Daisy Mae's Empty Collar

by JJ
(Colorado)

I had noticed a little muscle twitch and some excessive tiredness and took Daisy Mae, our 9 year old Cocker Spaniel, to the vet. She got a clean bill of health other than some early stage mammary tumors so we scheduled her for surgery to get spayed and remove the tumors at the same time.

After going home, she seemed normal again so we thought her actions one morning a few weeks later, three days before her surgery, were strange. She seemed to have trouble coming up the stairs because her legs were locking instead of bending and she was running into the wall. I worried that maybe she was starting to get arthritis. She seemed to trip going down the stairs going out to the backyard, too. She slept most of the day and by the afternoon she was lethargic and barely moving so we were keeping a close eye on her, thinking maybe she ate a plant in the yard or something. A couple hours later she vomited and then had an accident on the floor. When she tried to walk, she would run into furniture, then flop back down as if her legs couldn't hold her up. She didn't seem to recognize or respond to us.

We took her to the Emergency Vet Clinic and the vet confirmed that she was blind and that she seemed to have fluid in her belly. An ultrasound showed that her entire abdominal cavity was filled with fluid. Her liver was covered nearly completely by cancer tissue and the vet suspected it had gone to her brain and lungs. The vet said the fluid had likely been building up for the last year and that often dogs don't exhibit symptoms until it's too late or very close to the end. It's just how they are, he said. The vet let us know that Daisy didn't have long (minutes, maybe hours if we were lucky.) Sadly, we held her for another thirty minutes and said goodbye through our tears.

We went in there expecting that she'd gotten into something and had an upset tummy and walked out with an empty collar. It was devastating to my 17 yr old son (who had raised her from a puppy). We couldn't believe in less than one day our lives would change so much. It happened in a blink and she was gone. We couldn't have asked for a better dog and we're thankful for every moment and memory we had with her. One day, we'll see her again at the Rainbow Bridge (If you haven't read the poem, google it - it's wonderful.)