Working up to saying goodbye...

to our dear little Patches... About a month ago I kept noticing how "fat" she looked and kept thinking she was eating too much cat food. We'll Sara happened by one day and told me that she looked sick and that her belly was swollen. So we took her to the vet. Turns out that she has a heart problem. Her heart at this point is enlarged and not working properly which is causing fluid to build up in her abdomen. The vet drained it and she lost 7 lbs.! She left us that morning a fat dog and came home looking like she was starving to death. Her bones are all protruding and you can feel every bone down her spine. We have her on some heart meds and other things to keep the fluid from building up but in the last 3 weeks she has gained at least 4 lbs back. Her belly gets bigger but her bones are still showing. The meds they put her on gives loose stools so they told us to make her rice. Well, she won't eat it. We began to mix it with chicken but she still won't eat it. We had her eating meats for a while there but now we are lucky if she eats a few ounces of anything all day. Yesterday, she ate 1/4 of a hotdog. Today 3 bites of chicken. She is drinking water but that's about it. She also has these shivering spells where she seems to be freezing. We need to ask the vet about this.

It's so sad to watch our once very active dog go through this. We used to call her "Licky Dog" because she constantly was in your face licking and had to be touching you at all times. Now she just sleeps and drinks water. We have another vet appt. on Thursday and are going to discuss the future and the quality of her life at this point. Who knows, her heart may give out before then. It's very hard prepare to say goodbye but I fear the end is near.