* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Diagnosis
Navi the dog is an 8 year old basset hound. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee and moved to the rocky mountains of Colorado when she was 5. She enjoys napping, sunbathing, walks, treats, food, snacks, lunch, dinner, and nature hikes. Everything was going great until August of 2012 when her parents went out of town for a week and came home to some bad news.
Navi was staying with some friends, who said she was whining a lot towards the end of her stay. We didn’t think much of it since she is very vocal, and always singing to us. I picked her up when I got back in town, and yes she was very vocal but it didn’t seem anything out of the ordinary. That night I went out with some friends for an hour or so, and when I returned home she did not run to the door to greet me. The house was silent and I looked all over until I found her lying on the bathroom floor. She was moaning and was unable to get up. In my panic I was able to muster the heroic strength to lift her 50 lbs from the ground (I’m 5’2 and weak). I carried her out to the car and drove about 100 miles an hour to the best emergency vet in Denver (Wheat Ridge Animal Hospital). They helped me carry her out of the car and rushed her straight to the back.
As you can imagine, this was a terrifying moment for me, but I had no idea what to expect. I was realistically thinking she got into some trash and ate a chicken bone, or some chocolate. The doctors needed to run some tests, and it was clear that her pain was coming from the abdomen area. They did an ultrasound and saw that there was a lot of fluid in her abdomen, which led them to take a sample, which determined that the fluid was blood - internal bleeding. I don’t remember what tests they did after this because that was the moment where I went into full panic mode, especially since my boyfriend (Navi’s Dad) was still out of town, not due back for another two days.
Somehow, they determined that her spleen needed to be removed because it was harvesting a bleeding tumor. She needed two blood transfusions, two nights stay in the hospital, the surgery, etc, etc. The estimate was $4000 - $7000 depending on how everything went. I remember the doctor telling me that Navi might not survive the surgery, and even if she did she might not recover, or if she had cancer, it could spread within months. She advised me to put Navi down because she was in a lot of pain.
I decided that I needed to go back and see her one last time before I decided what to do. I was at this point in shock since she was running around just the week before, and convinved that I was about to lose my dog-ter. The last thing I would want is for her to suffer, but I knew that I would be able to make a decision after seeing her. When I went to the back Navi was in a cage. As soon as I walked in she got up and scratched at the door. When they opened it she ran to me and was howling and wagging her tail. I could tell she was in pain, but I knew that she was not ready to die.
I decided to take out a loan through Care Credit and go ahead with the whole procedure.