BudH
Boxer Pal
My wife (of 28 yrs) and I are dealing with a very sad (to us) situation right now. Having no children, I guess we focus so much of our love and attention into our 9 1/2 year old boxer, "Ribby". Sadly, "Ribby" has suddenly been diagnosed with stomach cancer. It seems our special girl has only a few more weeks with us. :-( We are very much devastated by this news. It all happened so suddenly! One month ago she was the picture of health and playful as a pup! We plan to now spend as much time with her as we possibly can so as to make her remaining time with us as comfortable (and as fun) as possible. Some folks wouldn't understand but the fact is that she's an absolutely huge part of our lives - again, probably because we never had kids - other than the "four-legged" and furry kind! 
Ah well, she's given us so much joy over the years - I guess we're lucky to have had her this long...
Around the beginning of October, she lost her appetite. Previously, she was a good eater but stayed thin by playing pretty hard. (Her name's Casey but we call her "Ribby" because her ribs tend to show slightly.) In hindsight, there've been instances of her vomiting her nearly undigested food for the past year and a half. This became more prevalent last month. As she's always been the picture of health otherwise, we attributed it to her eating way too fast. Our vet remarked during an ultrasound on Oct 11th that her stomach lining appeared to be very thick. He referred us to a specialist and I took "Ribby" there immediately. Another ultrasound had similar findings. Next came a scope into her stomach and a biopsy. We received the sad news on Oct 15th, confirming my worst fears - stomach cancer.
"Ribby" is on Prednisone, antacids, iron supplement, and Benadryl. She's not interested in her Purina One anymore but loves scrambled eggs, cheese, and sometimes cooked hamburger. (We mixed the burger with rice but she picks the rice out.) Today, we took her to a local park for a long walk. She refused her scrambled eggs initially but after a 1/2 hour rest she pretty much wolfed 'em down. Makes us so happy now to see her eat! A month ago we would yell at her to slow down!
We don't believe we want to subject "Ribby" or ourselves to chemotherapy. Trust me, if we were guaranteed she would be cured, we'd pay any amount and overcome any hurdle whatsoever to rid her of cancer. However, as it has apparently attacked her entire stomach, I don't believe there's much hope. I don't want to subject her to all the 2 hour drives, not to mention the strong drugs associated with chemotherapy. I'd hate for her to incur additional health issues from it. I also don't want to subject my wife and I to false hopes either... Any thoughts?
Also, she's always loved drinking her water. I guess Prednisone has increased that. For those times when she's not eating, can we add some type of supplement to her water that will give her some extra nutrition just from drinking?
Years ago, I held Duchess, our 16 year-old Cocker Spaniel, while she was "put to sleep". Toughest thing I've ever done, (and I'm a 22 year cop) but Duchess had gotten very old. It was somewhat easy to know that it was time for her to join her mate, Skippy, across the Rainbow Bridge. It will be very tough with "Ribby" though. Just a month ago, she'd bark at me to get me away from the computer to roll around on the floor and play with her... She's not even ten years old... Hopefully we'll have a few more months with her, instead of the few weeks the vet sadly believes.
Oh well, thanks for reading this far!
With profound sadness,
--bud--
Ah well, she's given us so much joy over the years - I guess we're lucky to have had her this long... Around the beginning of October, she lost her appetite. Previously, she was a good eater but stayed thin by playing pretty hard. (Her name's Casey but we call her "Ribby" because her ribs tend to show slightly.) In hindsight, there've been instances of her vomiting her nearly undigested food for the past year and a half. This became more prevalent last month. As she's always been the picture of health otherwise, we attributed it to her eating way too fast. Our vet remarked during an ultrasound on Oct 11th that her stomach lining appeared to be very thick. He referred us to a specialist and I took "Ribby" there immediately. Another ultrasound had similar findings. Next came a scope into her stomach and a biopsy. We received the sad news on Oct 15th, confirming my worst fears - stomach cancer.
"Ribby" is on Prednisone, antacids, iron supplement, and Benadryl. She's not interested in her Purina One anymore but loves scrambled eggs, cheese, and sometimes cooked hamburger. (We mixed the burger with rice but she picks the rice out.) Today, we took her to a local park for a long walk. She refused her scrambled eggs initially but after a 1/2 hour rest she pretty much wolfed 'em down. Makes us so happy now to see her eat! A month ago we would yell at her to slow down!
We don't believe we want to subject "Ribby" or ourselves to chemotherapy. Trust me, if we were guaranteed she would be cured, we'd pay any amount and overcome any hurdle whatsoever to rid her of cancer. However, as it has apparently attacked her entire stomach, I don't believe there's much hope. I don't want to subject her to all the 2 hour drives, not to mention the strong drugs associated with chemotherapy. I'd hate for her to incur additional health issues from it. I also don't want to subject my wife and I to false hopes either... Any thoughts?
Also, she's always loved drinking her water. I guess Prednisone has increased that. For those times when she's not eating, can we add some type of supplement to her water that will give her some extra nutrition just from drinking?
Years ago, I held Duchess, our 16 year-old Cocker Spaniel, while she was "put to sleep". Toughest thing I've ever done, (and I'm a 22 year cop) but Duchess had gotten very old. It was somewhat easy to know that it was time for her to join her mate, Skippy, across the Rainbow Bridge. It will be very tough with "Ribby" though. Just a month ago, she'd bark at me to get me away from the computer to roll around on the floor and play with her... She's not even ten years old... Hopefully we'll have a few more months with her, instead of the few weeks the vet sadly believes.
Oh well, thanks for reading this far!
With profound sadness,
--bud--
