BajaNomad - The trip not taken

The trip not taken

pauldavidmena - 10-22-2022 at 04:35 PM

It turns out we won't be taking our winter getaway trip to Baja in February. Details can be found in my most recent blog post. Needless to say, we're disappointed, but we believe we're doing the right thing.

David K - 10-22-2022 at 04:49 PM

I hope your 'baby' recovers fully!

AKgringo - 10-22-2022 at 05:02 PM

You made the right decision. I did the same thing in 2015 when my girl Cleo became too lame to travel. She was 15 at the time.

I am hoping for the best for Tito!

pauldavidmena - 10-23-2022 at 07:52 AM

David K, AKgringo - thank you for the kind words! Tito is acting like his normal bossy self now that he no longer has his spleen - or the cursed cone of shame. At this point it's hard to believe he has an aggressive form of cancer, so we'll see how the next few months unfold and hope for many happy days ahead.

surfhat - 10-23-2022 at 09:12 AM

Unconditional love is a rare thing and dogs give us that every day, unconditionally.

They do break our hearts when they leave for Rainbow Bridge all and always too soon. Look that up and I dare anyone to not tear up when reading those couple of paragraphs.

They deserve all we can give them and much more considering the little they ask of us.

Treasure every day with them while you can. They have earned it.

Dog is love.

surabi - 10-25-2022 at 09:18 PM

I went through the same thing with my dog in November, Paul, only I didn't have any extra time with her, which was so hard. She also came to me as a 5 month old pup, just appeared in my yard one day. She was 12 when she stopped eating one day and was looking not good. She had been groaning a lot when turning over, but I thought it was just her arthritis.

Took her to the vet, who found an enlarged spleen, scheduled surgery for 2 days later to get it out before it ruptured, and to give her some medication to reduce her high level of inflamation. But she collapsed that night, so took her back to the vet. This time she saw on the ultrasound what she hadn't seen the first time- a huge tumor in her spleen that had spread to her liver.

The vet said she couldn't make the decision for me, but my dog was in a lot of pain and due to the size of the tumor and her age, she wouldn't likely survive the surgery and if she did, wouldn't live more than a few days or weeks past that. She wouldn't operate, I could take her home or say goodbye now.
So I had to decide right there and then to put her down. She was a 70 pound dog, there was no way I could move her around if I took her home to die. I wasn't prepared for it, which was the hardest part.

If I ever get another dog, I'm never feeding it commercial pet food, I will give it real food. And will never use anything but natural flea and tick remedies. Check out a guy named Rodney Habib's videos- he wrote a book called The Forever Dog. We are poisoning our pets. They can apparently live twice as long as we are commonly led to believe the average lifespan of various breeds are. The guy who has won the Guiness Book of World records twice, has dogs who lived into their 30s, still walking around in good shape, just old.

Sorry you didn't get to make your trip to Todos Santos, though. My daughter has lived there for 20 years. It's a sweet spot.

[Edited on 10-26-2022 by surabi]

[Edited on 10-26-2022 by surabi]

[Edited on 10-26-2022 by surabi]

pauldavidmena - 10-26-2022 at 09:52 AM

surabi,

Thank you for your supportive note. I'm sorry that your dog entered the critical zone so quickly. Our dog Tito had already collapsed before we brought him to the vet, and even though his breed (Australian Cattle Dog) isn't known to be prone to hemangiosarcoma (apparently it's more common in retrievers and shepherds, fellow herding dogs), that was the diagnosis. The tumor in his spleen was large enough to recommend having it removed, and were told there were "nodules" that were likely cancerous on his liver as well. The prognosis for dogs who are treated "only" with the splenectomy is pretty grim: an estimated 1 to 3 months.

He's already beyond the one month mark, and now that his "cone of shame" is off he seems like the same 10 1/2 year old dog that threw us such a wicked curveball in September. We're grateful for that, knowing that he was in such dire straits until the surgery. I'm sorry that option wasn't made available to you.

We'll learn about treatment options (in addition to chemo, which makes us a bit squeamish, there are homeopathic remedies that I don't know much about) when we see an oncologist in 2 weeks. Given his current seemingly normal behavior, the thought of cancer seems so surreal, but there it is.

We've often wondered about all of the chemicals in the flea-and-tick preventatives, as well as various "treats" that never seem to go bad. We already avoid processed rawhide and pig ear treats, but even the chemicals used on suburban lawns are ubiquitous where I live (Cape Cod). I'll definitely check out Rodney Habib, as I need to be better informed about what is in all of the products that are mass-marketed to pets (who are terrible shoppers).

We've been going to Todos Santos every winter (and one summer) since 2012, and while it's definitely seen somewhat alarming growth, it still checks off many boxes for both my wife and I. I'd like to visit Valle de Guadalupe some day, and perhaps Oaxaca, but for some reason we keep coming back to Todos Santos.

Thanks again!

Paul

Quote: Originally posted by surabi

I went through the same thing with my dog in November, Paul, only I didn't have any extra time with her, which was so hard. She also came to me as a 5 month old pup, just appeared in my yard one day. She was 12 when she stopped eating one day and was looking not good. She had been groaning a lot when turning over, but I thought it was just her arthritis.

Took her to the vet, who found an enlarged spleen, scheduled surgery for 2 days later to get it out before it ruptured, and to give her some medication to reduce her high level of inflamation. But she collapsed that night, so took her back to the vet. This time she saw on the ultrasound what she hadn't seen the first time- a huge tumor in her spleen that had spread to her liver.

The vet said she couldn't make the decision for me, but my dog was in a lot of pain and due to the size of the tumor and her age, she wouldn't likely survive the surgery and if she did, wouldn't live more than a few days or weeks past that. She wouldn't operate, I could take her home or say goodbye now.
So I had to decide right there and then to put her down. She was a 70 pound dog, there was no way I could move her around if I took her home to die. I wasn't prepared for it, which was the hardest part.

If I ever get another dog, I'm never feeding it commercial pet food, I will give it real food. And will never use anything but natural flea and tick remedies. Check out a guy named Rodney Habib's videos- he wrote a book called The Forever Dog. We are poisoning our pets. They can apparently live twice as long as we are commonly led to believe the average lifespan of various breeds are. The guy who has won the Guiness Book of World records twice, has dogs who lived into their 30s, still walking around in good shape, just old.

Sorry you didn't get to make your trip to Todos Santos, though. My daughter has lived there for 20 years. It's a sweet spot.

[Edited on 10-26-2022 by surabi]

[Edited on 10-26-2022 by surabi]

[Edited on 10-26-2022 by surabi]

surabi - 10-26-2022 at 11:36 AM

I actually wasn't upset with the vet for saying she wouldn't do the surgery. I had been to a lot of different vets over the years, and I really liked her and her fellow vet at that clinic. They had helped my dog with other problems in the past that other vets hadn't, were very caring, and she could have made money proceeding with surgery had she given me the option, so I felt she was being ethical in saying she wouldn't.

Had my dog been younger and not already been suffering from arthritis, the prognosis and treatment might have been different. Also, the tumor in her spleen actually completely filled the spleen, it was enormous. While it might not sound like the difference between a 10 year old dog and a 12 year old is that much, in people years, that's about a 14 year difference.

It's a curious thing about animals- they can be running around seeming perfectly fine, and keel over dead the next day. I had a 15 year old cat who caught and left me a big rat the day before she stopped eating and drinking, and I found her dead the next morning.

And I don't think animals experience pain the way we do. Probably because they don't have the kind of brain that thinks about it, worries about it, or focuses on it.

But I hope your dog beats the odds and you have more time together than you have prepared yourself for.

[Edited on 10-26-2022 by surabi]

[Edited on 10-26-2022 by surabi]

surabi - 10-26-2022 at 11:51 AM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho

Quote: Originally posted by pauldavidmena

...in addition to chemo, which makes us a bit squeamish,

As well it should!

If you're making that decision for another, I'd recommend doing a bunch of research on quality of life vs potential benefit.

I would wholeheartedly agree with that. There comes a time when we just need to put our own desire to have more time with our pets aside, and know when it's time to say goodbye.

pauldavidmena - 10-26-2022 at 12:05 PM

Quote: Originally posted by surabi

It's a curious thing about animals- they can be running around seeming perfectly fine, and keel over dead the next day. I had a 15 year old cat who caught and left me a big rat the day before she stopped eating and drinking, and I found her dead the next morning.

And I don't think animals experience pain the way we do. Probably because they don't have the kind of brain that thinks about it, worries about it, or focuses on it.

But I hope your dog beats the odds and you have more time together than you have prepared yourself for.
[Edited on 10-26-2022 by surabi]

Thank you for that. From your mouth to Dog's ear!

Dogs are incredibly stoic. Cattle Dogs in particular are capable of enduring kicks to the head from stubborn steers. On the other hand, Tito will whine like a toddler if he thinks he's not getting the appropriate level of attention.

In a perfect world, the surgeon "got it all" when she removed the spleen and the nodules on the liver, in which case Tito could be herding us around the house for more than just a few more months. We are, however, preparing for the full range of outcomes as well as we can.

Paul

[Edited on 10-26-2022 by pauldavidmena]

pauldavidmena - 10-26-2022 at 12:11 PM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho

Quote: Originally posted by pauldavidmena

...in addition to chemo, which makes us a bit squeamish,

As well it should!

If you're making that decision for another, I'd recommend doing a bunch of research on quality of life vs potential benefit.

The WikiPedia page for Hemangiosarcoma doesn't offer a whole lot of encouragement, basically saying that chemo could add another 2 to 4 months beyond the splenectomy alone. Another treatment is the use of "turkey tail" mushrooms, but what little I've read has been largely inconclusive.

Cyberian - 10-26-2022 at 12:18 PM

Quote: Originally posted by surabi

Quote: Originally posted by lencho

Quote: Originally posted by pauldavidmena

...in addition to chemo, which makes us a bit squeamish,

As well it should!

If you're making that decision for another, I'd recommend doing a bunch of research on quality of life vs potential benefit.

I would wholeheartedly agree with that. There comes a time when we just need to put our own desire to have more time with our pets aside, and know when it's time to say goodbye.

As one currently undergoing chemo for stage 4 cancer, this applies to people too. The point is rapidly approaching where I can no longer tolerate chemo.

I am mowing down my bucket list while I can, as best that I can. Chemo and a bad potassium crash have left me less than half the man I used to be but I think I can still fish so we're going to Loreto at the end of November and have four fishing days booked

I don't know that I would or could put any of our dogs through this. In hindsight, I don't know if I made the right decision for me

If you're on the water and see a tall skinny guy with a beer belly having the time of his life on Martin's Dolphin or Pancho's Barracuda, give us a wave

pauldavidmena - 10-26-2022 at 12:33 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Cyberian

I'm so sorry to hear about your diagnosis. I guess it's small consolation that you're still able to work on that bucket list, so there's that.

The chemo used to treat dogs with hemangiosarcoma is Doxorubicin, which is used more commonly in humans. Theoretically dogs tolerate chemo better than humans, but this is our first time personally dealing with cancer in a dog.

My ex-wife was diagnosed with Stage 4 stomach cancer and chose to not do chemo. She held on just long enough to spend some time with our 5 kids and (at the time) 9 grandchildren and was not in pain when she died.

Dogs don't communicate pain in the same way humans do, so one of our biggest dilemmas will be how to know when the treatment is causing more harm than good.

I hope you have a great trip in November!

surabi - 10-26-2022 at 12:50 PM

While it wasn't a life or death situation, several years back my dog had an ear hematoma, where blood vessels break in the fleshy part of the ear (not inside the ear)and it all swells up with blood. The standard way of dealing with it is surgery- they lance the ear open, drain the blood and fluid, then stitch it up at a couple dozen points through the front to the back of the ear. The dog then has the ear bandaged to its head and has to wear a cone, the bandages have to be changed, then after a few weeks the stitches are removed.

But I went online to research the condition and treatment and found a video from a vet who said he always used to automatically do this surgery, but in fact, unless it's important to you for the dog's ear to look like it did before, and still stand up if the dog had erect ears, the blood in the hematoma will slowly absorb back into the dog's system over a few months, the ear will end up look deformed, like a boxer's cauliflower ear, and no longer be erect, but doesn't affect the dog's hearing or anything else- the procedure is purely cosmetic.

So he now was of the attitude of why put the dog through all that, and only does the surgery if the pet owner wants it. So I just left my dog's ear alone, and she ended up with one ugly ear, instead of the 2 lovely triangular, erect, husky-type ears she had.
Few of us are as good-looking as we used to be.