Hi everyone, I am new to the forum.
My family and I lost our beautiful 3 year old golden called 'Daisy' at the weekend and we wanted to share our story to help others out there.
Daisy was born in 2008 and was the most wonderful, loving beautiful golden. We have never had a golden before, she was our first and she sure taught us why they are so well loved! Daisy was energetic, funny (her Dad was known as a clown and she picked up this trait), well behaved, loving and most of all she loved life.
She was always a good eater and loved her food, but recently she became picky. We knew that this was strange so took her to the vets. She had a blood test done as the vet suspected a pyometra...but this came back clear. After a week we still weren't happy with her lack of appetite so took her back again.
After running various blood tests we found out on 23rd December that our precious Daisy was in renal failure, most likely congenital. We were in absolute shock – no other signs except the slight loss of appetite. She was taken to the veterinary hospital and put on fluids in the hope of flushing her kidneys out. Unfortunately this made no difference and her bloods were still off the chart. She spent all of Christmas in the hospital and was so, so brave and stayed on the fluids for 5 days. One vet wanted to put her to sleep on Christmas Day, but a second vet intervened and said that she was willing to fight for Daisy as she was so well in herself. An anti-sickness drug was introduced into her drip to try and help her overcome the sickness and start eating again. After more bloods there was still no change in her numbers.
They let her come home on the 27th December to see how she coped off the fluids and in the hope that we would get her eating again at home. We were just so pleased to have her back with us, even if it was only for a short while. However, we tried every food possible to try and tempt her, she ate a little, but hardly enough. We took her back to the vet every 2 days for check ups and monitoring and she was on many different drugs - anti acid, anti sickness, antibiotics, she had an anabolic steroid and B12 injection, but nothing seemed to help her improve. We had more bloods done, but her numbers were still off the chart.
Daisy refused to give up and she fought so hard against this. Gradually though we could see her declining, she was tired, she couldn't face eating or drinking, it aged her and this horrible kidney failure had taken over her. She deteriorated over the last few days rapidly due to lack of food, weakness and she was developing respiratory problems. The last vet to see her said she may be developing pneumonia and her heart rate was increasing.
On the 7th January (this weekend) we made the most difficult decision ever to let her go, we had no alternative and wanted to free her from the suffering. My family and I are devastated, our home is no longer the same and we all just miss her so much. I felt it important to share our story as our baby Daisy had only just turned 3 in October and if we can raise a little bit awareness of the symptoms
I have attached a photograph of our beautiful angel Daisy – with a big golden grin on her face x
My family and I lost our beautiful 3 year old golden called 'Daisy' at the weekend and we wanted to share our story to help others out there.
Daisy was born in 2008 and was the most wonderful, loving beautiful golden. We have never had a golden before, she was our first and she sure taught us why they are so well loved! Daisy was energetic, funny (her Dad was known as a clown and she picked up this trait), well behaved, loving and most of all she loved life.
She was always a good eater and loved her food, but recently she became picky. We knew that this was strange so took her to the vets. She had a blood test done as the vet suspected a pyometra...but this came back clear. After a week we still weren't happy with her lack of appetite so took her back again.
After running various blood tests we found out on 23rd December that our precious Daisy was in renal failure, most likely congenital. We were in absolute shock – no other signs except the slight loss of appetite. She was taken to the veterinary hospital and put on fluids in the hope of flushing her kidneys out. Unfortunately this made no difference and her bloods were still off the chart. She spent all of Christmas in the hospital and was so, so brave and stayed on the fluids for 5 days. One vet wanted to put her to sleep on Christmas Day, but a second vet intervened and said that she was willing to fight for Daisy as she was so well in herself. An anti-sickness drug was introduced into her drip to try and help her overcome the sickness and start eating again. After more bloods there was still no change in her numbers.
They let her come home on the 27th December to see how she coped off the fluids and in the hope that we would get her eating again at home. We were just so pleased to have her back with us, even if it was only for a short while. However, we tried every food possible to try and tempt her, she ate a little, but hardly enough. We took her back to the vet every 2 days for check ups and monitoring and she was on many different drugs - anti acid, anti sickness, antibiotics, she had an anabolic steroid and B12 injection, but nothing seemed to help her improve. We had more bloods done, but her numbers were still off the chart.
Daisy refused to give up and she fought so hard against this. Gradually though we could see her declining, she was tired, she couldn't face eating or drinking, it aged her and this horrible kidney failure had taken over her. She deteriorated over the last few days rapidly due to lack of food, weakness and she was developing respiratory problems. The last vet to see her said she may be developing pneumonia and her heart rate was increasing.
On the 7th January (this weekend) we made the most difficult decision ever to let her go, we had no alternative and wanted to free her from the suffering. My family and I are devastated, our home is no longer the same and we all just miss her so much. I felt it important to share our story as our baby Daisy had only just turned 3 in October and if we can raise a little bit awareness of the symptoms
I have attached a photograph of our beautiful angel Daisy – with a big golden grin on her face x