Wednesday 10/28/2020 was one of the hardest days of my life. I took my 8 year old female lab, Lady, to the vet, only to be shocked to find out she was dying and had to be put down. 2 weeks prior, she was playing and happy, but losing weight. 1 week prior, she was tired, but eating. Then, on Thursday night prior (6 days before) she threw up her food. On Friday (5 days prior) she ate, but threw up again. Over the weekend she did not eat at all. On Monday I called the vet and the earliest open appointment was Wednesday morning. On Wednesday, they did blood work and showed me she had kidney failure and then described how she was suffering but with that she had hidden the symptoms. Turns out Lady, who was 8 and never had puppies, but was never spayed, had acquired pyometra (an infection in her Uterus) after her last heat, which was 2-3 months before. The only symptom she showed before this month was that there was 1 week about 2 months ago when she urinated more frequently, sometimes squatting for only 1-2 seconds at a time. This however, stopped happening and things returned to normal. But even though she hid the symptoms, her blood was slowly becoming infected. Now, there are alot of failures here on my part for not taking her to the vet when she had more frequent urination a few months ago. However, I have a family and 2 little girls and often live pay check to pay check, and most times when you wait a few days things seem to get better. But not this time. Here is the end of my story, My 10 year old daughter, and 8 year old daughter, have lived most of their lives with this dog. She was someone that we took for granted, a steady normal piece of our lives that has been suddenly removed. My 8 year old daughter is struggling with the fact that she is the same age, and my wife and I have comforted her past this part, but there is tremendous heart break and recovery that has to happen. Lady had the best attributes of her breed. When my girls were babies they climbed all over her and never once did we fear her biting or hurting them. She protected and guided them. We're in the northeast, every time it snowed she chased the girls and played in it with them. Every family picture of the last 8 years has my black lab photo bombing somewhere in the background. Today, it snowed early this year, and there was no lab to chase my girls in the yard. When we make it through this time of grieving, I do not know if I can do a labradore again. There can be no comparison. Maybe we'll get a Jack Russel or something completely different. We all loved our lab but when we even for a moment consider a new dog in the future, we keep describing our Lady, because that's the one we want. Thank you for reading, and your replies.
I'm very sorry for your loss. Don't be too hard on yourself most dogs are good at hiding their pain and Lady seemed to be better than most. With a Jack Russell I think the difference would be too stark, also they are a bit yappy but maybe that's just the ones I've come across. Something like a golden retriever would be good, if you don't mind the excess shedding.
Don't be hard on yourself most dogs are good at hiding their pain and Lady seemed to be better than most.
So sorry for your loss. Lady sounds like a wonderful dog. Give yourself time to grieve...you don't need to make a decision about another dog right away.
I’m very sorry for your loss. Lady sounds like she’s left a very large hole in all your hearts. No puppy, regardless of the breed, will replace her, and nor should it. For what it’s worth, it’s taken me 15 years to be ready to get another puppy after my last Labrador died. Such was the impact he had on me and my life. I decided to go with another Labrador, because I love their temperaments, their size, their cuteness, and their cheeky-ness. And my last lab can finally hit proper sainthood - knowing that he’s not the naughty puppy of the family anymore and memories of him are embedded even more strongly in my mind as the new pup gets up to the same mischief as he did, except we’ve learned, and are better prepared this time. And that mischief is all part of the fun of bonding and making memories with puppy as the next new family member.
