Sorry simey.
My boy Loki’s heart condition seemed to take a worse turn and now instead of just gasping for air when he gets excited or moving he’s getting the hacking reverse cough (which was only a sporadic occurrence in the past) instead. So he’s suffering through coughing fits that sound painful a large number of times a day. I have an appointment with his cardiologist (my dog has a cardiologist and I do not) on Monday. Hope something can be done and this isn’t the new normal.
Thanks, and I hope something can be done for Loki, too. Cole had a heart murmur, but it was a never an issue for him, and always stayed at a #2 if it could be heard at all.
Cole started making a hacking sound last Thursday. It sounded like he was trying to get a hairball out. He only did it once that day (that I know of). Friday he didn't want to finish his food, which is not like him at all. He is very food motivated. Again, I heard him hacking once that day, and again I thought he was working on a hairball. I even put some hairball remedy stuff on my finger and put it on the roof of his mouth (cause he wouldn't lick it off) to help him get it out. Saturday and Sunday he did not want to eat anything. I felt like maybe his Irritable Bowl Disease symptoms were returning after being gone for over a year. I heard him hacking once on one of those days. Monday he ate breakfast and dinner with me encouraging him to do so several times. I called the vet that morning, because he wasn't acting normal towards his food, and he was acting like he did back when he got sick with IBD. I was told the new vet could see him Tuesday late afternoon. He wrestled with his brother that night.
Tuesday he ate only half his breakfast. I heard him hacking once that afternoon. I played with him with a string before we went to the vet. Other than lack of appetite and periodic hacking, he didn't seem seriously ill. We got to the vet, and I told her his symptoms. She said his lungs sounded scratchy and wanted to do some bloodwork and an xray. I said ok. She came back and told me the xray showed his lungs full of fluid, and there was what looked like a large mass in his abdomen. She said they had him on oxygen, and he needed to go to the emergency vet that day to have his lungs tapped, and put in some oxygen chamber or something like that. She said he would not survive the day if he didn't have that done. She asked me if I was willing to drive distances, because emergency vets were short staffed and hard to get in to, especially late in the day. I said yes. She said she felt it was cancer, and the fluid in the lungs was associated with it, and that his outlook was grim, but the only way to confirm all of that was all the test she named starting with getting his lungs tapped, oxygen chamber, biopsy, ultrasound, etc. I was quoted the lung tapping and oxygen stuff would be around $4,000 at the emergency vet. She said the only other thing that could be in his abdomen that wasn't a mass would be trauma like from being hit by a car. Cole doesn't go outside, and the only trauma Cole endured was a few months ago when he missed his jump on to the island in the kitchen, and slid down with his front paws and landed on his side on the hardwood floor. That wouldn't cause that would it? She told me that my usual vet saw the xray, and the specialist at the emergency vet, and they all were in agreement. I was in a state of shock. She also said she didn't know if he would survive the trip to the emergency vet or just being there while I was having to make a sudden decision on his life. I had just played with him an hour before with a string. I did notice at the house that when he was sleeping, he was breathing harder than his brother Archie, and I could hear him make faint squeak sounds, which I now guess were his lungs. Anyway, the vet left the room for a while, and my mind raced. I paced trying to come to terms with what to do. When she came back in, I was very upset. It was hard to get the words to come out of my mouth. I pulled myself together, and I made the decision to let him go. I feel a lot of guilt about that in the event he could have been saved, but a grim outlook is what I based my decision on and the dire situation at the time. He played with his brother the night before, his brother washed him that day, and I played with him, and he ate his favorite treats, and he seemed happy, and I guess that's a good day to go out. The vet told me as she was putting him to sleep that he didn't suffer. I am having him cremated, and I'll get his ashes back. When I left the vet and started my car, Free Bird was playing on the radio, and I felt like it was a sign that his spirit was soaring and with me. I believe in spirits, and even if there isn't such a thing, it's a nice thing to believe, and it brought me some type of comfort at that moment.
I gotta go trek out into the storm briefly.
Well wishes to Loki, Dr. O.

<--- for Loki