On December 14, 2019 our dear, sweet, 11-year-old Golden Retriever, Daisy, left this world.
I will never forget that day. I had flown home from Louisiana and my husband picked me up at Detroit Metro. Before I even got my car door shut, he said, “Something is wrong with Daisy and it isn’t good. She won’t eat or get up today.”
The ride home seemed to take forever. I convinced myself it was nothing; my husband is not one to overreact, but I made up my mind that he was – that is, until we got home. I threw the door open and called out for Daisy. Nothing. She was curled up on the couch and had such pain in her eyes.
It was a Saturday night and we drove to an emergency clinic in Oakland County. The receptionist took one look at our girl and called for a vet tech to take her; at that moment, reality started to sink in. Something was very wrong.
While my husband and I sat in the exam room wringing our hands, Daisy had some imaging done. About 30 minutes later, a veterinarian walked in and her face told me all I needed to know. She showed us an image that I will never get out of my head. It showed a huge, white mass running the length of Daisy’s abdomen.
“She is in a lot of pain,” the vet said. “At this stage, there really isn’t anything we can do for Daisy. She has cancer and she is in a lot of pain. I will let the two of you decide what you want to do.”
I remember looking down at Daisy, who was lying on a cushion on the exam room floor. My usually happy, smiling dog seemed to be pleading for help. We could not bear knowing she was in so much pain. We knew the most loving thing we could do was say goodbye to our sweet girl.
The ride home without her was excruciating. We wondered how, at her routine vet visit just a couple of months earlier, all her blood work had been normal. I kept thinking about how Daisy was when I last saw her, happily playing with our other dogs. How did we not notice something was wrong? She never acted sick until her last two days on Earth.
I wanted answers, and what I found broke my heart. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), malignant tumors can grow very quickly in dogs. In fact, cancer has usually progressed significantly before a pet shows symptoms like lethargy, weight loss and changes in appetite. When the symptoms begin, it is easy to assume they are normal signs of aging. Daisy had slowed down quite a bit in the months before she died, but we assumed it was because she was getting older.
You can improve your pet’s odds of getting an earlier diagnosis by getting regular checkups and contacting your vet any time you notice a change in their appearance, behavior or appetite. Don’t make assumptions based on your pet’s age.
Well before we lost Daisy, I knew dogs get cancer. What I didn’t realize was that cancer is the leading cause of death in dogs. The AVMA says almost half of dogs age ten and older will develop cancer. Half. I guess deep down, I just never imagined it would happen to one of my fur babies. But it did.
For more information about pets and cancer, you can visit the AVMA website, AVMA.org and search for cancer.
