I want to tell you all a story about our dearest golden retriever Cooper who just died 25 hours ago.
Sat. 15/06
We took him to swim. He couldn't be any happier.
Sun. 16/06
He started walking limped, constantly lifting his left front paw. We found a crack there that didn't seem to be too deep.
Mon. 17/06
We took him to the vet for a further checkup. The vet discovered a much deeper cut between his toes with a needle. She disinfected the wound, gave him some shots against inflammation and prescribed us antibiotics.
Tue. 18/06 His paw still seemed very swollen. So we called the vet again for an X ray.
Wed. 19/06
It turned out there's nothing abnormal inside of his paw. Everything seemed perfectly fine from the photo. My boyfriend took him home.
Thu. to Fri. 20-21/06
The situation of his paw severely changed - much less swollen and it healed pretty fast. In the afternoon, we took him to visit grandma, he was still as happy, healthy and active as usual. He's still on antibiotics and I cleaned his wound everyday with Betadine.
Sat. 22/06
I spent the whole day in the library preparing my exams. In the evening when my bf picked me up, Coop was sitting behind, looking a bit spiritless. My bf asked me:" Don't you think your dog looks like he's on drugs or something?" At the meantime, he started refusing to drink or eat. Even his favourite Frolic couldn't tempt him. He simply turned his head away when I tried to give it to him.
Sun. 23/06
We were worried. His face started looking weird. We couldnt tell how but it just didn't look normal to us. His pupils could not focus and I tried to throw a ball for him to catch from a very close distance but he failed, a couple of times. I started wondering whether he could still see well. His mouth and even whole face started to get swollen as well (which totally explained why he didn't wanna eat or drink the day before coz it simply hurt too much). We called the vet for an emergency check. She said it might be allergic reactions. But allergic to what? To the antibiotics that he's been taken all these days? Unlikely because the vet said she'd never had any experience with dogs being allergic to antibiotics. She couldnt give us any further explanation and sent us home with more medication to "release the tension of his stomach and bowels" and asked us not to worrying too much because there was no need to. He was still very reluctant to drink or eat. However, he paw seemd to be 90% healed.
Mon. 24/06
His mouth started foaming. Nothing got any better. Since the vet said, it might take a while - even a few days for medication to start working, we were still observing him. Since he didn't drink at all, I went to the pharmacy to get an injector, trying to at least get his mouth wet. When my bf came back from work, we forced him to drink some more through a tube. He seemed to be so unwilling to open his mouth though. In the evening, we mixed half package of his meat with one slice of bread. For the first time in these two days, he started eating and he had eaten it all! So we thought, huh, maybe things were going to change and he's gonna get better day by day.
Tue. 25/06
My bf went to work. Like usual, he crawled to our bed and slept a bit longer next to me - which led me to think that "okay, he's getting there. Medicines start working finally and he's back to his normal behavior and self again." But still no change in his face. His pulled his ears constantly backwards, his whole head seemed so tense - normally it you see his head from above, it looked like a ball in circular shape, now it was completely flat. I started noticing the appearance of the white part of his eyes. I just had the instinct that there was something wrong with my dog that should not be allergy.(!!) I called the university clinic straight away in the morning, describing all the detailed symptoms he had so far, starting from the day he got his paw cut. The doctor said, "from what you described, your vet's treatment is right. If you turn him in right now, we might not be able to give you any further information than what your vet has told you." She said she would discuss this with some specialists and call me back. After a couple of minutes, she called me back, saying it wouldn't make any sense to send him in right now since he's only 5 years old. If it's an old dog, it might be emergency." So again, we fully trusted what the doctors have said, but still making an appointment on thursday morning since we couldn't stop worrying about him. She asked me to send over some pictures of Cooper's head so she could decide which department we should go to for an consultation - either internal medicine or chirurgery. In the morning and evening I fed him twice with slices of bread and meat. He had eaten it all, and drank regularly. When we took him out for a walk later in the evening, he was just not able to climb down the stairs so my bf carried him all the way down. We felt how rigid and stiff his entire body was. Once he was downstairs, he started walking himself.
Wed. 26/06
Sometimes nothing can beat the instinct of a dog owner. It's just a matter of choosing to trust that instinct or to trust the doctors' words. My bf was already struggling early in the morning whether to go work or take the day off to watch over him closely. Yet since I was done with all my exams and would be home all day to take care of Cooper, he left ultimately. I got up at 8am, Coop struggled so much to get himself up and got spasms from time to time in his back legs. At 8:15, I got a call from my bf saying that our vet just phoned him, alerting us it might be Tetanus and suggesting turning him in immediately to a clinic she knows with specialists to deal with this. Right after the call while I was waiting for my bf to get back from work, Coop started breathing heavily and difficultly. It's the first time I had a feeling that I was gonna lose him... We rushed him in to the clinic in Astene. During the 10-minutes drive, he was drooling enormously and breathing with more difficulty. I was devastated coz I thought he would not make it to the hospital. Finally, we got him there and three doctors were dealing with him, trying to stabilize his breath and get his temperature down ( was 43 degrees at first ). We could only sit in the waiting area, hearing his hard breath and keeping on praying. After I-DONT-KNOW how long, it turned quieter. One of the vets came and led us to another room to talk. She started explaining what Tetanus and the moment she said that the bacteria and toxin had already spreaded to his muscle, nerve cells and the entire body, I burst into screaming and my whole body was trembling. We held each other in arms and cried like two babies. (Meanwhile, the University Clinic called me as well, telling us to ignore the appointment arranged on Thursday and get him in immediately coz they thought it might be Tetanus...)The vet waited for us to calm down and gave us two alternatives: euthanasia or intensive treatment with a survival chance of 20%, very high cost (since it requires heavy medication and nursery 24hrs) and an enormously long period of recovery with complicated sequela. Since they'd already stablized Coop's condition right now, they said we could consider about these two alternatives, while they put him to sleep and waited to take an X ray of his lung and respiratory tract. If they broke down, it would not make ANY MORE sense to make all the effort to rescue him. At around 2pm, we got a call from the vet, saying his lung and breathing system still looked fine from the photos. We felt a bit released and made a decision to get him intensive treatment. What other choices would there be for your own kid? We simply couldn't and wouldn't give up on him coz he's been such a perfectly healthy kid all these years... At half past four, my bf called to ask whether we could go send him his own bed, since we read on the internet that a comfy bedding would help and whether we could see him somehow. The vet refused, saying he's kept in darkness, any external stimulus could be fatal. So we just dropped in to give the vet his bed. She told us the first week would be essential, and if the situation did not get any worse, they were going to insert a tube into his stomach on Friday to give him some food. Our faith in him got even stronger, firmly believing that he would eventually pull through. Even though he might look a bit weird in his facial expression, or he might walk like a cripple, or we have to feed him water and food only while he stands up straight, we just don't care. As long as he's back home with us. Since there's no way we could reach him, the vet asked us to give the clinic a call every evening between 7-8pm to give us some updates of his situation.
Thu. 27/06
We got up early since we couldn't sleep anyway. There was nothing to do except looking at his pictures and videos all day long, wishing time to go a bit faster so we could call at 7pm to see how he's doing. I listed all the questions I had to ask the vet: how's his blood pressure? Heartbeat? Breathing? Whether they were ready to give him antitoxin?... At 12am, my bf's phone rang. I did not even need to know what they said on the phone, from the glimpse I caught from him, I knew it's time. We rushed to the clinic, he was lying down there with oxygen mask, going into a respiratory arrest. He was not able to make it, said the doctor and he's suffering so much, it's better to end it now. He looked at us with the most loving eyes and used his last bit of strength to wag his tail. We knew he was happy that we were there. Less than four minutes later, he passed away in our arms.
-----------------------------------------------------------
I'm not writing this to get any sympathy since that doesn't change anything and he will never come back. I'm just writing it to alert all the dog owners that YOUR DOG DO GET TETANUS. BECAUSE IT'S SO RARE IN DOGS, MANY VETS SIMPLY DO NOT CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY FOR IT TO HAPPEN. AND A CORRECT DIAGNOSIS WOULD COME TOO LATE WHEN THE DISEASE TURNS FATAL. If you discover any abnormality in his/her ears, mouth, facial expression and spasms, and NO ONE COULD TELL WHY EXACTLY, please think about Tetanus. A EARLY AWARENESS MIGHT SAVE YOUR DOG'S LIFE. We deeply know how unbearable it feels to lose your most beloved kid within 12 days while he still seemed completely healthy at the beginning phase. To be honest, I am not blaming anyone since it simply cannot change the fact that Cooper is gone, he will never come back to us and he is out of our lives forever. If I could turn back time, I do wish we would have trusted our instinct that it was not an allergy at all and sent him in to the emergency last Monday.
We just can't bear to see another family going through such tremendous grief due to a misdiagnosis or a too-late intervention from the vet. May all the pet owners never ever lose their kid in this horrible way.
14:16, 28 June 2013 in Zwijnaarde, Belgium.[/LEFT][/LEFT]
Sat. 15/06
We took him to swim. He couldn't be any happier.
Sun. 16/06
He started walking limped, constantly lifting his left front paw. We found a crack there that didn't seem to be too deep.
Mon. 17/06
We took him to the vet for a further checkup. The vet discovered a much deeper cut between his toes with a needle. She disinfected the wound, gave him some shots against inflammation and prescribed us antibiotics.
Tue. 18/06 His paw still seemed very swollen. So we called the vet again for an X ray.
Wed. 19/06
It turned out there's nothing abnormal inside of his paw. Everything seemed perfectly fine from the photo. My boyfriend took him home.
Thu. to Fri. 20-21/06
The situation of his paw severely changed - much less swollen and it healed pretty fast. In the afternoon, we took him to visit grandma, he was still as happy, healthy and active as usual. He's still on antibiotics and I cleaned his wound everyday with Betadine.
Sat. 22/06
I spent the whole day in the library preparing my exams. In the evening when my bf picked me up, Coop was sitting behind, looking a bit spiritless. My bf asked me:" Don't you think your dog looks like he's on drugs or something?" At the meantime, he started refusing to drink or eat. Even his favourite Frolic couldn't tempt him. He simply turned his head away when I tried to give it to him.
Sun. 23/06
We were worried. His face started looking weird. We couldnt tell how but it just didn't look normal to us. His pupils could not focus and I tried to throw a ball for him to catch from a very close distance but he failed, a couple of times. I started wondering whether he could still see well. His mouth and even whole face started to get swollen as well (which totally explained why he didn't wanna eat or drink the day before coz it simply hurt too much). We called the vet for an emergency check. She said it might be allergic reactions. But allergic to what? To the antibiotics that he's been taken all these days? Unlikely because the vet said she'd never had any experience with dogs being allergic to antibiotics. She couldnt give us any further explanation and sent us home with more medication to "release the tension of his stomach and bowels" and asked us not to worrying too much because there was no need to. He was still very reluctant to drink or eat. However, he paw seemd to be 90% healed.
Mon. 24/06
His mouth started foaming. Nothing got any better. Since the vet said, it might take a while - even a few days for medication to start working, we were still observing him. Since he didn't drink at all, I went to the pharmacy to get an injector, trying to at least get his mouth wet. When my bf came back from work, we forced him to drink some more through a tube. He seemed to be so unwilling to open his mouth though. In the evening, we mixed half package of his meat with one slice of bread. For the first time in these two days, he started eating and he had eaten it all! So we thought, huh, maybe things were going to change and he's gonna get better day by day.
Tue. 25/06
My bf went to work. Like usual, he crawled to our bed and slept a bit longer next to me - which led me to think that "okay, he's getting there. Medicines start working finally and he's back to his normal behavior and self again." But still no change in his face. His pulled his ears constantly backwards, his whole head seemed so tense - normally it you see his head from above, it looked like a ball in circular shape, now it was completely flat. I started noticing the appearance of the white part of his eyes. I just had the instinct that there was something wrong with my dog that should not be allergy.(!!) I called the university clinic straight away in the morning, describing all the detailed symptoms he had so far, starting from the day he got his paw cut. The doctor said, "from what you described, your vet's treatment is right. If you turn him in right now, we might not be able to give you any further information than what your vet has told you." She said she would discuss this with some specialists and call me back. After a couple of minutes, she called me back, saying it wouldn't make any sense to send him in right now since he's only 5 years old. If it's an old dog, it might be emergency." So again, we fully trusted what the doctors have said, but still making an appointment on thursday morning since we couldn't stop worrying about him. She asked me to send over some pictures of Cooper's head so she could decide which department we should go to for an consultation - either internal medicine or chirurgery. In the morning and evening I fed him twice with slices of bread and meat. He had eaten it all, and drank regularly. When we took him out for a walk later in the evening, he was just not able to climb down the stairs so my bf carried him all the way down. We felt how rigid and stiff his entire body was. Once he was downstairs, he started walking himself.
Wed. 26/06
Sometimes nothing can beat the instinct of a dog owner. It's just a matter of choosing to trust that instinct or to trust the doctors' words. My bf was already struggling early in the morning whether to go work or take the day off to watch over him closely. Yet since I was done with all my exams and would be home all day to take care of Cooper, he left ultimately. I got up at 8am, Coop struggled so much to get himself up and got spasms from time to time in his back legs. At 8:15, I got a call from my bf saying that our vet just phoned him, alerting us it might be Tetanus and suggesting turning him in immediately to a clinic she knows with specialists to deal with this. Right after the call while I was waiting for my bf to get back from work, Coop started breathing heavily and difficultly. It's the first time I had a feeling that I was gonna lose him... We rushed him in to the clinic in Astene. During the 10-minutes drive, he was drooling enormously and breathing with more difficulty. I was devastated coz I thought he would not make it to the hospital. Finally, we got him there and three doctors were dealing with him, trying to stabilize his breath and get his temperature down ( was 43 degrees at first ). We could only sit in the waiting area, hearing his hard breath and keeping on praying. After I-DONT-KNOW how long, it turned quieter. One of the vets came and led us to another room to talk. She started explaining what Tetanus and the moment she said that the bacteria and toxin had already spreaded to his muscle, nerve cells and the entire body, I burst into screaming and my whole body was trembling. We held each other in arms and cried like two babies. (Meanwhile, the University Clinic called me as well, telling us to ignore the appointment arranged on Thursday and get him in immediately coz they thought it might be Tetanus...)The vet waited for us to calm down and gave us two alternatives: euthanasia or intensive treatment with a survival chance of 20%, very high cost (since it requires heavy medication and nursery 24hrs) and an enormously long period of recovery with complicated sequela. Since they'd already stablized Coop's condition right now, they said we could consider about these two alternatives, while they put him to sleep and waited to take an X ray of his lung and respiratory tract. If they broke down, it would not make ANY MORE sense to make all the effort to rescue him. At around 2pm, we got a call from the vet, saying his lung and breathing system still looked fine from the photos. We felt a bit released and made a decision to get him intensive treatment. What other choices would there be for your own kid? We simply couldn't and wouldn't give up on him coz he's been such a perfectly healthy kid all these years... At half past four, my bf called to ask whether we could go send him his own bed, since we read on the internet that a comfy bedding would help and whether we could see him somehow. The vet refused, saying he's kept in darkness, any external stimulus could be fatal. So we just dropped in to give the vet his bed. She told us the first week would be essential, and if the situation did not get any worse, they were going to insert a tube into his stomach on Friday to give him some food. Our faith in him got even stronger, firmly believing that he would eventually pull through. Even though he might look a bit weird in his facial expression, or he might walk like a cripple, or we have to feed him water and food only while he stands up straight, we just don't care. As long as he's back home with us. Since there's no way we could reach him, the vet asked us to give the clinic a call every evening between 7-8pm to give us some updates of his situation.
Thu. 27/06
We got up early since we couldn't sleep anyway. There was nothing to do except looking at his pictures and videos all day long, wishing time to go a bit faster so we could call at 7pm to see how he's doing. I listed all the questions I had to ask the vet: how's his blood pressure? Heartbeat? Breathing? Whether they were ready to give him antitoxin?... At 12am, my bf's phone rang. I did not even need to know what they said on the phone, from the glimpse I caught from him, I knew it's time. We rushed to the clinic, he was lying down there with oxygen mask, going into a respiratory arrest. He was not able to make it, said the doctor and he's suffering so much, it's better to end it now. He looked at us with the most loving eyes and used his last bit of strength to wag his tail. We knew he was happy that we were there. Less than four minutes later, he passed away in our arms.
-----------------------------------------------------------
I'm not writing this to get any sympathy since that doesn't change anything and he will never come back. I'm just writing it to alert all the dog owners that YOUR DOG DO GET TETANUS. BECAUSE IT'S SO RARE IN DOGS, MANY VETS SIMPLY DO NOT CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY FOR IT TO HAPPEN. AND A CORRECT DIAGNOSIS WOULD COME TOO LATE WHEN THE DISEASE TURNS FATAL. If you discover any abnormality in his/her ears, mouth, facial expression and spasms, and NO ONE COULD TELL WHY EXACTLY, please think about Tetanus. A EARLY AWARENESS MIGHT SAVE YOUR DOG'S LIFE. We deeply know how unbearable it feels to lose your most beloved kid within 12 days while he still seemed completely healthy at the beginning phase. To be honest, I am not blaming anyone since it simply cannot change the fact that Cooper is gone, he will never come back to us and he is out of our lives forever. If I could turn back time, I do wish we would have trusted our instinct that it was not an allergy at all and sent him in to the emergency last Monday.
We just can't bear to see another family going through such tremendous grief due to a misdiagnosis or a too-late intervention from the vet. May all the pet owners never ever lose their kid in this horrible way.
14:16, 28 June 2013 in Zwijnaarde, Belgium.[/LEFT][/LEFT]
