(yes, we are talking about YOU, Velvet)
Velvet. WHAT are we going to do with her? As I type, she lies on her bed wearing the "cone of shame" and her abdomen wrapped in an ace bandage covering a sugar-packed half of a tumor. She's still here for now, for the record.
We headed to Salt Lake about 3 weeks ago for one last fun-filled adventure before school started. I felt like it was too long of a trip to leave the dogs, and frankly, we kind of wanted to take Velvet back to Utah for what will probably be her farewell tour. I had no idea how close it would come to a one-way-funeral-trip.
The dogs were pretty great on what turned out to be an 11+ hour car trip, well, most of it. About 2.5 hours near the end, Harriet said "mom, Velvet's tumor is bleeding." I thought she must be talking about the grapefruit-sized tumor that is hanging from her front left leg. Sometimes she licks it raw and it bleeds a little bit. No biggie, I kept telling Harriet she would be ok until we stopped. We got out in Price, UT for one last gas and potty run. I lifted Velvet down from the car and stood up to find myself covered in blood. Holy crap. She had been chewing on the tumor on her hip! This tumor, she has never bothered before. It is also the one we had surgically removed 4 years ago and has grown back with a vengeance this year. I instantly got sick to my stomach. She had chewed several holes into it and it didn't look good. I cried most of the way to Salt Lake, thinking it might be our last night with her... planning to take her to her old vet in the morning for her rainbow bridge appointment. There is no way to heal holes in a tumor and who would want to? And, you're not going to do surgery on a 15 year old dog who is filled with them.
No, that wasn't the worst. We pulled into Melissa's driveway 2 hours later. As I took her out of the car, I realized the entire external portion of the tumor was GONE. Like not there at ALL. Gonzo. Nowhere in the car. David pulled Shadow out who seemed to need to use the facilities desperately. Shadow had diarrhea all over Melissa's lawn and then vomited. Velvet was bleeding profusely everywhere and could barely stand. Melissa's face - well wasn't she charmed to have us visit for the next 10 days! Poor Sean and Kate. We sealed their fate to never get a puppy. Sorry kiddos.
Back to Shadow... oh yes, she was sick because... wait for it... she ATE the tumor. See, blogs aren't always making you jealous of other people's lives! No chevron throw pillows or photos of a tropical beach here. Now the doom was even worse. I was pretty darn sure we'd be saying good-bye to at least one dog the next day, and I had no idea what it meant for your health to ingest a lemon-sized piece of cancer.
What a way to start a trip!
We got up the next morning, and the darn dog wanted to play fetch. How do you put a dog down who still wants to play fetch? She seemed oblivious to the giant, festering, disgusting, mess on her side. Ok. No vet today. A vet will just want to put her down or do surgery. So I headed out to spend a good $100 on wound-care supplies. We had to at least get it cleaned out and patched up so that we could take her camping in 2 days. We were still pretty sure - we might have to bury her in the mountains, or make that rainbow bridge trip when we got back. This really would be her last camping trip. (Camping trip details are another... slightly better... post.)
(hanging in the basement... V-dog really didn't look good for a couple days.)
As we brought her back to Salt Lake and kept her in the basement, I started noticing how bad she smelled. At first I thought it was just old, sick, dog smell. But wow, the whole basement smelled bad.
Finally, we decided she really ought to see a vet. We wanted to know what our chances were of this thing healing and, maybe, she probably could use an antibiotic.
The vet was extremely nice, cleaned up her wound, gave us supplies to try to heal it and a 3 week prescription of antibiotics, and thankfully, didn't charge us a complete fortune. I really hadn't noticed how terribly infected it was and as I put the puzzle pieces together... realized... that it had probably been really infected from the start. I think that is why she decided to chew it off. She knew it was going bad. She wasn't just getting bored and trying to thing of something to do during the last 2 hours of "are we there yet?" in the car. She was trying to heal herself. Since then I have read of dogs chewing tumors off of their own owners.
Now that she has been on antibiotics for over a week, I can really see how much better it looks and frankly, she doesn't smell at all anymore. She didn't need a bath - she needed drugs. I'm so glad we took her to the vet. The jury is still out. We have no idea if this thing will heal, but it looks way better than it did. It might not ever heal completely, but I'm hoping it will heal enough that it won't be the thing that kills her and will last until something else does.
This crazy dog. I can't even count anymore how many times I have said good-bye to her, thinking it would be her last night on Earth. But, here, she still is. And, she's still begging for playtime and still begging for food and still pretty darn happy about her day (minus the cone of shame.)
We will take all we can get of our awesome Velvet dog. She is truly one in a zillion. We know we will never have another dog like her and we are soaking up any number of minutes she will let us have with her.
Shadow, well if we're giving everyone nick-names, "psycho dog", has also lived to see another day. I thought David would either shoot her or divorce me this summer over her new habit of peeing in the house and her ever worsening problems with thunderstorms. But, she did not have ONE accident at Melissa's house! Thank goodness. And, hasn't had one since being home either. I think with the summer storms mostly over and summer craziness and uncertainty over, she is finally back to her normal self. Yay Shadow! I didn't even have to take her to therapy!
We might, just might make it another month with these two old ladies! I have new found respect for anyone who cares for the elderly or the terminally ill. It is not a picnic. I have not slept since May between the kids and the dogs. Still, I am glad these puppies keep on ticking and we continue to enjoy them and they seem to continue to enjoy life on Earth.
