much a death sentence. So we’re waiting for results on his blood tests to see if its a fungus. And we’ve been trying to have as many good moments with him as we have left. Moments where he’s wagging his tail. Times when he wants to play ball. Even just times when he wants to cuddle. The house is already very different. I find myself crying at random memories. He gave me a face bath on Friday night… I couldn’t help but wonder if it was going to be the last one I’d get.

He’s not even 5 years old now, and he’s been through so much. He’s had such a hard life, medically. He’s survived parvo, allergies, too many infections to count. In the end I’m not crying for him, he’s going to a better place his pains get to end now. I’m crying for me… Because I already miss my friend now and It hurts to think how much I’ll miss him when he’s gone.

There’s very little blame to be had here. We feed him the best, we take care of him as best we can, we play with him, love him.

I wish that I had something better to put here. Something funny, or insightful, or informative.

I really do.

Bella and buddy, represent’n

They’re down with the Dubya P.

happy er… holidays…

And we’re off

So now back off to the vet to pick up the dog who’s gonna spend most of the next few weeks being MISERABLE because he’s gonna have to be crated a a LOT, wont be able to play with the other dogs at all for a while, and will have to wear a satellite-dish-collar. On the plus side he’ll have a drain installed in his ear and he’ll be leaking gross fluids form his head for a while. I guess theres ALWAYS a silver lining, insn’t there?!

quick update

Well… everything that could go wrong this weekend (outside work) has gone wrong.

My replay tv is dying

My wifes laptop is dying

I have one dog getting out of surgery right now because of a hematoma

I have one cat with ringworm

One cat got the crap beat up out of her in a fight

I had my tire punctured so badly it needs replacing (this was on the way to the vet yesterday night when we noticed the swelling in buddy’s ear (the hematoma))

The dogs chewed a hose

One dog ate my wifes flipflops while we were away and puked pieces of it up all over the house

We have to go back to Fremont sometime this week to return the old cable receiver and modem or get sent to collections

Oh, and the IRS sent us a letter about a form missing from my tax return (I used TaxCut to avoid exactly this kind of crap!)

On the plus side… We’re alive 🙂

Off to the vets office

Actually it’s an eye specialist. My poor Bella’s eye (which has a detached lens and possibly glochoma (sp?)) has really been acting up the last several days. Wish her (and my wallet) luck!