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Originally Posted by Vwitscher  I want to say how sorry I am at the sadness you feel over the death of your boy, Harley. It sounds like he was a precious little man for you and your family.
I am prefacing this by saying I'm not a vet but I am a nurse and also had a husband that died from pancreatic cancer that spread to his liver and I became more knowledgeable about the liver than I would have been other wise.
I want to share a perspective about Harley's death although I don't want you to take it as a negative judgment. Most of us know that accidents happen and sometimes the consequences are very hard. NSAIDS ingested are hard on the liver and kidneys especially in an overdose situation as it was with your little guy. When presented to your vet with this situation they deal with what's in front of them. Unfortunately, there is the possibility that the situation in May of last year when Harley ate the sugarfree gum that had Xylitol in it and your vet didn't think it was anything to worry about may have damaged the liver to the point where his little body couldn't clot the blood. One of the functions of the liver deals with blood clotting. Only a necropsy would have told you exactly what caused his death and in hind sight it's really only second guessing but it seems to me that with the documented information out there on the dangers of Xylitol, you were blessed to have had 8 1/2 extra months of Harley in your life. I don't know, he may have lived a long life and never had any problems from his liver but it seems to me your vet may have made all the right decisions in the NSAIDS situation but all the wrong decisions back in May with the Xylitol. I know there are things in life that I look back at and try to learn from as well as having had animals (mainly my alpacas) die as a result of ignorance (my own and my vets) and the learning curve of life and I look at how my vet handles it. It doesn't make the loss any easier but if my vet were to take the information learned and use it so no one in their care is hurt by that thing again, then I feel a little better knowing they learned something. I'm not sure you were ever able to talk to your vet about the Xylitol dangers. If he was still ignorant of this and blissfully thinking sugarfree gum is ok as long as he passes it, than he wouldn't know to add that possible liver damage to the situation of the NSAIDS. Maybe your boy would have survived one or the other alone but again it's really just a guess without a necropsy. |
I don't think it was anything related to his liver. He had bloodwork done with both my vet and the emergency vet and they both told me his liver and kidneys were functioning great. I know hindsight is 20/20 and if my husband could go back to that day he would not have put his prescription on the bedside table. He had doctors orders to stay in bed and put it there because that's where he could reach it. Any other time Harley would have been closed off from that room but because my husband was home that day he was free to roam in the bedroom. There's alot of IFS but too bad I can't turn back time. I wasn't home that day to protect him.