Daisy's Story, part three

Hi everyone, Just a quick mention of Charlie's day...She won a first place ribbon in Agility competition today. More to follow!

We had such a good time with Daisy, she was a great little doggie, but I am sure you can follow my train of thought and you know she passed to soon.

One Sunday afternoon, hubby and I returned from grocery shopping to notice Daisy sleeping on the living room floor. Nothing unusual about a sleepy dog, but one that didn't jump up to greet us, well that was unusual. Daisy got up just briefly to say hello, but went right back to sleeping on the floor. We kept an eye on her all afternoon and evening and she did not get any better. We brought her to the vet first thing Monday morning. She seemed to be slightly improved in the morning so we were hoping for the "oh, she ate something funny" comments from the doctor.

Instead we were told that Daisy was most likely suffering from Pug Dog Encephalitis. This was devastating news. PDE is fatal and difficult to tell how long the dog will be able to have any quality of life. Faced with this news and the likely outcome and lots of expensive tests to verify this information, only to have the same outcome, we took Daisy home.

Over the next week we watched this little baby like a hawk, always watching for any signs of this terrible disease. We had a few good days when she seemed almost normal. Hubby took her to work with him again since she just snoozed in the warm truck and the sound of the motor was soothing to her. She loved white noise, it really relaxed her. Whenever I used my noisy kitchen vent, she would come sit near the kitchen and fall right to sleep.

Sadly, the good minutes were quickly overshadowed by the bad times. She was still eating a bit and drinking water but stopped being able to go to bathroom. She started having seizures, her head would swell form the neck up and her breathing became labored. We couldn't go on letting her suffer so for us. We made the horrible decision to give our poor sweet puppy a peaceful end to her misery. We went to our vet's office and were treated kindly as we discussed our decision. The vet tech took her out of the room for a moment to put a shunt into her leg so the medicine could just be pumped in and so we didn't have to see the needle. They brought our little girl back and she passed away in my husbands arms.

I need to tell you that I am 50 years old, I thought at that time being an adult sucks. I didn't want to be the one to decide this, to be the one to bear the consequences. I hated doing this.

We took Daisy home and had a burial in our yard. We have a marker for the spot, but we will never forget where she is. We will always love this special dog. Daisy's special needs made her a special puppy. She was so patient and loving to everyone. She was loved by everyone she ever met. Everyone was touched by Daisy and her story.

Daisy had many vet visits due to her early life. Being a puppy born into a sad situation gave her a rough start. She suffered an infection on her face from a stitch being left after her eye removal, she had to have a big drain tube put in her face. She never complained. We thought she had swallowed a pill hubby had dropped. Poor baby had her stomach pumped. We got home to find the pill had bounced farther away from Daisy than we thought. Again, not a sound from the puppy.

We only had one short year with Daisy. We brought her home Early September 2006 and she died late September 2007.