Dixie

So this has been a REALLY emotional and hard weekend for us knowing we might lose our sweet dog Dixie who is only 6 years old. It all started last Sunday when she was not feeling well. Just laying around and acting weird. We didn't really think much of it. Monday she was still sick and that night my dad came over to help finish the doggie door (which she has not used yet). Tuesday when she was even worse and more lethargic we thought we'd better take her to the vet to check it out. The vet said it was probably a bulging disk and they could give her 5 days of pain killers and see if it goes away on it's own or do xrays for $300 to see what was going on. We decided to try the pain killers first. Every day after that she got progressively worse. We couldn't get her to get up and she stopped eating and was in excruciating pain. Friday we decided not to make her wait all weekend so I took her in that morning to the vet to have the xrays. I picked her up that afternoon and the vet told me she has a bulging disk in her lower neck which might be able to be treated w/ steroids. She said if the disk ruptures the only option is surgery for $5000. I hate to put a price on Dixie, but there is no way we would do that. Obviously, the money is an issue, but I don't think I would want to put her through surgery and the recovery of it. She told me to keep her in her crate 24/7 for 2-3 weeks. I was thinking, okay great this is going to be a pain, but we can at least fix the problem. We weren't allowed to start her on the steroids until Saturday night b/c of her previous medication. The vet gave us some pain killers to hold her over. Well after that she got worse and worse every hour. It was extremely painful just watching her...it made me sick to my stomach. When she got up to go to the bathroom it took her about an hour because it is so painful just to take a step or any type of slight movement. She would stay standing up for 1/2 hour to an hour just to avoid having to lay down and have all of that pain. We left Saturday to buy her a new dog bed so she could at least be comfortable for the next 3 weeks. When we got home that early afternoon, Dixie had been in the living room and there was diarrhea ALL over the carpet (which is only 6 months old). That about did it for me. One, I really didn't want to clean it up and two, I started to realize this may be it for her. The whole rest of the day I was extremely emotional. I hated thinking about her being in this unbearable pain and I hated thinking about losing her right now. We aren't ready for her to go...it was so sudden. Jeff held it together better than me, but I know how bad he must feel b/c him & Dixie are best friends. Jeff is so good to her. He cuddles with her, takes her on runs every day, kisses her, etc. From then on she seemed almost paralysis. She wouldn't eat and would stand up for hours and not move. She was drooling and seemed liked she couldn't ever get to a comfortable position. I called the vet to ask her a few questions. I asked her what are the chances of it rupturing and she said 50/50. I had no idea it was that great of odds; I was originally under the impression it probably wouldn't happen, but we had to be careful just in case. That devastated me. I thought if she's doing this horrible plus the odds of her living are 50/50...it's not looking good. We gave Dixie her first steroid that night. A couple hours later, after the kids were in bed she became even worse. She would try to stand up and just fall over, and she was panting really hard. It was awful, we didn't know what to do with her. We then realized it was probably time to put her out of this horrible misery. We talked about waking the kids up to say goodbye and going to the 24 hr urgent care. We were so upset. We can't believe she was so happy and healthy just a week ago and now we're talking about putting her down. We called the urgent care to talk to someone to make sure that's the right thing to do. They kind of agreed w/ us, but said sometimes that can happen w/ the steroids. We decided when she was acting a little bit better, that we wanted to at least give the steroids a chance for a couple days before we gave up. That night and today she is still doing bad, but better than she was. I still keep thinking we shouldn't put her through this and if she does recover, will she ever be the same? We are going to see how it goes. Dixie is such an amazing dog. She is loyal, so great with all kids, happy, energetic, obedient,& she never barks. She is definitively part of our family and we would be devastated without her. However, we would be able to get through it and be okay. Any good dog owners would understand the emotional connection you gain with a dog you love. So besides being a great dog, we would miss her and her sweet personality. We are not giving up hope on her, but we have also accepted the reality that we might have to put her down. Jeff & I are doing good today...I think we're cried out from yesterday. I appreciate all the people who have been sympathetic and caring towards us. It really makes us feel better.

This is her sick, but before she got really bad.

happy times...

She was always so good with Colter & Syd when they were babies.

This is before she stopped eating. Sydney has been so concerned and sweet to Dixie.