Border Terrier Cara has Liver Cancer

by Sonja Firby
(Te Aroha, New Zealand)

Our darling Cara, a Border Terrier, is 7 years old.

It all started with me noticing that she was drinking a lot, then she started stealing food off the table and raiding the rubbish bin, then she started having accidents is the house. Cara had always been a house dog, so this was very unlike her.

Then her stomach started swelling ... All this happenened over a period of 6 weeks.

I took her to our vet 3 weeks ago, 9 Oct, and he checked her over - no temperature, nothing else untoward. He took some blood and the results came back with high liver enzymes. So, he gave her a course of strong antibotics. All the while Cara was still ravenously hungry - after a few days her drinking normalised though, so we thought she was on the mend.

Another blood test 10 days later revealed that the liver enzymes had gone up 10 fold. So I took her to have an Ultrasound on Thursday 27 Oct and she was found to have large liver tumors, inoperable.

The specialist said that she is not in any pain at the moment and that she is unlikely to experience any pain. However, if one of those tumors bleeds, it will end her life.

Cara is still eating, wagging her tail, spending time in the garden with her best friend and even picking up the odd stick or toy. She moves very slowly though. Her breathing is a bit more laboured, but then, her stomach is huge now.
So we are hoping that she will just slip away in her sleep and that we don't have to make the decision for her. However, if she starts refusing food or is jaundiced we may well have to.

I'm sitting here now with her by my side writing this, trying not to cry, as I don't want her to pick up on my pain.

I bred her myself - I held her in my hand first when she took her first breath and I want to hold her in my arms for her last.