Today we put Miss Maddie down. She was 9 yrs old and she had spent the last 2 1/2 years with us. We took her to the vet because she had a lump on her back leg that had grown quite large. It had doubled in size since the summer and was the size of a golf ball. We were going to see if the vet could remove it without having to put her under as we didn't want to put an older dog like her through that type of ordeal. Well, it never came down to that because upon examination the vet found that she was loaded with mammary tumors. The vet was fairly positive just by the feel of them that they were malignant. Suddenly, the lump on her leg became the least of our worries as mammary cancer is generally quite serious. Maddie had been in to see the vet in Nov 2007, so they had all developed within the past year. I felt bad that I hadn't noticed them and will do regular exams on my other female dogs from now on. I don't know if it would have made much difference at her age, but I still feel bad that I hadn't noticed. We opted to put her down rather than prolong things. It was a hard decision, but we felt it was the right one. Taking her back home and waiting for it to progress seemed like it would be harder on both us and her. Plus we had to take into consideration her general physical condition which wasn't the best (lump on leg, bad arthritis etc) I wish I could say that she went peacefully, but that is not exactly the case. The vet had some complications, as the veins in each of her front legs burst so Maddie struggled as the vet was fighting with the veins and we had to hold her down as she kept pulling her leg away. You could tell it was hurting her. Eventually, the vet had to inject her into her back leg and that's when she was finally able to go to sleep. I felt so bad that she had to suffer like that. She certainly did not deserve it. It was terrible and my husband was so upset crying his eyes out as we watched poor Maddie suffering. The vet apologized profusely and kept trying to assure us that it normally isn't like that but in rare cases complications like that do happen. Poor Maddie was so excited to go for a ride in the truck and loved the vets because she got attention. Little did we know it would be her last ride in the truck. It was so sad but we think we did the right thing. RIP Maddie.
A few of my favorite pics of her
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Maddie and her son Rosco
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Maddie and Tia
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A few of my favorite pics of her
Maddie and her son Rosco
Maddie and Tia
