MakAttack

So I had to take my dog in for a fairly large surgery yesterday. (she has Sarcoma cancer and has undergone two previous surgeries already) The minute the doctor brought her out to the lobby, my heart sank. If you've ever seen someone you love or care for dearly in the hospital, you'll know what I'm talking about. She looked so sad, and like she just wanted to die.

She has had a tumor on her side just in front of her hind leg and we got it removed. Then it came back and we had it removed again. It came back a third time, bigger than before at the beginning of this last summer, and this last surgery she went through was to remove it.

I feel so bad for her because I know she is just in so much pain. This time, the doctor was really aggressive when removing the lump and she took out an extra 2in radius around the cancer origin. So this time she went all the way down to the muscle. I can tell it's just agony for her to move, even though she does get up and walk around a bit. But she ends up just standing in one spot crying and whimpering.

I don't know about anyone else, but she has been my first real pet. Yea, I've had a couple gold fish and I had a couple hampsters when I was little. But I remember the day we got her like it was yesterday. She was a stray that my neighbor picked up by her parents house. She has remarkable resemblence to our old dog and both my dad and I fell in love with her. We had to have her. So she became mine, and now, the thought of losing her breaks my heart. My parents and I have all agreed that this was the last surgery she would go through. Not only is it spendy, but it just puts so much stress and trauma on her. Hopefully, the tumor will not return after this, but if it does, hopefully this surgery will have helped to prolong its return. Unfortunately, if and when it does come back, we're going to have to let it do it's thing. Which will ultimately end up killing her. Or we may have to put her down depending on the kind of side affects it has on her.

I know she's not a puppy anymore, but she's really not as old as she could be either. She still plays with her toys and chews on her squeaky toys and throws them about. She's such a joy to watch and to play with. And I love her markings, she's got a little white spot on her forehead that's totally unique to her. I just know I'll never find a better dog.

Anyways, I'm sorry this is so long....I've just been really down about all this. I took a couple pictures of her today, I'll post em up once they get developed. (yes, I'm ghetto and still have to develop my pictures at Fred Myers)

Have any of you ever had pets like this?

OnYx

I have but not to be cold, as soon as teh dog was having problems walking and was hurting alot, we put her down. there is nothing i hate more than to see a friend die of this. I feel for ya, good luck.

MakAttack

Yea, we had to put our old dog down because he had bad hips and could barely get up or lay down, let alone walk. That's what's so frustrating about my dog now. She's totally fine. (well obviously not right now) But as soon as she heals, she'll be back to normal. Runnin and jumpin and barkin at people who knock on the door, chewin on her toys and gettin into the garbage (bad dog). That's why it's so hard to grasp thatI'll have to let go because she doesn't act old. She's not in pain, even when the tunor is there. It's not a painful situation. But I know the surgery is, and that's what I feel bad for. Putting her through all this.

d16forlife

I had a pitbull/boxer mix.I loved that dog so much.he was verry protevive of me and extremely agressive towards annyone other than me.What sucks is that I had to put him down couse some stupid bitch was snooping around my property and he bit her.Eveb though I had warning signs posted she sued my insurance company and they said I had to get rid of the dog or they would drop me and put it on my insurance record.Thats kind of like a credit report the insurance compannys use.It would of had cost me 4 grand a year for insurance if I would of kept him....I miss my dog

MakAttack

Oh my gosh that's complete bullshit. I'm sorry. Could you have given him away? Or did they say you actually had to put him down?

d16forlife

He was too agressive.The only people he wouldnt attemt to maul was my friends and familey.He was so bad I couldnt take him out in public.The odd thing was that with me he was the most carying and playfull dog in the world.No one would take him so I had to put him down.

you cant even imagine what I felt like to see him how happy he got when I put his coller on to put him in the animal controll truck he thought I was taking him for a walk.........

shortyGTiBEEB

OMG. I burst into tears when I read both stories. I am sorry MakAttack and d16.

I hope the tumors don't return.

MakAttack

I'm so sorry. I don't know what I would do if I had to do that. Probably lie. I can barely sit here and listen to my dog cry and me not being able to do anything about it. I couldn't stand having to put her down because some idiot decided they needed to snoop around my house.

She actually bit some dumb asian guy when she was younger. She's got herding instincts in her, and this guy comes roller blading down our cul de sac with my dog in the street, not on a leash, and my neighbors rotweiler in the street as well. He was dumb, and my lil mutt went after him and nipped him right above the back of his rollerblade. Thankfully he didn't press charges since he was stupid enough to go down our street in the first place with two dogs in the middle of the road.

Jockette

that's sooo sad. I have 2 cats, my first pets, I haven't experienced the whole death-of-a-pet just yet...and I'm dreading the day. One of them was hospitalized for days 'cause he was super sick and I was crying when I went to visit him. I couldn't imagine what you're going through, Mary. I hated it to see my cat super sick that he couldn't move, he couldn't eat, he wouldn't even budge for a treat, it broke my heart...let alone seeing a pet going through pain ...whimpering and crying, I'd be in tears.

but ya...as for the dog biting and putting it down, I can see that happening. A friend of mine had to put her dog down because it was blind and old and this little girl kept on bugging him and breathing on him, so he bit her.

jung4g

I've got a 18 month old Beagle named Toby. He's a little ---- and gets in to everything, howls when we come home, howls when we open our own bedroom door, and howls if he thinks someone may be coming, just a hound instinct I guess. But even though he causes a lot of problems, we love him ( 6 guys live in my house).

Once were playing with him, and he fell and hit his head pretty bad, and starting walking all funny and shaking around, like his left foot went where his right should have been and vice versa. He couldn't go where he wanted to, and I thought he was seriously fucked. But when I got a treat for him, he still came for it, fell over a few times on the way, but kept coming, tail wagging and all. After a few minutes he was back to normal, and it didn't seem to bother him a bit. - A good thing too, cuz none of us can afford to bring him to a vet, luckily one of the guys was dating the daughter of a vet when we got him, so he got shots and everything super cheap...

I'd post the pic, but it's too big for this site, if you want to see my dog in all his glory, goto

he looks like the dog from the grinch in the pic,

best of luck with your dog Mary...