Sometimes I ask myself, why I didn’t notice Peanut’s health problems, I feel like a bad mother.
One of the worst days of my life, was the day Peanut got the verdict – CANCER.
I have been noticing a little pea shaped lump near her breast, and I knew it for a long time. Believe me, I didn’t even have the slightest idea that it could be cancer, I wish I could go back in time, but I can’t. I also noticed when she broke a tooth, but she was eating a bone, and thought it was a piece of bone, I found. There was this loud sound of something breaking, and we didn’t really take notice because she just kept eating.
She ate for a ½ year, and then I noticed a little bump under her eye, in 2 days it just grew bigger and bigger, and we went to the vet.
The verdict was, that she got something her eye and we got some cream we should put in her eyes twice a day. We did it for a week and nothing really got better, the lump under her eye got extremely big, like a small golfball. We just couldn’t stand it any more.
So we decided to stop by another vet, on our way to my husbands parents.
She had a boil, that was so infected, so they wanted to sedate her and have a look.
It was Friday and we took her home with us. Sunday, the boil broke at 05.43 am, and everything was closed. In panic we called a veterinarian, near by and he advised us to buy a “what we call it” a Lamp shade. This plastic collar, was a big annoyance for Peanut, she bumped into everything and she couldn’t drink from her bowl.
Monday we called our new vet, and said that this couldn’t wait and they took her in next day. We also agreed that they would look at the little lump near her breast, now they had her anesthetized anyway.
Peanut have never been alone without Mingo or anybody she knew. I gave her to the vet-nurse, and saw the black pearls looking back at me, like – “mom are you going to leave me ?”. Our tears welled up in our eyes, and just ran out to the car, both of us, franticly petting Mingo. We were just sitting there in the car, we had to, just for a moment, to get ourself together, before we drove back to my husbands parents, for the long wait.
The time stood still, our cellular phones right beside us. It took like forever. We got really scared when it rang. I didn’t want to take it, afraid of the news.
They said that Peanut would like to come home now, she was howling, and was sad. She got two teeth pulled out and two nipples removed. The rest they would tell us when we came.
The fist reaction was – yes she is alive, and why two teeth and why two nipples ?
We brought Mingo with us into the wake-up area, where Peanut sat in a little cage. My husband had Mingo in his arms. I didn’t have to lift her out the cage, she literally jump in to my arms, whining almost screaming. Kissing me and Mingo and her daddy. The vet told us that she had a broken tooth and the tooth beside it was so infected that they had to remove it. The nipples was another matter. They have found one more and that was a cancer lump. Oh NO, no no no no NO !!!!
We went home home and spent a lot of time, and a lot of hours on the internet, trying to find the best food, for them. We bought some holistic food, and change their diet.
Everything has been good the last ½ year, when she started to throw up, and it was almost every day. We saw her eating grass and thought it was why she threw up, or she just had a sensitive stomach. She got thin, and stopped eating. One day she started to cough or something like that, she could not breathe – like.
It scared the hell out of both of us and we got an appointment at the vet same day.
Blood test was taken, and the long wait started again. Was the cancer back again ?
The blood test showed that she had a severe kidney failure, and needed a urine test as well, to pin point what exactly what it was. So many tears we wept, “luckily” it seemed to be an infection and could be cured with Penicillin.
In 6 weeks we will know if it’s just an infection, another blood test will be taken and we cross everything we have , that her kidneys are better. Otherwise it may be more serious, than we just thought. You know, especially in this case, where she had had cancer before.
I cannot imagine to live without her or without them, my two beloved dogs. But as a pet owner we must prepare for this. I wish I could prepare, but either way, it will be so painful. We are only humans, and when somebody gets taken away from us, somebody we love so much – it hurts. I know everyone that have a pet, feel the same way as me.
Remember – there is NO REASON WHAT SO EVER, that you should keep your pet in pain and alive. But I also believe that we have to do anything in our power to do anything we can to to keep them – AS LONG THERE IS NO FORM OF PAIN OR SUFFERING.
When that said, Peanut is fine, she has gained some weight, her fur is shining, and she has started to play again.
Now we just want to enjoy the time we have with her and hopefully it will be a long time.
Now I have learned to interact with my first intuition. I didn’t know better, I wish I knew. Now I know !
Picture of Peanut
By Julie www.lindgrens.dk from Denmark
