tiger_spot: (tired)
tiger_spot ([personal profile] tiger_spot) wrote2009-11-04 11:11 pm
Entry tags:

Goodbye, Good Girls

This morning we put Hera and Aphrodite to sleep.

This was rather sudden, yes.



The day after I took Hera to the vet about the lump, I noticed two more, very small, lumps on her other side. They were all growing very quickly. By this morning she'd lost the use of her rear legs and her breathing was rapidly worsening. She didn't seem to be distressed yet, except at the very worst few seconds of breathing here and there, but neither was she having a lot of fun. We probably would have held off a few more days if it hadn't been for Aphrodite; they've been very close recently and I don't think there'd have been much positive left in Hera's life without her.

This weekend Aphrodite fell apart. She started bleeding from her genital area. She smelled terrible. She hid in a box and didn't want to come out (this, actually, had been going on a bit longer, and we feel terrible that we didn't notice anything was wrong sooner, because there were definitely behavioral signs). She also, as we found out when we got her to the vet, had a lump in her throat and a horribly swollen tongue, which was interfering with her drinking so she was dehydrated. The blood was in her urine; she also had a raging vaginal infection which started leaking pus.

So she got some injected fluids, along with antibiotics and a massive dosage of anti-inflammatory to try to bring the swelling in her tongue down to the point where she could eat and drink.

This did not work. She did stop bleeding, but her tongue only got worse; by Tuesday it was protruding from her mouth. Shortly after her nightly dose of anti-inflammatory and so forth, she either bit it or cut it on the water bottle and bled quite a lot. That didn't help the swelling any either (I had kind of been hoping it was an abscess and the cut would drain it).

So she didn't need to go through any more of that.

[identity profile] ljgeoff.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 07:39 am (UTC)(link)
*hugs* It's hard to see an animal in pain -- the worse part of being a pet owner. I had a couple of rats, back in the 80's, and they also developed very quick-worsening tumors. What fun little guys they were, though! If I didn't have cats, I'd have rats again.

[identity profile] tiger-spot.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 06:31 pm (UTC)(link)
They are so sweet. But damn, the cancers.

[identity profile] eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 07:55 am (UTC)(link)
*hugs* i'm sorry. losing a pet is hard.

sorry you are going through this.

[identity profile] tiger-spot.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you. The hard part is really the beforehand.

[identity profile] green-knight.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 10:45 am (UTC)(link)
Sorry to hear about your loss. It's never easy to lose a companion.

[identity profile] tiger-spot.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you.

[identity profile] mrissa.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 12:26 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm sorry for your loss.

[identity profile] tiger-spot.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you.

[identity profile] tiger-spot.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks.
ext_12542: My default bat icon (Default)

[identity profile] batwrangler.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 01:46 pm (UTC)(link)
How horrible for all of you. I'm so sorry.

[identity profile] tiger-spot.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 06:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you.
ext_28663: (Default)

[identity profile] bcholmes.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 02:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, I'm so sorry.

[identity profile] tiger-spot.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you.

[identity profile] cobalt-00.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 02:19 pm (UTC)(link)
:( I'm so sorry.

[identity profile] tiger-spot.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 07:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you.
aedifica: Photo of purple yarrow flowers. (Achillea millefolium)

[personal profile] aedifica 2009-11-05 03:16 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm sorry for your loss.

[identity profile] tiger-spot.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 10:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you.

[identity profile] kalmn.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 03:54 pm (UTC)(link)
that sounds like the right very hard thing to do.

*hug*

[identity profile] tiger-spot.livejournal.com 2009-11-07 07:40 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks.

[identity profile] tiger-spot.livejournal.com 2009-11-07 07:42 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you.

[identity profile] eyeteeth.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Why must they come up with these creative ways to become ill? I guess it's because in the wild they would have been eaten by a fox long before getting old. Strange to think that it's because we have given them the best lives we can that we are doomed to watch them fail like this.

Your girls were little bundles of affection who didn't fear pain or death. They had a great time while they were here.

I'm very sorry for your loss.

[identity profile] tiger-spot.livejournal.com 2009-11-07 07:44 am (UTC)(link)
Why must they come up with these creative ways to become ill?

Heh.

Thank you.

[identity profile] epi-lj.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm really sorry for your loss. :(

[identity profile] tiger-spot.livejournal.com 2009-11-07 07:44 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you.

[identity profile] phoenixpdx.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)
oh, I'm so sorry. No matter how much we know, intellectually, that we will live longer than they will, it is still the hardest thing I have to do as a pet owner, to make the choice to put them down because their life has become unbearable for them.

In so many ways, I wish there could be someone to do that for me when the time comes...

Hugs to you and the household.

[identity profile] tiger-spot.livejournal.com 2009-11-07 07:48 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you.

[identity profile] spectatrix.livejournal.com 2009-11-05 09:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm so sorry. So hard to lose two at once! *hugs*

[identity profile] tiger-spot.livejournal.com 2009-11-07 07:49 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you.