For The Love Of Sydney

page 11

     People may ask after reading Sid's story, "Why didn't we take her to the emergency room?"   There is two answers for this question.  The vet informed us on, Thursday that if she needed surgery for this, ( so called blockage)  it would be costly, around one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars.  We were more then willing to pay this to save her life.  The emergency room is around five hundred dollars,  for the office visit and blood work.  Two hundred was spent on Thursday, to add another five would have taken half the money we needed for her surgery.

     The second reason is six years ago we had a another bad experience.  This time it was with the emergency room.  Our world was turned up side down after taking our beautiful, Sweet Pea to the emergency room.  He was a one year old brindle pit bull.  We loved him dearly, just as we did, Sydney.  He passed away four hours after bringing him home from the emergency room.  So, clearly dealing with the emergency room was out of the question.  At this time we were still under the understanding that we were dealing with a blockage, not Pyometra.  In the end the amount spent trying to save, Sydney came to the amount of $537.00.  Pretty crazy, am I right?  

     One week ago, today we lost our girl to Pyometra and yes I'm coming to terms with the horror she suffered.  Today, I bought a thank you card.  It will be mailed out tomorrow to the second vet who did his best to help.  He was so kind and understanding with our distress that day,  that he didn't bill us for the Euthanasia of, Sydney.  In my eyes, that is a doctor who truly cares.

     

For The Love Of Sydney

page 10

     With Sid no longer with us, our home is not the same.  It's so quite and still in here but not in my mind.  I'm still feeling a lot of anger for what had happen because it didn't have to end this way.  She was taken from us so suddenly and so young.  I know this sounds crazy but we're still breaking up over this little pup.  It's going to take a long time to put her memories to rest in my mind.  I know most people might say, (It was just a dog) to us she was our family.  

     Our other three dogs, Zues, Zoey and Dutches are missing her too.  When we came home Wednesday without, Sydney they knew something was wrong.  Zoey searched every room in the house looking for her sister.  She stared at us as if asking, "Well, where is she?  What did you do with her?"  For five days now she has done nothing but sleep.  The same goes for Zues, so I know they are depressed, lonely and confused.  I've heard over again that dogs have no compassion, no feelings.  This is not true, I witnessed the love and compassion Tuesday night when Zues tried his best to comfort Sydney in her last hours.  I see it today in the sadness in their eyes.  

     People please, if you take nothing else from Sydney's story, I beg you to be aware of who you put your trust in, in the time of an emergency.  Search for answers on the computer, ask your veterinarian a hundred questions and most important demand a simple blood test!   Don't walk out that door without a blood test.  You might not get a second chance.

For The Love Of Sydney

page 9

     The doctor walked in with the blood results in hand.  The somber expression on his face finally told the truth.  "Put her down! Please put her down!"  I cried out wrapping my arms around her entire body. Crying out of control, I whispered into her ear "I love you, Sydney.  Baby girl, I'm so,so sorry." 

     The doctor told us that Monday her blood was at 33 and today on Wednesday it's at 47.   That her kidneys and liver was already shutting down.  Her little heart was barely beating.  The doctor came back within 10 minutes with the shot to put her to her final rest.  

     Finally her suffering would stop.  I just pray she forgives us for making her suffer so long.  We both cried over her still body like two babies.  We cried for her suffering, for our loss and for the deep anger in our hearts.  This should not had happened and we both knew it, one simple blood test last, Thursday would have saved her life.   How could that first vet make such a huge mistake,  how did she miss the symptom's when I told her about the white and pink droplets.  Was she just too busy that day or did she just had a bad day that my poor dog had to suffer and die.  One simple bottle of antibiotics if started last, Thursday could have saved her all this pain.  One doctor who should have known better, who should have tried harder and cared more.  So there you go, Sydney's story has been told.  The tears run down my face this moment so please forgive me.  The loss of our baby will live in our hearts forever.  We will never forget her or what she went through this past week.  We have five wonderful years of memories of love, laughter and joy that we can cherish.  We are still blessed to have and love our Zues, Zoey and Dutches.                                                         If Sydney's story can help save one beautiful dogs life, I am grateful.  I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to read and cry with me.                                                                                                                                                            God bless you and your pets.

     

For The Love Of Sydney

page 8

     Jim  fell to sleep on the couch around 5:00 a.m., I made another pot of coffee and watched the candle flicker in the dark kitchen.  The sound of the clock ticking seem to get slower with each loud tick.  I continue watching the blanket slowly go up and down.  Every time it seem to stop, I'd jump up to rub her back and head, pleading for her stay.  I guess, we as humans can become selfish in so many ways.  Just the thought of our own loss, our pain makes us deny the truth.  Why was I willing to let her suffer instead of letting her go in peace?  At least she would pass at home.  This was only home she'd ever known, the place where she had been loved for five years.

     The sunrise was nothing more then a blessing of relief.  She made it through the night.  We made it through the night together.   Maybe now, just maybe we'd have a chance.  Or had time already taken away our only chance?  Last Thursday, if she'd been put on antibiotics then she might of had a chance.  It's now been seven days and only two days of antibiotics.

      Wednesday morning, once again sitting in the vet's office begging for any kind of help.  Begging for answers because we know in our hearts she's out of time.  For a whole week we've been pleading for someone, anyone to help us save our baby.  The guessing game, the run around, the waiting, the watching her suffer was done today!  We had, had it and we demanded answers today.  Did she have any chance at all to live?  Yes or no, is all we asked for with tears running down our face.  

     The nurses held her still, trying to draw blood from her front left leg, on the first try the vein burst.  I was holding her backside talking to her trying to calm her down.   She turned her head back towards my voice, looking for her mommy.  Her bloodshot eyes pleading for me to make them stop.  Pleading for me to take her home were she could feel safe.  She was so far into dehydration that they couldn't get any blood.  After trying both front legs, both back legs and even from her neck.  I burst into tears because, we finally had the answer.  It was over, she's so far gone.  We were to late.  We had failed her, for the first and only time.

For The Love Of Sydney

page 7

     Tuesday evening around 9:00 p.m. Sydney was still fighting for her life. And the more I think about it the more I believe she was fighting more for us then herself.  She was still trying, even after all the pain she was feeling in her weak little body.  She was still trying her best to please us because she loved us that much.  Never once did she ever complain.   If anyone was to look at her, they'd never known she was so sick.  This sweet angel would continue to lick my face or hand as I lay beside her crying.

     The vet's office would open at 7:00 a.m.; I had to keep her alert and alive until then.  Our hope was to get her on an IV with antibiotics, to get her strong enough to have the, Ovariohysterectomy ("Spay.")  As She slept peacefully at beneath my arm, I could feel every faint breath she took.  I placed my hand on her tummy, it was becoming bigger, and I knew the infection was taking over, going into her bloodstream.  I lean over to kiss her gently as if it was my kiss goodbye.  I stared at her little gray face, her eyes, ears and nose just so I could remember and never forget.

     Long night ahead, 2:00 a.m. Jim and I refused to sleep.  Not even a single minute could be lost of loving and letting her know how much we adored her.  We'd both broke down crying as we tried to comfort her, she was shivering again in her sleep. When suddenly Sid's father,  Zues slowly walked over to us sitting on the floor.  Sid, lay between us on her pillow, beneath her blanket.  He must have heard our whimpers.  He licked Jim's face and then Sydney's.   As if telling her to get up and play.  He licked her ears, and eyes and smelled her breath.  He knew, I swear to you, Zues knew she was dying.  He walked over her body to her right side and lay beside her gently laying his head on her neck.  He let out a quite sigh as if saying, "I'm here, you can go now."

    

For The Love Of Sydney

page 6

     The infection was still flowing leaving a mess on the sheets, towels and blankets.  This made me happy to see, I know this seems strange but as long the pus was draining it means her cervix is open. This is called open Pyometra, we want the pus to drain from her uterus. When this happens the pus is also found under the dogs tail and on bedding or furniture.  With a closed cervix, the pus is unable to drain and it collects in the uterus causing the abdomen to distend.  While the bacteria releases toxins that are absorbed into the bloodstream.  Dogs with closed Pyometra become severely ill, listless and very depressed.

      Five hours had past since she took her first antibiotics.  I lay beside her petting her tummy and talking to her until she finally feel to sleep.  At 2:00 p.m. she slowly got up and walked towards the back door, I let her outside to go potty.  When she came back inside she gulped down some water.  Within a few minutes she started vomiting up the water.  She lowered her head as if saying "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that."  I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her neck, kissing her and telling her that it was o.k.

     It was down hill from the point, I called the vet and told them that she is now vomiting up her water.  They told me that she may have drank to much to quickly. Try to get her to drink slow and to put time in between the drinking.  She seem to want more and more water, it was heartbreaking not being able to give it to her when she wanted to drink. But, it seem to be working she kept the water down for the rest of the day.     Until 7:00 p.m. the water started coming back up.  From the point on she couldn't keep pedialye or water down, even small amounts came right back up.   The vet had closed at 6:00 p.m. once again we were on our own.

      Dehydration was now my concern, how do I keep her from dehydration?   Even worse trouble was the infection seem to be less and less, her cervix was starting to close.

For The Love Of Sydney

page 5

     The Sydney we all knew and loved was slowly disappearing right before our eyes.  That bright light that once shinned so bright was now gray and distant.  It was if she was giving up any hope that we were going to save her little life.  As if she'd begged for our help and now she's given up on us all together.  Oh my God, the pain we felt watching her drift farther away.  We had to be strong for her sake and ours we couldn't give up hope. We couldn't give up on her.  We were still hanging on to hope that one day she'd be welcoming us home from a hard days work.  The love from our dogs could brighten up any kind of day no matter how bad it had been.  They made it all worth it and I wasn't about to loose one of them.

     Tuesday morning time for Sydney's first pill.  Trouble I thought, how she won't eat anything.  I climbed out of bed, wiped my eyes and went towards the kitchen.  The first thing that came to mind was cheese, I'll try putting it in cheese.  I put a small amount under her nose just so she could smell it.  Her big eyes looked up at me and then she turned her head.  I called her name softly begging her to try.  A few moments later she slowly took the cheese from my hand.  I smiled and hugged her tenderly telling her how good she was, while placing the pill into another piece of cheese.  "Here baby, have some more." I whispered, as she turned her head away.  "Please, try." I begged her again.  No response, not even a glance towards my voice.

     Fine, cheese is not doing it lets try peanut butter.  I put the pill in the peanut butter, she turned her head.  "You love peanut butter." I told her petting the top of her head.  "O.k. peanut butter is out for today.  Maybe tomorrow."

I walked back into the kitchen and opened a can of soft dog food.  The first piece without the pill.  Slowly she ate the food, then she looked up as if asking for more.  I put the pill in and she ate it along with four small bites.

     You have no idea on the joy I felt by seeing her eat such a small amount.  That was enough for me, it was a wonderful feeling.  For the first time in a week she ate something.  Maybe later she'd eat more, and tomorrow more.  Thank, God our girl was on her way back.  I couldn't be any happier then I was that minute.

For The Love Of Sydney

page 4

     Pyometra is a uterine infection, most commonly known as a disease of the unaltered female dog.  Considered a serious and life threatening condition that must be treated quickly and aggressively.  I try to understand because, I'm half asleep.   He tells me again, it's life threatening.  My heart sank and my eyes began to water, I started to cry as if I'd just lost one of my children.  All I could whimper was one word, no. 

     She has all the signs and it can be confused with a blockage, the only difference is the infection coming out of her, I think we might be in trouble.  A simple blood test on Thursday could have told us what was going on with her.  The infection is getting worse, we've lost four days.  My husband put his arms around me as we sobbed with Sydney resting on her bed beside our feet.  Suddenly she picked up her weak head and let out a quite sigh, it slowly dropped down on the soft pillow.  

     Monday morning 7:30 I called the vet's office,  I said one word, Pyometra we think she has Pyometra.  The doctor was not in today and we were advised to take her elsewhere.  I told her fine and hung up the phone.  It felt like I had just been punched in the stomach, it hurt so bad.  But we had to move quickly to save our girl.  So I called a few other vets in our area.  By 10:30 we were on on way to a new vet, one who had never seen Sydney before one that was willing to take her in on such short notice.  

     We walked in with poor little Sid, walking very slow, her head down and she just looked so sick.  We think she has Pyometra we told the lady behind the desk and we explained why.  They took her in within 5 minutes of walking through the front door.  Sydney had, had a rough weekend and it showed in her actions, in her face.  We explained to the doctor the whole story.  Today 5 days later she weighed in at 64 pounds. She had lost almost 4 pounds.  He ordered a blood test and 15 minutes later he came back and said, "You were right, she has Pyometra.  Her blood levels are three times higher then they should be, we need to get her on antibiotics.  I'll give her a shot today to get her going and I'll give her something to sooth her stomach, this might help her eat.  Then start her on the pill antibiotics tomorrow morning. Bring her back if she gets worse."

     

For The Love Of Sydney

page 3

     We took our sickly little girl home with the hopes that she was going to be better soon.   She'd be back doing those same little funny habits that we'd grown to love.  Hogging up the bed at bedtime and using my leg as her pillow.  I'd wake up to her loving eyes with her head on my pillow and I'd smile at her telling her good morning, just as I've done for five years.  This sweet little angel had brought us so much joy through these years at this moment, I'd pray for many more to come.  

     She was was only eating a handful of soft food, maybe a small amount of cheese.  It didn't matter to me as long as she ate a tiny bite, I'd try again.  Mineral oil, now this was going to be the hard part.  We knew she'd refuse this for sure.  Which she did and as much as it killed us, we had to force it down her with a slight fight.  It reminded me of my kids when they were young and I'd have to give them cough suppressant.  Well, I guess in some silly way, I treated her as if she was my little girl.  Not just, Sydney but all of our dogs were a huge part of family.  Family members would laugh and tease us on how much we spoil them.  So, this was hard having to force this down her, she did as she was told and tried her best to please us.  Just as she has always done.

     Friday night, I became scared, when I noticed a lot of watery pink discharge was being left on her bed.  By this time it was past 6:00 and the vet's office had closed.  So here we are Friday night with an even sicker dog.  Nothing would be open until Monday.  Saturday, we worried as we tried to get her to eat something, anything but she refused.  She was becoming weaker with each hour that past.  Then out of the blue she began to pant, and her body would shiver as if she was freezing.  I wrapped her in blankets and held her tight crying and telling we were trying to help.   I told her, I loved her over and over hoping she could really understand.   I knew in my heart that she did understand, because of her love towards us.  

    My husband Jim began searching for answers on our computer.  Any answer that could bring our baby back to heath.  He did not sleep for those two days.  Sunday night he wakes me out of a sound sleep.  That one word that came from his lips, Pyometra.  Had I'd known then what I know today, I would have covered my ears and refused to hear that evil word.  

     

   

For the love of Sydney

page 2

     Now, that I look back the very first sign of Pyometra came during Sydney's heat cycle.  She hadn't done much bleeding and I thought that was quite odd.  Her second sign seem to be when she started leaving white spots on our sheets.  I didn't think much of that at the time, I thought it had something to do with her cycle ending.  So, I just changed the sheets, again and again.  So please be on the look out for these two very important signs.  If treated now with antibiotics and getting the dog fixed your dog has a pretty good chance of survival.

     Sydney's third sign came on Monday and Tuesday, she refused to eat her food and her treats.  She stayed in bed only wanting to get up to go outside.  The fourth sign was on Wednesday, I noticed the whites of her eyes had turned blood red.  This of course scared me to death and was a instant red flag!  Something more serious was going on with our girl.  Right then, I called our vet to get her in on the following day.

     Thursday a trip to the vet's office and of course she was excited to take a car ride.  Sydney weighed in at 76.7 pounds and her temp was good.  She was very good with her doctor and she seemed cheerful.  The doctor took an x-ray because she said she could fill a mass in her tummy.  But when the x-ray came back the vet was unsure of what it was, because she needed to go potty.  Of course we had no such luck getting her to go.  The vet told us she could see a blockage in the x-ray.  It tol the vet that she was just in heat a week ago and that she was now spotting white and pink droplets of blood.  The vet didn't seem to concerned over this, so I left it alone.  So at this time no blood test was ever done.  She only tells us to take her home and give her mineral oil to help the obstruction pass.  She told us to take her for a few walks, which we did later that day.

     I don't know about you but I remember while growing up, I was taught to trust those wearing white coats.  To trust those who have papers framed and hanging on the wall.  It's just a simple reminded to us that we should trust them.  We took our baby girl there because we didn't know what to do and we trusted our vet just like we were taught to do.  We trusted her advice and guidance.  God help me, because I was wrong.  From this point on, slowly our lives were turned upside down.

For the love of Sydney

For the love of Sydney

     So you think it's not important to get your female dog spayed?  I thought this too, until one week ago on 3/12/14 at 11:00 a.m.  when, we had to make the heartbreaking choice to put down our Pit Bull, Sydney.  She suddenly came down with the Pyometra.  Even worse, our vet misdiagnosed  her with having a blockage.  This is a 11 page story on her day to day suffering and symptoms.  It's my hope that our beautiful, Sydney didn't die in vain, if only one animal could live because of her story.  I had to learn this lesson the hard way, you don't have to, please read so you too can know the symptoms.  So at this moment my heart is broken with both pain and anger.  This evil which took our girl came so suddenly without warning.  Well, the warning signs were there but we didn't know the signs and by the time we figured out what she had, it was to late.  I have never heard of Pyometra,  nor had I ever been warned of this by my vet of 5 years.  Not knowing or understanding this evil disease,  killed our girl.

     I have heard the saying, if you don't get your dog fixed they take the risk of getting Cancer.  Never had I heard, if you don't get your dog fixed they are in risk of getting, Pyometra.  This just blew me away!  First of all, what the hell was Pyometra anyways?  Why is it that I've never heard of Pyometra?  The one that really gets under my skin is why hadn't I ever been informed of this by my vet?  The killer was that the warning signs were there and even the vet misdiagnosed her.  

     So here you go, The word Pyometra means a uterine infection, commonly known as a disease of the unaltered female dog.   It's a secondary infection that occurs as a result of hormonal changes in the female's reproductive tract ("heat").   Considered to be a very serious and life threatening condition that must be treated quickly and aggressively.  Here are few of the symptoms, fever, lethargy, anorexia, depression, bloodshot eyes, panting and drinking a lot of water.   So, I learned a new word and now I'm passing this information on to you, because I know in my heart telling Sydney's story may just save the life of another.  To continue to page 2, please look to the right side of this page and you should find pages 2-11.  Also look for Sydney's Face Book page (Pyometra in dogs)
   

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