Cancer & Companion Animals: No More Homeless Pets

I lost my beloved Greyhound 1 year ago on September 24, 2005. I had him for 8-1/2 years. I loved him with all my heart. He had seizures almost from the time I got him we tested for everything but they found nothing. They wanted to put him on seizure meds but I learned to control them without any just love and holding him until they subsided and they became less until they stopped.

Then in May of last year I noticed a swelling in his neck, he was diagnosed with lympho sarcoma and given a few weeks. I put him on natural dog foods and suplements and spent as much time loving him as possible knowing it would not be much longer. Although he was playing and not in any pain. Then on September 24th he had a stroke and I knew it was time. I had planned for it to be done at home but the doctor was out of town and as it was evening I took him to Animal 911, they were very kind. I would not let them take him away for the IV and they said they would do it in the room, So the doctor inserted the IV and told me he would probably jerk and move, but no he passed over the Rainbow Bridge the same way he lived with the utmost dignity.

I lost my Best Friend that day and my Loving companion. I still miss him terribly and hope I will see him in the afterlife as I now have Heart Disease and will be meeting with him again soon.

I lost Sunny in 2003. He was 6 and went to the vet each year for his routines and shots. We had just moved and Sunny was going to be seen by someone new. My husband took him in - we had just noticed the night before Sunny was peeping his mouth open to breath every so often. I didn't think that much of it as Sunny was a big boy and ran and ran in the house and thought he was out of shape. To make a long story short. Sunnay (cat) was diagnosed with a thymoma in his chest. We lost him in less than a week and spent over 2g in that time trying to save him. Because it was at xmas time it was impossible to find any specialists to evaluate him and ulimately save him. We even went out of state. The animal hospital out of state was willing to keep Sunny for a hundred dollars a day until they could find someone to look at him. All they would be able to do is monitor him and give Sunny his meds. I could do that which is what I did until my husband and I had to put Sunny to sleep - he was deteriorating quickly and there was still no help to be found. We had been told that if the day he was diagnosed we could have found a specialist things might have been different but help was no where for us during the xmas holiday and Sunny died on xmas eve day.

January 10, 2005 I lost my beloved yellow Labrador, Indy, to lung cancer.

In August of 2004, he began coughing. Our vet of 20 years had retired and we were in the midst of finding a replacement -- not an easy task. We took Indy to three vets. All confirmed an allergy to "something" even though he was 11-years-old and never had allergies before.

We took Indy to a fourth vet and this man actually listened to his lungs for a very long time. He asked us to leave him there for chest x-rays and that is when we knew something was terribly wrong. The x-rays confirmed an extremely advanced lung cancer -- his lungs were filled with tumors. The vet advised that we put him down as he felt it was too far advanced for treatment options. We agreed about the treatment option part but decided that as long as Indy appeared to be relatively pain-free and enjoying life then we would make his every day the best one yet.

I began to research on the web human cancers and those vitamins that could help. We immediately put him on human doses of vitamins E, C, L-Lysine, Flax Oil, etc. He was already on a raw-food diet that we made ourselvers (also after much research), and we put him on bottled water.

The vet had diagnosed that Indy had six-weeks, at best. Through proper nutrution, love and nurturing Indy lived much longer.

Indy was always sensitive to medications. (He had violent reactions to Rimadyl for hip pain.) So, we opted to treat his pain with aspirin -- telling ourselves that when this no longer worked, then it was time.

Indy was happy until the very last night. During our walk that evening he remained by my side instead of venturing off to explore as was his habit. He kept looking up into my eyes. He was telling me that it was tiime.

That night I slept on the sofa with him. I really didn't sleep much because he was in pain and the aspirin needed to be administered every two hours.

We had been consulting through these months with another vet who specialized in cancer treatments. One phone call the following morning and we found ourselve driving to the vet to do the right thing. Even when you know it's coming you are never prepared.

We have had our share of dogs humanely euthanized and I can honestly say that this was the sweetest and dearest goodbye ever. It was handled in the most professioal yet kindly manner. This vet had a private entrance for people whos pets were about to cross over the rainbow bridge

We entered a lovely room with a beautiful, thick quilt spread out on the floor. The vet entered and he sat on the floor with us and we just chatted about unimportant things -- all of us petting Indy all the while. Indy was totally at ease and we all just continued to pet him and talk to him. It was just another day with his people.

Then the vet asked if we were ready. Of course, we were not but said we were. Without getting up, he pulled the necessary items out from behind him and within minutes Indy went to sleep in our arms. He always loved to hear, "You are such a goooood boy." That was the last thing he heard.

I can honestly say that we wouldn't have had it any other way.