| Kerryn915 | 04-20-2016 02:02 PM |
My precious angel is gone
I lost my precious baby angel this morning to severe trachea collapse. As some of you know from following my previous thread from 2 weeks ago, he had a bad episode then and was diagnosed as having just an allergic reaction. The vet took an X-ray and even had the specialist look at the film and told me it was not collapsed trachea and that he was too young to be suffering from that. She sent me home with prednisone and robitussin and unfortunately when I called back the next day and told him that he had only improved a little she said to give it more time. I trusted her and by the end of that day he seemed to have recovered. Only prob is that I was told to ween him off the prednisone which was now in hindsight was keeping his trach stable. Also I believe that more damage was done to his trachea that day at the vet as they had intubated him to look down and see the throat. So Monday night he had another episode and I called to speak with the vet who said to up the prednisone dose and watch him. Well he seemed no worse than the last time. She said if his tongue turns blue to bring him to the ER vet. Anyway I decided to go to another vet on Tuesday and they gave him oxygen and again intubated him for X-rays as they couldn't figure out what was happening. It went downhill pretty fast from there. I had to have him transported in a pet ambulance to the ER facility where he was again intubated and finally diagnosed with collapsed lower trachea. He said it was so bad that it went down into the bronchi and not much oxygen at that point was entering the lungs. At this point it was late and I asked them to keep him sedated (propofol) and he was on oxygen for the night. At 2.30 am they called and said he may not make it. I went in immediately and he was stable. He seemed to know I was there (I think) I told him he was my special angel and I wanted him to hold on for a little longer. He closed his eyes tight and he looked peaceful. Well when I went back in the later morning he was bad. His oxygen level was poor and they had heating pads on him and his eyes were glassy. They said we could try and pull the tube out and wake him and see what would happen but in his opinion and in my heart I know that he would have been so scared and he wouldn't be able to breathe on his own. They said there was fluid around the lungs and heart and one side lung looked completely collapsed. I chose not to wake him. I was able to hold my sweet baby while they euthanized him. He went in my arms. He was my little shadow. He was the best most loyal beautiful boy. He was my whole world and heart and I'm so devastated and mad and full of guilt for not trusting my instincts. Some vets don't think that collapsed trachea can happen to young dogs and they don't treat it like a serious degenerative disease. Had I got the second opinion 2 weeks ago maybe he would have been able to live longer with medicine. But they all seem to want to intubate or sedate for X-rays which is damaging too. he was only 4 years old. I wish I had more time with him. | 