Piper & Bug

chelsey

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#1
Thinking about Piper and Bug while discussing tollers in another thread...

Coming up on the 1 yr anniversary of their passing, I wanted to share this..

July 21/12 the unthinkable happened and I lost two of my best friends hours apart. It was a normal day, packed up the dogs and went out with a friend on her pontoon boat with 5 of her dogs and 3 of mine. Bug was a 1.5 year old malinois who had had 3 seizure episodes in the previous months but was always normal by the time we reached the ER vet, and three vets suggested epilepsy but the frequency wasn't enough to medicate at the time, so we lived life as normal since life was normal 99.99% of the time. So I wasn't surprised when Bug started showing me the precursors to an episode, it seemed to be triggered by excitement, I just made a mental note to go back to the vets with when we went back into town - I was doing research at the time, talking to different vets and was planning on making an appointment and asking for more tests for Addison's. We were on an island on a lake about a 45 min boat ride and about 1 hr drive from town. So as she started having symptoms, I took her quietly off to the side and my friend and her husband kept the other dogs occupied throwing toys in the water, like we'd been doing off and on since we'd got there. She started seizing as expected but wasn't waking up. She stopped breathing and we packed up everything and got on the boat. She died in my arms.

In the long, surreal ride back to the car, Piper started looking off. So many things were running through my mind but I was going into shock. We got to the dock, and getting into the car, Piper was losing motor skills and was unconscious about 10 minutes into the drive, we called the ER vet and were on our way. Piper was still breathing, just in a coma like state, sleeping in my lap. My friend drove and I sat on the floor of her van with Piper. Bug was dead on the front seat. Water intoxication crossed my mind as I tried desperately to google from my phone. I just prayed and prayed we could get there in time.

She was still alive when we got there and the vets started assessing her. They were unfamiliar with water toxicity event though I kept saying it over and over through the tears. They logically assumed the dogs were poisoned, seeing as a second young dog was brought in deceased at the same time. So, started a line to flush out her system. From there she crashed, stopped breathing on her own, and the young, inexperienced vet ran out of ways to help her medically. After consulting with OVC in Guelph, not being able to figure out what was wrong with her and not having any more options to keep her alive, we let her go. She died in my arms while I cried into her fur, only looking up to see Bug's lifeless body on an exam table a few meters away. The days passing were the darkest days of my life.

It wasn't until the toxicologies came back clean, and minor details in the autopsies on both dogs did the senior vet at that practice begin to suggest water intoxication. I knew from the second I saw her glazed over eyes on the boat that that is what it was. There was no conclusion for Bug, but in retrospect, I believe she had an acute Addisonian crisis but the autopsy was inconclusive.

This is the beautiful tribute to their colourful lives that my friend and member here (Panzerotti) made for me last year..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXUxBy_ZYGI
[YOUTUBE]MXUxBy_ZYGI[/YOUTUBE]
 

Cali Mae

Little dog, big voice
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#3
I am so, so sorry for your losses. To lose one friend is hard enough, but to lose two is unimaginable. And to lose both so unexpectedly and tragically makes it even more difficult. Even as time goes on, it's difficult not to miss them.
 

Toller_08

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#5
Omg, how devastating. I can't even imagine. I am so very sorry that you had to go through something so tragic such as that. :(
 

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