November 26th, 2007 - Sick dog
We found out about 10 days ago that Jedi had lost about 14 pounds in a few months. (He’s normally just over 80#, which means for those who know them, he’s only a little heavier than Emma, who’s about 60-63# normally.) Tests last week indicated that it was neither his liver nor his kidneys shutting down (which would have menat he was imminently dying). It appears that his stomach is not processing his food, so he isn’t getting needed protein. They will be doing surgery to get internal biopsies this week or next–as soon as they can get him on the operating schedule.
Since he’s a Boxer, the most likely thing is that he has cancer and a lot of it.
If we caught it early and there’s only a bit, they can remove it during the surgery and he might be okay. If it is extensive, there are options of chemotherapy and medication. In that case, his life expectancy would be less than a year even with the most extensive chemo. There’s a really quite small chance it’s just an ulcer, but that’s pretty far down the list, past three or four different types of cancer.
He has a history of intestinal problems. A year ago, he was throwing up a lot and they determined his stomach acids were off. He was on a special diet for about a year. He went back on the regular one this past summer. Perhaps those problems were also cancer (if that’s what he has).
Shmi was my cat, and she died almost a year ago. Jedi is Eric’s dog. Sure, we love the other pets, but these we were the closest to. In retrospect, we may have let Shmi live too long (about 2.5 months after we learned how sick she was). We likely would not make Jedi suffer long at all.
If Jedi dies, we likely will get another dog right away. Maybe Emma’s over her severe separation anxiety, but we hesitate to actually find out if she is or not. (Not that we wouldn’t like an excuse to buy new living room furniture.) And winter in Wisconsin is the perfect time to house train a new dog. NOT.
Thank goodness for our fully funded emergency fund. We are not overly concerned about paying for the surgery nor the costs of a new pet (we may wish to go with a purebred again, although not a Boxer). Still haven’t decided how we will re-fund the emergency fund when it is used. But we don’t need to face that yet.
Your thoughts and prayers for Jedi are appreciated. He isn’t in pain and seems about as exuberant as ever. I think he’s sleeping more, but that might just be because he’s bored in the house. It’s too cold for them to run outdoors for long, and he’s used to do that for the last 6 months. He just looks really skinny.
November 29th, 2007 at 2:42 pm EST
I’m so sorry to hear that. :-(