Pets, Vets & the long wait...

Last night, on arriving home, something was different.  Jessi (Short for Jessica), our Lab-Elsation didn't come to greet me...she was lying in her doggy bed not moving.  As I approached her bed, Lolli the Lab-Rotweiler started whining ... a weird odd whine that I have only heard once before during the time that Pattat, rest his loving soul, our Lab-Husky was diagnosed with cancer ...  and would keep on whining, getting more serious the closer I got to Jessi.  Eventually, I went to my mom and asked her what is wrong with Jessi.  She said she didn't know but that she had slinked in, almost crawling across the kitchen floor and hadn't even bothered to open the security gate with her paw ... her favorite act of the day ...  instead waiting for my mom to open it.

Now Jessi, has had sight problems since a very young age.  Due to the genetic predisposition of Elsations, to getting cataracts and the Labrador mix, we werent able to save her eye sight and she has been blind for some years now.  She is very happy without sight though and adjusted very well.  At this point tho, we suspect that she had somehow hurt herself, either through getting a fright or while wrestling around with Lolli.  Her hind quarters doesn't seem to be working all that well and seems to want to give way under her the whole time.  We toke her to the vet last night and he said he would have to wait till this morning when his staff came in, to take some X-Rays and run some tests.  He also said that it is either an injury to her spine or due to old-age.  I can't remember how old Jessi is, but I would have to guess that she is well over 7 years.  

She was such a brave little trooper.  When my dad had come home and we decided to get her to the vet (Neither me nor my mom could pick her up), she calmly followed him to the garage, allowed him to pick her up and place her in the pick-up.  When we arrived at the vets, she allowed the vet to prod and poke her and then when he placed her in the holding pen, she sniffed around a bit and happily laid down to sleep.

All we can do now, is wait for the vet to X-Ray her and run the tests on her before we know what decisions we will have to make ...

It is odd tho when you think about it.  In the case of a human being, "mercy death" is concidered to be taboo but when it comes to pets and animals, it is almost a prerecuesite in the case of a bad illness and/or injury.  This is made even more strange due to the adaptability of animals, which in my view, they are much more capable at than humans.  Obviously the one reasoning, is that animals can't speak and/or tell you how much pain/discomfort they are in and the other being that a dog can have, and correct me if I am wrong, 60%? of it's vital organs fail and you wouldn't even know about it untill it was too late.  This already happened to one of our dogs called Soentjies (Kisses in english).

This raises another point ... thinking back, we have had a lot of pets and counting our dogs alone, which we always tried to have in pairs of two or more, replacing the one as they passed away to keep the other happy and in company, there was:

Knersis

  Type:  Pavement Special

  Color:  Black

  Sex:  Male

  English Name:  ?

  Passed:  Lost -

Voetsek

  Type: Labrador

  Color: Black

  Sex: Female

  English Name:  ughm.. "Piss off" ... if someone were to break in, and the dog attacks and they tell it to go away, it keeps on coming ;D

  Passed:  Old Age

Wollie

  Type: Skipper/Foxterier

  Color: Beige

  Sex: Female

  English Name:  Wooly ...  She looked like a ball of wool as a puppy

  Passed:  Old Age - Choked on a bone ... she was gone by the time we got her to the vets

Soentjies

  Type: Australian Ridgeback/Labrador

  Color: Beige

  Sex: Female

  English Name:  Kisses ... She kept on giving doggy kisses in the face of the person holding her

  Passed:  Old Age - Total organ shut down

Krimmel

  Type: Australian Ridgeback/Labrador

  Color: Beige

  Sex: Female

  English Name:  Crums ... She would have crums around her mouth after eating

  Passed:  Kidney failure, hip problems

Pattat 

  Type: Husky/Labrador

  Color: Beige/Off-White

  Sex: Male

  English Name:  Patatoes ... He loved patatoes ...

  Passed:  Old Age - Cancer

Lollie

  Type: Rotweiler/Labrador

  Color: Beige

  Sex: Female

  English Name:  As in Lollie-pop but my mom initially wanted to call her Wollie the 2nd but it brought up too many memories

Jessi 

  Type: Elsation/Labrador

  Color: Beige

  Sex: Female

  English Name:  Short for Jessica ... she was already named when we got her

Krimmel was the only exception to the rule as we obtained her after Soentjies but she passed away before Soentjies due to kidney failure and hip problems.

News on Jessi!

Wouldn't you know it...as I am typing the blog we got news on Jessi...  The vet said he is very happy with her this morning as she is walking around, nudging the nurses and looking much stronger.  The X-Rays showed narrowing of the spinal vertebrae due to old age.  He said that she is too old for surgery but that medication should definately help her.

She is such a sweet heart!  I can imagine her bugging the nurses :D.  Always full of love, care and attention and would sit on your feet so she knows she is close to you, as she can't see you.

Phew!  What a relief!  Yet, this just shows that she is no spring chicken any more and some things are inevitable ... when, I won't know but at least I still have time to cherish her ... My sweet heart doggy!  She's getting a huge hug and some Beeno's when I get home!