In memory of my dog
I'm not overly fond of dogs - I'm more of a cat person. But when a dog has been a part of your family for 11 years, you'd have to be heartless to not get attached.
We had to put down our dachshund, Sugar, yesterday afternoon due to kidney and liver failure. What's weird is that it all started with a swollen eye. I'll get into the sad details first...
A little over a week ago I noticed that Sugar's right eye was a little red and swollen, but it wasn't too bad. I showed my parents and they said that if it didn't go away or if it got worse by the next day they'd take her to the vet. Fast forward to a day or two and the whole right side of her face got swollen, she was shaking all over and she looked really tired and just plain horrible in general. And that eye... let's just say that if she happened to be a pug, it probably would have popped out.
She lost tons of weight (since she had Cushing's Disease, her stomach bloated up but you could easily feel her ribs and spine by this point). Since it was Sunday, no regular vet was open so we called an e-vet. They suggested giving her a Benadryl to calm down the swelling, so we did, and it helped a bit. We took her to the vet the next day of course, and they thought that it could have been an infected tooth that made her face poof up. Either that or it could be cancer, they said, but they wanted to rule out the infected tooth first, since they didn't think that cancer was too likely. So they gave her some antibiotics and told us to take her back to get another injection the next day. She was scheduled to be put under the following weekend to see about said possible infected tooth since she was in too much pain as it was to risk doing so while she was awake.
Fast forward to Friday and she's bleeding from her mouth, but the swelling was down quite a bit. My dad guessed that it was the infection draining out, but her breathing was shallow and it looked like she could die at any minute, so my parents took her back to the vet (I couldn't be there at the time). They ended up having to put her to sleep because it was discovered, as I mentioned earlier, that her liver and kidneys were failing.
So now I'm wondering how a swollen face could connect to liver and kidney failure. Ever since it swelled up, she stopped eating her food (she was all for cat food and beef though, as always), and she drank water but she didn't pee. Could it have been something she got into? Poisoning? Or maybe it really was cancer... I know it's pointless to speculate if all of this could have been prevented since it's obviously too late, but I can't help but wonder. If anyone has any educated guesses, please let me know.
And now for the good memories.
What was funny about Sugar was that she would steal my socks to keep me from having to go to school. In those days I went to a school where uniforms and socks were required, and I hated the socks more than the uniforms. Sugar apparently picked up on this because she would steal them and hide underneath the bed or table.
She would also steal my friend's clothes whenever we went swimming. She just took them and carried them off into the woods. You always knew Sugar was up to something when you saw a white sock or shirt floating among the bushes.
Even though she was just a small weiner dog, Sugar would herd our neighbor's goat that often escaped from its enclosure. She'd bark, run around the goat's heals, and continue doing so until she got it back in the pasture with the horses where it belonged. It was hilarious to watch.
Unfortunately, as she aged she started to become quite annoying (just like any grandma). She was diagnosed with Cushing's Disease when she was around nine years old, and because of this she'd eat anything she could get her mouth on, including shed hair from our larger dog, Kingston. She'd sneak in and steal his food, the cats' food, and pretty much everyone else's besides her own. She'd lick everything, as well, which made me increasingly frustrated because she'd leave wet spots all over the carpet.
She was very loved, despite all of that. She had her ups and downs, her funny moments and her annoying points. She had a good life. We're even thinking about getting a little headstone for her.
Rest in peace, sweetie. You will be missed. <3
