I could no sooner "home euthanize" one of my ferrets, than I could
"home euthanize" my parents, husband, or children. Wherever I may
have to go, they ALL will go w/ me, no matter what - age, health,
"inconvenience", anything. It's the promise I made them when we adopted
them & became their Forever Family. (BTW, my kids are adopted, too.
Nobody wanted them anymore, either. I traveled half way around the
planet, to Kazakhstan, to bring them home. It's all the same in my
eyes.)

My Mother's Day was horrible. At 10:00 at night, I had to hold my
little Mason as she struggled & died in my arms. About a month-ish
ago, she started breathing rapidly, & very shallow. Xrays showed what
appeared to be fluid in her lungs, & a heart murmur that was never
heard before was present. We started her on lasix & digoxin. She
waxed & waned, but never got completely better, always going back to
the rapid, shallow breathing. The necropsy our vet did at 10:30 on a
Sunday night showed that we were all wrong - she died of lung cancer.
Every organ in her abdomen, except her spleen, was affected. The cancer
finally ate through her portal vein, & she bled to death internally, as
I held her & my husband was on the phone w/ our vet.

When we got home from the vet's, as he was doing the necropsy, our
daughter told us that Ivan had been in & out of the litterboxes several
times while we were gone, wasn't peeing, & was starting to whine. My
husband put Ivan in a carrier & went right back to the vet's office
("he's there, & he doesn't have any other patients waiting to see him,
after all..."). We'd treated Ivan for a urinary tract infection a
little while ago, & we all assumed it was cleared up by now. It wasn't.
Our vet had to catheterize him, & he got out a ton of thick, syrupy
urine. He flushed him out w/ water & sent him home w/ some clavamox.
Test results finally came back - he has a massive E. coli infection,
w/more than 100,000 organisms per cc of urine. Everything that looked
at the adrenal (he only has his right one now) & his prostate, all came
back looking normal. So he's on the clavamox for at least 2 wks, & at
the 1.5 wk point, we'll do another culture of his urine to see what we
can see. I'm sure Ivan got the E.coli infection from the fact that his
cage mate, Puck, isn't the brightest bulb in the box - he'll go to the
litterbox in the cage, stick his head in, then poop in front of the
box. Even though Ivan is pretty fastidious, he's managed to step in it
a time or 2, I know. I've had to wipe his feet off a couple times, &
I'm equally sure he's licked his feet clean, as well.

And then there's our Max, who has been battling bone cancer for almost
7 mos, not to mention insulinoma. The cancer started in his right
zygomatic arch, has spread to his maxilla, but being the little trooper
that he is, he's still eating/drinking/peeing/pooping - making it to
the litterbox each time - & while he sometimes has down days, he likes
to play after he's had his meds & soup each night. He no longer happy
dances, of course, but he loves fighting w/ your hands while he's in
his beloved plastic Marco's Pizza bag, or juggling his crocheted
balls & eggs, even running the tubes when he's feeling particularly
energetic. Max shared his cage w/ Mason. I never *dreamed* healthy 4 yr
old Mason would go before our sick, 7 yr old Max. But now, all the boys
are in the same cage, which we couldn't do before, as Ivan didn't like
Mason.

Mason came to us last yr, w/ her cagemate Madison. Madison needed
immediate surgery, as she had a massive fibrosarcoma on the right side
of her neck, & a small one starting just behind her whiskers on the
same side. Our vet removed them w/ no problem at all. They were both
happy little girls, & were definitely attached to each other. One day,
maybe 7 mos after we got them, Madison didn't look right one morning
-she was standing very stiffly in her cage, hardly moving at all, &
looking not at all right. Took her to our vet, who opened her up, &
discovered what looked like long-standing hepatitis....just before
her heart stopped & he couldn't bring her back.

At any rate, Mason's ashes will go in w/ Madison's - they were always
together before, & now they'll be back together forever.

In light of what my wk's been like so far, I could never, ever, think
about voluntarily euthanizing my babies over a "shoulda, coulda,
woulda" situation. If one of us goes, *all* of us go. That's what
families do.

Lin, Max, Puck, & Ivan
~ Missing my angel Ariel - 20 April 2000 - 20 January 2007. Wait for
me, my Baby Girl. I miss you so much. ~
~ Missing my Oberon - 4 July 2001 - 5 May 2008 - I love you, my Big
Silly Boy. Wait for me. ~
~ Missing my Madison - ? - 9 September 2008 - Our time was too short,
but my love is forever. ~
~Missing my Mason - ? - 12 May 2009 - I wish there'd been somethng we
coud have done for you, but thate *was* nothimg that could hae stopped
this.
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email me at: kay tee en eye el at double-u owe aich dot ar ar dot
see owe em
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[Posted in FML 6336]