Lucy ? - 4/23/2016
We lost our dog Lucy early this morning. She was a rescue dog from a kill shelter in West Virginia and had a very gentle and friendly disposition. She was a cattle dog corgi mix. We think she was about 9 to 10 years old. She started having mild but manageable seizures a little over a year ago. Despite more than a few visits with vets, they could not determine the cause. Late Thursday evening Lucy had a total of 4 full blown seizures. We rushed her to an emergency vet facility that's open 24 hours. They determined, after bloodwork, that her blood sugar was extremely low and was causing the seizures. They were pretty sure that based on the past year history, she had an insulinoma, which is a tumor on her pancreas, and causes excessive insulin. The prognosis for this is not good. Operations are 50/50 and do not increase the life span for more than a year. They got her stabilized and she went to our vet in the morning. They checked blood sugars all day, started her on prednisone, gave us a revised meal schedule, and seemed to think she was stable. We brought her home Friday evening and she seemed OK for a few hours but had another seizure around midnight. Despite Karo syrup on the gums and small amounts of food the seizures continued through the night. When she wasn't having one, she wandered aimlessly around the house and really seemed to not know where she was. My wife and I couldn't bear to watch her suffer any longer knowing that this was not going to improve.
From a kill shelter to 4 more good years of life.
Rest peacefully my friend.
Lucy ? - 4/23/2016
We lost our dog Lucy early this morning. She was a rescue dog from a kill shelter in West Virginia and had a very gentle and friendly disposition. She was a cattle dog corgi mix. We think she was about 9 to 10 years old. She started having mild but manageable seizures a little over a year ago. Despite more than a few visits with vets, they could not determine the cause. Late Thursday evening Lucy had a total of 4 full blown seizures. We rushed her to an emergency vet facility that's open 24 hours. They determined, after bloodwork, that her blood sugar was extremely low and was causing the seizures. They were pretty sure that based on the past year history, she had an insulinoma, which is a tumor on her pancreas, and causes excessive insulin. The prognosis for this is not good. Operations are 50/50 and do not increase the life span for more than a year. They got her stabilized and she went to our vet in the morning. They checked blood sugars all day, started her on prednisone, gave us a revised meal schedule, and seemed to think she was stable. We brought her home Friday evening and she seemed OK for a few hours but had another seizure around midnight. Despite Karo syrup on the gums and small amounts of food the seizures continued through the night. When she wasn't having one, she wandered aimlessly around the house and really seemed to not know where she was. My wife and I couldn't bear to watch her suffer any longer knowing that this was not going to improve.
From a kill shelter to 4 more good years of life.
Rest peacefully my friend.