Smallville
#ICanHitADraw
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2008
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- Kansas City, Kansas
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- In Flux
It took me a while to decide it was time to post this. A few people already know, but I feel it's time to share with the entire forum.
About 6 weeks ago our dog Bandit (his story is here: P.S.A.: For post 2000 I was told to do something good) simply, put, totally blew out his knee and we had to put him down. The prednisone he was on for over a year took it's toll on his joints and surgery was out of the question since his ITP would likely come back if we went with that option. We took him to MedVet and had them look at him, after going over everything, we decided it was time. Tara, our other dog, was already there, as she had pretty much decided she was going to every checkup since last October, so the whole family was in the room.
I hadn't updated the previously mentioned thread in a while, because there just wasn't a lot to report. His platelet count fluctuated, but he never got sick again and we were just resigned to the fact he'd be on meds the rest of his life. That morning, he started limping again and couldn't make it up the deck stairs, so we knew something wasn't good. We took him in, made our decision and we all met up in one of the exam rooms. They gave us time to say goodbye and then the doctor came in with the shots. If you've never had a dog put to sleep, it's not bad at all. Very surreal and peaceful. It's the hardest thing I have ever done, as all my other dogs died in their sleep. He wasn't in pain, because they basically numbed his leg so he couldn't feel it. The first shot just puts them in a deep sleep. Bandit was actually snoring. The doctor left the room for about 10 or 15 minutes and then came back and asked if we were ready. Then the second shot stops the heart. Our boy was gone and was finally OK again. I truly believe we'll all meet up again down the road. Tara even climbed up on the table and walked all over Bandit (one last time!) and sniffed him, so she knew what went down. She has been obviously sad, but has not gone looking around for him around the house.
The people at the clinic were awesome. One of them made us a plaster print of one of Bandit's paws (like the hand print you made when you were a little kid). It took me a couple of weeks before I could read the card the great folks at MedVet sent us, as a lot of people involved in his care wrote a little something. And it turns out that our vet does the cremations for MedVet, so any fears that we were going to just get a bunch of ashes, which may or may not have been our dog were taken care of. We got his ashes back and we are going to put half of them in our backyard here and the other half wherever we wind up in California, if and when that move takes place, hopefully this summer.
Thanks to the great people at THP who sent us a get well package about a year ago. He never got to really enjoy the toys, but his sister did, and she thanks you as well!
Now, there has to be a little bit of good in all of this right? Last Saturday we adopted a new baby brother for Tara. She has not been the same and frankly, neither have we. We logically should have waited until we move to do this, but when the time is right, the time is right. Pics of the new puppy will be coming shortly, but he looks similar to the K9 Advantix puppy. He's just nine weeks old now and he is half yellow lab and we think, half golden retriever. We just started calling him Charlie and the name kinda stuck. Tara took a few days to get used to him but they play together some (as well as possible considering the size difference at the moment!)and she's even allowing him to lean up against her to sleep. He mastered going up the stairs on Tuesday and figured out going down them on Friday. More on him later.
We spent a lot of money on Bandit, more than I ever thought I would spend on a dog. Luckily for us, we don't have kids that we are saving to put through college, so our dogs are our kids. Unfortunately we didn't have insurance on him, so it cost quite a lot. We got insurance for Tara right after this happened and have our application in on Charlie. If I had gotten the insurance when I first thought about it, the total cost would have been between 15 and 20 percent of what it was.
If you have pets, get pet insurance. It's less than $275 a year for each of our dogs. We use VPI Pet Insurance.
About 6 weeks ago our dog Bandit (his story is here: P.S.A.: For post 2000 I was told to do something good) simply, put, totally blew out his knee and we had to put him down. The prednisone he was on for over a year took it's toll on his joints and surgery was out of the question since his ITP would likely come back if we went with that option. We took him to MedVet and had them look at him, after going over everything, we decided it was time. Tara, our other dog, was already there, as she had pretty much decided she was going to every checkup since last October, so the whole family was in the room.
I hadn't updated the previously mentioned thread in a while, because there just wasn't a lot to report. His platelet count fluctuated, but he never got sick again and we were just resigned to the fact he'd be on meds the rest of his life. That morning, he started limping again and couldn't make it up the deck stairs, so we knew something wasn't good. We took him in, made our decision and we all met up in one of the exam rooms. They gave us time to say goodbye and then the doctor came in with the shots. If you've never had a dog put to sleep, it's not bad at all. Very surreal and peaceful. It's the hardest thing I have ever done, as all my other dogs died in their sleep. He wasn't in pain, because they basically numbed his leg so he couldn't feel it. The first shot just puts them in a deep sleep. Bandit was actually snoring. The doctor left the room for about 10 or 15 minutes and then came back and asked if we were ready. Then the second shot stops the heart. Our boy was gone and was finally OK again. I truly believe we'll all meet up again down the road. Tara even climbed up on the table and walked all over Bandit (one last time!) and sniffed him, so she knew what went down. She has been obviously sad, but has not gone looking around for him around the house.
The people at the clinic were awesome. One of them made us a plaster print of one of Bandit's paws (like the hand print you made when you were a little kid). It took me a couple of weeks before I could read the card the great folks at MedVet sent us, as a lot of people involved in his care wrote a little something. And it turns out that our vet does the cremations for MedVet, so any fears that we were going to just get a bunch of ashes, which may or may not have been our dog were taken care of. We got his ashes back and we are going to put half of them in our backyard here and the other half wherever we wind up in California, if and when that move takes place, hopefully this summer.
Thanks to the great people at THP who sent us a get well package about a year ago. He never got to really enjoy the toys, but his sister did, and she thanks you as well!
Now, there has to be a little bit of good in all of this right? Last Saturday we adopted a new baby brother for Tara. She has not been the same and frankly, neither have we. We logically should have waited until we move to do this, but when the time is right, the time is right. Pics of the new puppy will be coming shortly, but he looks similar to the K9 Advantix puppy. He's just nine weeks old now and he is half yellow lab and we think, half golden retriever. We just started calling him Charlie and the name kinda stuck. Tara took a few days to get used to him but they play together some (as well as possible considering the size difference at the moment!)and she's even allowing him to lean up against her to sleep. He mastered going up the stairs on Tuesday and figured out going down them on Friday. More on him later.
We spent a lot of money on Bandit, more than I ever thought I would spend on a dog. Luckily for us, we don't have kids that we are saving to put through college, so our dogs are our kids. Unfortunately we didn't have insurance on him, so it cost quite a lot. We got insurance for Tara right after this happened and have our application in on Charlie. If I had gotten the insurance when I first thought about it, the total cost would have been between 15 and 20 percent of what it was.
If you have pets, get pet insurance. It's less than $275 a year for each of our dogs. We use VPI Pet Insurance.