The Gollas
This picture was taken this winter. I don't remember if it was the 2009 Christmas Eve storm or the January 2010 one.As I mentioned on Wednesday, my dog, Katie, has been starving herself. In fact since the end of January, she's lost 23 lbs. and now weighs 55 lbs and that's skinny by Sheepdog standards. I've tried EVERYTHING to get her to eat. Many times she'd eat it once, but that was it. I've been worried sick about her and other than shoving cheese-wrapped pills down her throat, she's eaten virtually nothing for weeks. And I feel like such a meanie!
Well, yesterday, she had an endoscopy performed. And that in itself was an emotional rollercoaster ride. I made the hubster and kiddo come with me when he doc told us his findings, because this is a family member and all of us should be aware of the diagnosis and prognosis.
--and it isn't good.
Katie has a tumor on and around the pylorus, the sphincter valve that is positioned between the stomach and the small intestine. The tumor wouldn't even let the endoscopy tube to pass through. The area around the tumor, which has bled numerous times in the past if the looks of it was accurate, is swollen, inflammed, and thickened. In other words, it can't perform its function. The doc took numerous biopsies and sent them off. The bad news is that the results won't be available for at least four days.
Bad news and more bad news: The doc seemed pretty confident that Katie would live long enough for us to get the diagnosis--I have my doubts. I know I sound clinical, but I'm crying as I'm writing this.
--If the tumor is fungal in origin, the doc feels we can treat her with fungal meds. BUT my question with this is, how much damage has already been done? Would this area return to normal functioning? I doubt it.
--Surgery is out of the question due to the location of the tumor. It would be major reconstruction as the small intestine was reattached to the stomach. Plus she's 12 years old, though energetic and alert, she's already lived well beyond the average for an OES (Old English Sheepdog)
--If it's cancer. Well, there is no treatment.
The only real option is to keep her quality of life as high as possible.
-She's taking meds to soothe her stomach and decrease the nausea.
-Try to get her to eat ANYTHING.
-Love on her as much as possible.
-Put her to sleep when it becomes apparent that she's just existing because we can't make the hard decisions.
Peace and Love.
