Goodbye is never easy...

Our sweet dog Tobie went to doggy heaven today. Tobie, and her brother Howdy, joined our family in April 1998. They were four months old. We picked them up from their farm in Weatherford, TX. They had never been inside, on stairs, on concrete, in a car, etc. when we got them. They were country dogs who moved to a third floor apartment.

Tobie, is actually short for Tobacco. Her coat was the color of cured tobacco. Of course going around calling your dog Tobacco, just wasn't going to work. Tabaccer or Bacca didn't work either, but Tobie did. So did Tobie-Tobs and Tobers.

Tobie was always our princess dog. She liked things her way. When they weren't, she let you know. Her favorite thing in the world was to have one of her front paws rubbed. She loved to get "Scooby snacks" out of the litter box. She always wanted to be in the middle of the action. She and the cat, Zach, loved to play chase. He would come up and swat at her so then she would snap at him and chase him out of the room. Then he would come back and do it all over again. Sometimes she would just go over and nudge him, just to get him started. We kept a gate on our bedroom door so the dogs would stay in but the cat could come and go. Zach loved to perch on the gate waiting for Tobie to come get him and then jump off the other side and run away knowing she couldn't chase him.

She was not a fan of thunder storms. They made her scratch the carpet, get on top of the patio table, or jump on the bed. Fireworks weren't her thing either. Back in the day before we had kids and took the dogs out for hikes on the weekends, she was not a fan of water. Her brother always enjoyed a good romp in the creek. Not Tobie, she preferred to stay dry. She wasn't a huge fan of loud chaotic children. She never did anything to the children but when they got too rambunctious she would quickly leave the room.


Tobie was 3 months shy of 12 years old. Until this spring she had never had any health problems. OK, so she had bad teeth and had to have them cleaned twice as frequently as her brother but, no emergencies, no chronic conditions, nothing. In the spring she hurt her hip jumping off the patio table. Yeah I know, what is an 11 year old dog thinking to be jumping off the table. When we took her in for that, they were not concerned about the hip but about her weight. Apparently she had lost quite a bit since the previous year. Blood work yielded somewhat elevated liver numbers but nothing more. Oh, and her teeth were so bad the insisted they were affecting her quality of life. They weren't and cleaned up fine and nothing changed. Our job was to get her to eat more.
About a month ago Tobie developed a condition called Megaesaphogus. It led to pneumonia. Things didn't look good. We started antibiotics and miraculously the Megaesaphogus went away. After ten really bad days we had two really great weeks. She was pretty much her normal, somewhat crotchety self. Monday we took her in for a recheck. The vet raved over her progress and how well she was doing. She was so surprised. Tuesday the Megaesophogus came back. Since Tuesday Tobie had been trying to tell us she was done. She quit eating entirely. Today it was clear it was her time. She went very peacefully to doggy heaven with her head resting sweetly on her paw while I rubbed it. She is now in doggy heaven, where I'm sure she has already convinced "someone" to continue rubbing her paw 24/7.

It seems so weird to not have her in our house. To not have her getting into trouble. Did I mention she was our trouble maker? She was always into something. The trash, the litter box, eating the carpet (she out grew that one), or scratching the carpet (she developed that one in the last couple years). She was a great part of our family. Her people miss her and so does her brother.

Farewell, dear friend,
Jenn

My Other Two Children

In addition to the four human children I have, I also have two canine children. I've never been one to refer to pets as children in the past. Don't get me wrong, I love them a lot but I know they are pets, and while spoiled, they are not treated like offspring.

So why am I now referring to them as children? Well, because they are now requiring as much care and time as my children. They are old, 11.75 to be exact. Howdy has a lot of arthritis issues that are affecting his mobility. I talked about that last month. Tobie is now having esophagus problems (that have caused vomiting, multiple times a day for a week) and pneumonia. She has also, over the last 9 months or so, lost a lot of weight and we don't know why.

It seems like they switch off months being the Crisis Dog. It started several months ago when Tobie injured herself jumping off the patio table. Since then every month there is a new crisis and a new care regimen. Just when it starts to seem manageable both financially and physically the other one has a new crisis.

I know many of you are now thinking. They are old, maybe it is time for it to be "their time." We have also thought about this. We are not willing to go to heroic means to keep them here but at the same time we are not willing to prematurely give up if they have good quality of life. We won't do surgeries or spend thousands but we will keep them comfortable.

So what does keeping them comfortable entail?

Howdy's daily medicine requirements

For Howdy it requires two different kinds of pain medication. One is given twice a day the other is given three times a day. He also gets three different vitamin supplements. To get him to take his medicine we have to put it in a small bit of cream cheese and wrap it in enough lunch meat to cover the cream cheese. He used to take it in a quarter of a slice of American cheese mushed around the pills, but he no longer likes that. He also has to have some rice and chicken broth added to his kibble to get him to actually eat it.

Tobie's daily medicine requirements

Tobie is doing much better than a week ago. She was diagnosed with megaesophagus and pneumonia. There is no treatment for the megaesophagus expect for changing the consistency of the dog's food to something that will stay in the stomach easier (like meatballs) and holding them in a begging position for 30 minutes following every meal. Oh, and feeding them small frequent meals. The pneumonia requires three different antibiotics and is a direct result from the megaesophagus.

Michael holding Tobie following an evening feeding earlier this week. While he doesn't have her in begging position it was the best we could do without building a special contraption for her.

We do not know what caused Tobie to develop the megaesophagus. Dogs are sometimes born with the condition and it has to be managed their whole lives. But for dogs like Tobie that develop it later in life there is usually an underlying cause. Unfortunately 80% of the time the underlying cause is not found and can therefore not be treated.

Luckily after about 72 hours on the antibiotics Tobie's megaesophogas symptoms have disappeared. We don't know why, but we are thrilled those symptoms have abated, at least for now. Trust me, a week of regurgitating every time she had water to drink, fell asleep or changed positions was long enough. Unluckily the antibiotics have affected Tobie's appetite. The only thing we have found this week that she will actually eat is boiled chicken with rice. Given her continued weigh loss it is extremely important that she eat.

The goal is to get 1500 calories in her a day. She is eating about a pound of chicken a day and a couple cups of rice, but that does not get her to the calorie target. We have been experimenting with adding kibble to get the extra calories she needs but she is not liking it. Today I went as far as crushing kibble in the food processor to sprinkle over the mixture. Not a hit. We have tried adding in peanut butter, she wasn't a fan. We have tried canned dog food, no longer a fan. She has become a princess. Oh, she also will no longer take her medicine in food balls (cream cheese with lunch meat or cheese) so now we have to do the pry open the mouth shove in the meds and hold her mouth closed until she swallows them trick. So much fun.

Ground kibble - Yes, I am debating on how many times I'll have to wash the food processor before I am willing to use it for human food again

Postal scale. It works great for weighing food. Right now we are using it for weighing Tobie's chicken.

Tobie is currently taking three different antibiotics, an acid reducer, probiotics, and three vitamin supplements.

So between preparing all the medicines and getting them to actually take them, cooking all their special foods, mixing all their foods, making sure they eat said food and don't eat each other's food, staying in the room while they physically eat - they won't eat otherwise, etc., the dogs are taking a lot of time. It is like having an infant in the house again. And they are getting expensive to boot.

But at the end of the day when I see one of them trot over with that sparkle in their eye, I know that it is not their time, yet...

Jenn