[Judy in Waco]

To all of my YT friends,

First, I haven't been on this site in awhile, and I'm sorry about that. I have some sad news. Our precious yorkie, Gizmo, passed away in mid-August. I should have let you know sooner, but it's just been too painful. I haven't dealt with his passing very well. Mostly because I blame myself. It could and should have been prevented. He died of complications of diabetes that weren't recognized soon enough. He had developed severe complications including pancreatitis before we realized what was going on.

The main reason I am posting now is to warn others who might miss the most obvious signs we didn't pick up on. Mid-August in Texas is hot to say the least and Gizmo had a thick, cottony coat. We noticed that he was drinking excessive amounts of water, but thought that he was just too hot. We gave him a short haircut and thought that was all we needed to do. When he started throwing up his food, we rushed him to the vet and did everything possible to help him heal. We had to keep him off of food to cure the pancreatitis and during the day he stayed at the vet and was kept on an IV. At night we took him home and watched him carefully. (The vet didn't have anyone in the office at night.) This went on until the diabetes was discovered. We then began insulin treatment, but couldn't get his sugar stabilized enough while treating the pancreatitis. The combination was too much for his little body. He was a fighter though and we fought with him for over a week. Vet by day and home at night. I would sleep on the floor beside his pallet and try to coax him to eat and give him his insulin injections. We finally tearfully discussed the situation with our wonderful vet and he sadly told us that there wasn't much time left for him and that he was obviously in pain. We decided that it was time to let him know it was okay to go. As we held him and told him how much we loved him, the vet gave him a tiny injection (much smaller than the insulin injections I had been giving him) and he peacefully passed in my arms.

Please learn from my mistakes and keep your yorkie at a healthy weight. Gizmo was overweight. You should also always pay attention when your pet is drinking an excessive amount of water.

Our other yorkie, Kandi, is doing fine. She is a healthy weight and well-loved by us all, but this was very hard on her as well. You can tell that she misses him as do we all. She continued to search for him for quite a while after he passed.

Please keep Gizmo in your prayers. We loved him so very much.