This is the story of our last days with our amazing dog Bazooka. I am writing this therapeutically. This is part one, the hard post to write. I will follow it up with a second post of the life of our boy.
On Thursday morning when I came home from work, I noticed that Bazooka seemed to be breathing particularly hard. I went over to him and cuddled with him on the floor for a minute before going upstairs to bed (I work nights). I honestly did not think much of it, he did not seem to be in any distress.
Jason got Claudia ready for school that morning, so he took the dogs outside and fed them before putting them into their crates so that they did not wake me up. When I woke up and got myself some coffee and lunch before getting Claudia off the bus. It was a while before i realized that the dogs were still in their crates, usually Bazooka would whine to be let out when he heard me up. I let them out and got Claudia off the bus. Then I really noticed that Bazooka was using his abdominal muscles while he was breathing and his chest was not moving much. I became very worried and Called Jason. That was when I found out that he did not want to eat his breakfast that morning, which is not like him at all! I called the vet and told them I was on my way. Once we got to the vet we were seen quite quickly and Bazooka was taken back for xrays. It was not good. There was something large pushing his lungs back so that they could not expand, most likely a tumor. The vet gave us a few other possibilities such as a pulmonary embolism or torn lung, but those were highly unlikely since the problem was seen with both lungs equally. We decided to try Lasix, a diuretic to see if there was possibly excess fluid causing the problem, antibiotics as there were some infiltrates seen in his lungs (they looked pretty junky, since he could not expand them all the way, he could not clear them of pathogens), and a bronchodilator to help him breathe easier. I brought him home to see what would happen. I was cautiously hopeful that he would show some improvement, but Jason and i had already decided that if there was no improvement, we would likely have to put him to sleep the next day. As it was, that night he was having trouble breathing while laying down so he sat up most of the time. It broke my heart to see him struggling so badly and I was starting to regret ever bringing him back home. To make matters worse, I had to go into work that night. Of course i worried about him all night, like any good mom would.
When I got home on the morning of December 20th I did not get good news. Bazooka did not want to go up/down stairs as his hind legs were weak, likely his whole body was weak from using the accessory muscles to breathe, he was probably sore and tired. We planned on calling the vet to schedule THE appointment later that day. I got him to take his pills in some cheese. I got ready for bed and Jason took care of the dogs. Before Jason went to work he brought Bazooka upstairs to sleep with me. I was able to get some sleep as Bazooka was able to get comfortable enough to lay down. When I woke up, he was happy enough just laying in bed while I got dressed. I picked him up from the bed and carried him downstairs. The carrying him brought on a coughing fit. Once we got down stairs I put him down and he was a bit wobbly on his back legs for a few steps. He went into the dining room and sat down. I had to get Claudia off the bus but once she was in the house I spent as much time with Bazooka as I could, making him as comfortable as I could until Jason got home.
Bazooka was super happy to see Claudia, he gave her lots of kisses and he even ate a pigs ear for us, this was the first thing he had eaten besides a little bit of cheese in a couple days. He munched away at his pig ear for a while and when he was done his tongue and gums had a blue hue to them, it took so much out of him just to chew on that pigs ear. I really think he ate it to make us feel better. His paws were cold and his breathing was not good, I covered him with a blanket and he wagged his tail at me. Bazooka laid there in that spot, recovering for a while but happily got up to see my in laws when they came over. He got up and marched in to see them wagging his tail and giving Claudia kisses as he walked by. My boy was quite the charmer, he really wanted to make those around him happy. Jason came home shortly afterwards and Bazooka greeted him happily. My in laws took Claudia so that we could go to the vet.
Bazooka walked out to the car and jumped right in. He also found some crackers that smelled quite good. I happily obliged him and fed him my crackers :) It was nice to see him eagerly eating but hard to see it at the same time. He was perking up from how he was just an hour before, but I knew we had to do the right thing. I was glad he felt good, but I also knew it was only temporary. Any amount of physical exertion exhausted him.
Bazooka walked right into the vets office and was very curious about a cat there. He was so well behaved at the office, like always. The staff were very compassionate, respectful and understanding. We were allowed to pay the bill before hand so that we could sneak out a back door when the procedure was over.
I requested that the vet sedate Bazooka before putting him to sleep, I wanted him as comfortable as possible. We got to stay with him, talk to him and pet him as he fell asleep. Once he was sleeping comfortably the vet came back in and gave him the euthanasia medication and waited there with us until his heart stopped beating. We were then left alone to say goodbye to our amazing friend. It was a very VERY emotional time but I was glad that Jason and I could both be there with him.
Bazooka, you were the best dog we could have asked for. Thank you for being such a loyal companion, we miss you already, but you will be forever in our hearts. Thank you for being an ambassador for your breed.
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| Our Bazooka, aka Zook, taken December 19th, 2013 |
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