update: Dog health issues

Well, the sad news is that I had to put my 5 yearl old baby down on Friday afternoon. As you know, Jack (Lhaso Apso) has been sick for about 7 weeks and despite taking him to two doctors no one could figure out the basis for his severe cough. When working with the second vet, Jack showed signs of improvement, but then Thursday night (2:30a.m.) Jack started heaving and coughing VERY badly. His cough had seemed to subside considerably over the last 10 days and so for it to come back so fast and sudden it was scary. I talked to the vet when they opened in the morning, and he said that he felt maybe an Ultrasound would help but it was expensive. We discussed going with another round of anti-biotics as Jack finished his last dose on Tuesday morning and here it was about 40 hours later and the symptoms were back. I brought Jack to the vet around 3pm and the vet decided to try and see if he could look down his throat to see if he could figure out what might be blocking Jacks airway..... needless to say he felt something and also thier was blood in the back of his throat. The vet was VERY kind and gentle while we put Jack down. He did an autoposy (for free) and discovered that Jack had a canine form of emphysema. He said he had probably had it about 3-4 months, but the early symptoms are hard to miss. What he found unusual is that numerous x-rays and blood work showed nothing and this he said is very rare. Well anyway.... mom and I are both recovering from this blow as well is the rest of the family, because Jack LOVED everyone and anyone that walked through the door. Even the kids next door loved him, the 5 year old would come over often and ask if Jack could come out and play! Well, I'll be going, talk to you later.

My deepest sympathies on your loss. It's never easy to do the loving thing for our friends, but at least he is breathing easy now. I fully believe that when we get to heaven all of our pets are there waiting for us. And amazingly, they all get along. CJ