Tonight we made one the most difficult decisions ever.

Dixie’s quality of life has gotten bad over past couple of weeks. Even with exploratory surgery and possible treatment, she would never be the same and probably always be in pain. Something we don’t wana put her through anymore.

We made the final decision to have her put to sleep this evening. Whe she was brought in she was a little perky which made it even harder to do.

Dixie still had her IV tube in, so just after 7pm tonight she was given an overdose of an anesthetic. In what seemed like seconds it calmed her down, put her to sleep, and stopped her heart.

It killed us to see it, but it’s the best for her. She was the best dog I’ll ever know. Anyone who met her instanly feel in love with her. She was 13 years old, but had the playful heart of a puppy. That’s what made her so special.

Goodbye, Dixie. We love you. We’ll miss you.

-Shaun, Donna, Dawn and all your extended family.

We brought Dixie into the vet this morning to have her latest symptoms looked at. The Vet decided to do a barium treatment on her where she eats some paste like stuff, and they xray her to see how it travels through her.

Well, they said the barium treatment is abnormal — that Dixie’s stomach isn’t filling and emptying the way it’s supposed to because her stomach is rotated. It could be caused by an obstruction or by a tumor that is pulling the stomach around, or it could just be normal for her. These are the options:

1) wait until all barium is gone and stick a camera down her throat - will have to wait until tomorrow and not a good chance of finding anything

2) send off her x-rays to a radiologist, won’t have results until tomorrow

3) exploratory surgery - may find an obstruction, may find a tumor, may not find anything; will take biopsies of all organs while they’re in there; surgery should not be a problem for her, but she will have pain afterwards which we would have to monitor plus treating whatever they find

4) give injections today and tomorrow and send her home, which is what they did on Saturday

5) put her to sleep today

The doctor said with the amount of pain Dixie’s in right now, it’s best for her to to either the surgery today or put her to sleep today and not wait until tomorrow for anything.

We really don’t wanna put her through more of this so option 5 is looking like the way we will go. Donna is waiting to her back from her sister to she what she wants to do, but I think she’s gonna agree on the option to put her sleep tonight.

Sucks that she’s been through so much so fast.

Dixie’s health is still declining. She hasn’t eaten a meal since Thursday (which she threw up), and the little bit she does drink comes back up most of the time.

We took her to the Vet yesterday where they ran test after test on her, yet they still couldn’t determine a cause for her being sick. The doctor did say her liver looked smaller than usual and that if she hasn’t improved by mid-week, to come in for an ultra-sound or even surgery for a biopsy on her liver.

We’re just now sure if we want to do that, especially if there’s no guarantee it’ll find something since nothing else has yet to find something. We don’t wanna have to put Dixie through even more tests or even surgery. She has no energy and is thinner than I’ve ever seen her. All of this is also starting to take it’s toll on us.

So we’ve considered the option pet’s owners probably want to avoid, putting her to sleep. With her not eating and drinking, we’re not sure how long she’s gonna last. Donna and her sister Dawn (Dixie’s orignal owner) decided if Dixie hasn’t improved any tomorrow, then tomorrow night or Tuesday they’ll take her to the Vet and have her put to sleep.

Something we don’t wanna do, but right now it looks like it may be the best for her. :(

She just can’t get a break. On Monday she started vomiting throughout the day. We took her off her medicine for the UTI as suggested by the doctor but she continued to vomit for another day. Now, she won’t eat at all and just lays there. No energy at all. We tried dry food, soft food, bread, turkey, crackers, trail mix, and now rice, but she may only take a nibble and then turn away. Her jaw sounds like it’s popping now too, so weather or not that’s a factor we don’t know.

Called the VET and now just waiting for the doctor to get in to call us back and let us know what we should probably do at this point.

:(

Dixie laying the kitchen looking all funky. She’s slowly looking like she is getting sick again. So tomorrow she makes another trip to the Vet to follow up on the UTI she had last month.

More news from the vet. The orthopedic surgeon looked at
Dixie’s x-rays and said there’s really nothing they can do, and that
even popping her joint tomorrow would be a waste of time. They said
since she’s still able to walk to just keep giving her the pain
medication and that’s that. The way the bones have formed around it,
it’s apparently been that way for a loooooong time and the cartilege
has formed a faux bone to hold everything in place, which is what the
surgeon would have done anyway.

They also said the leg shaking would probably be happening even
without the hip problem. It’s just a sign of old age. The vet has
seen hundreds of dogs with the same problem and that’s all it is.
So, not good news, but at least we know we’re doing everything that
can be done for her.