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Mitch
MaxBabe took Mitch to the vet on Friday morning. He'd been out of sorts for a couple days and was starting to cough. The vet gave him fluids and antibiotics, which seemed to help. They did an X-ray on Saturday and found something in his lungs. The vet felt it might've been pneumonia. She recommended we move Mitch to the local veterinary specialist, as the vets are not open on Sundays and therefore couldn't keep him overnight. So we took Mitch to the specialists Saturday afternoon. The specialist took a look at the X-rays and basically said it looked more like cancer than pneumonia. She recommended an ultrasound to see if there were any other abnormalities.
The ultrasonographer found a large growth on his spleen, and growths in his liver and lungs. The vet called and basically said that it was cancer. If it was a treatable cancer, the outlook would be 3-6 months. Otherwise, it would be much shorter.
We spent the night weighing up the options. We decided that we did not want him to go through a prolonged decline. If possible, we'd bring Mitch home so he could be in familiar surroundings. Then, in a couple days time, take him to the vet to be put to sleep.
With that in mind, we went to visit Mitch yesterday morning. Even after 2 days of round-the-clock care, it was clear he was struggling to breathe. There was no way we could bring him home. We decided that it would be best for him to put him to sleep straight away. I did not want for him to struggle to breathe any longer. The vet confirmed he would never get better, only worse, so that was that.
We spent about an hour with him, cuddling him and giving him lots of pats. When it was time, we called the vet in. My puppy died in my arms.
He was 12 years and 10 months old.
