The only problem I see with the dogs there are:

1. they get eaten when they’re old enough (middle age)
2. Some do get rabies and parvo.
3. no birth control for the bitches since spaying is not practiced or people never knew it existed. Though I have seen male dogs without testicles but the practice of removing it is the most awful, cruel and painful way.

Last Sunday (06/01/2008) , we just lost our most precious 11-1/2 year old dog named Other-One, whom we fostered and adopted from Humane Society. We took him to the vet on Friday (05/30/2008) and told our doctor about the abnormal size of our dog’s belly. How worried I was about the size. He did a CBC and we asked them to do urinalysis. He was very anemic and lethargic. CBC result showed high count of white blood cells, low hematocrit and hemoglobin, high in bilirubin. He did 2 X-rays but the X-rays were cloudy and unclear that he said he cannot make a decision of what the problem is. He recommended a sonogram but it will have to wait Monday or Tuesday.And he was also worried about the size of the belly. He prescribed an anti-vomit drug and sent us home. He thought it could be a splenic tumor or something. I called him on Saturday asking about the sonogram., and articles I found on the internet about hemangiosarcoma, etc. He mentioned about doing it on Tuesday, I told him, this can’t wait any longer and said that he will call Dr. Hayes to do it on Monday.

On Sunday, we took Other-One on his normal daily walks, took him to the pet store and spent a good time with him. I can see that he was lethargic but still showing the enthusiasm to do something. In the evening, he no longer wants to eat his food and only ate 1/3 of it. At 9PM, we beckon him we’re going for a walk, but he did not have the enthusiasm to walk at all and my husband saw his nose bleed. I rechecked the internet for the signs and told my husband, we need to take him to the emergency clinic. We got there, the emergency vet asked us several questions and we told them our regular vet thinks it is splenic tumor.He palpitate the belly and asked us to lift him up on the exam table without touching his belly. He got a syringe and Lo and Behold, got a syringe full of blood in his belly. Of course we were so shocked. We were wondering why our regular vet did not do this on Friday. We were told by this emergency vet that it is a very serious life threatening problem and Other-One was bleeding internally, the reason why he is so anemic. He thinks it is spleen tumor that has ruptured and could be the more serious problem -hemangiosarcoma- which I found in the internet to be very common affliction among deep chested dogs such as golden retrievers and german shepherd. Once the spleen has broken – that chances of survival is not good.

Here’s the information:
http://www.vet.uga.edu/VPP/clerk/frankhauser/index.php
http://www.caninecancerawareness.org/html/CanineCancerHemangiosarcoma.html

He rceommended we:

1. Wait for tomorrow and let the regular vet do a sonogram as he recommended, but the dog might not last for 12 hours on his present condition.
2. Do an x-ray and check other organs and possibly do exploratory surgery,drain the blood, clean it and remove whatever is causing the bleeding which is probably the spleen if the tumors have not spread into the other organs.and send the diseased organ for biopsy.
3. Euthanize the dog.

We did option # 2 and on the x-ray showed a very vivid picture of the respiratory organ, he found that the tumors have spread to the lungs, possibly through the liver and other organs. He said, he can still open him up but prognosis is not good. Even with the chemotherapy, radiation,etc. He is not sure that Other-One will make it as his blood pressure is so low. Even though it was against our willingness to do so, we had no choice but to have him put to sleep to ease all the pain instead of letting him go through the surgery and have more pain, and no chance of recovery. It was a terrible experience but I saw he did not suffer at all with the injection. It’s like he just fell fast asleep. Believe me, it hurt so bad to lose a dog like him.Up to now, both my husband and I are still so sad and I cry almost everyday hoping to ease the pain of losing him. And I’m wondering why on earth the regular vet did not tell us how grave the problem was. He could have send us immediately to the emergency clinic and told us not to wait any longer. Just like what our previous vet we used to have would have done, who unfortunately moved someplace else and we can no longer use him as a regular vet. On that same day (Friday) we also brought his sibling (Klingon) for a rear leg limping. He said it could be arthritis, inflammation or disk problem and he prescribed Previcox. I gave him a half a tablet in the beginning so his system does not get shocked. I decided to search the internet and find out what the caution on Previcox. I run into some information including Merial site about the use of Previcox.

I also searched the manufacturer’s site and it specifically said Previcox should not be given to dogs with heart problem or disease. Before we went to this vet, I gave him a spreadsheet which includes all of our three dogs health record, what medication and what kind of health problems they had since they were puppies. Again, why did this regular doctor prescribed the medication to Klingon, when he knows Klingon has heart murmur! And the fact that we also spent a fortune on the regular vet for nothing while the expenses incurred on the emergency was cheaper. We decided to return back the Previcox to the vet but they don’t want to accept the still sealed medication, and give us a refund. This morning (06/07/2008) the vet who prescribed previcox called and he was in a rage and angry with us and can’t calm down at all.

I put klingon on a small dosage of buffered pet aspirin and omega fatty acid and use ultrasound device for his hip joint and he seems to be improving. The limping has lessened and we also lowered to his previous weight. He used to weigh 89lbs and now he’s down to 80lbs, and it really helped a lot.