These are the Schnauzers. Gus is gray, he is 6 years old, and Poncho is the black one and he is 4.
Then there is Buster.
Buster turns 13 on Sunday. And we have just found out he is suffering from hyperparathyroidism. Generally this is caused by a benign tumor on the thyroid. The problem is that it is causing Buster to have elevated calcium levels in his blood, and that can eventually lead to things like kidney or bladder stones, crystals in his urine and urinary tract infections. Right now he is relatively healthy, for being 13, and they would like to take the tumor out to stop things from escalating.
And that will cost us $2000. Minimum. We don't have $2000 to spend on Buster. So we are not doing it. But that means risking that he will develop bladder stones and UTI's and any number of other related problems because this is not being fixed.
We would be hard pressed to be able to cough up $2000 for this even if Bob was fully employed, but with the current situation, it just isn't happening. And that makes me a little angry and very frustrated. But there isn't much we can do about it. As it is we have to call a plumber today because the upstairs toilet won't unclog. How is it that a toilet is fine and then one day things just won't go down? No, Cooper did not put something down it. He is not unaccompanied 99% of the time he is upstairs and awake. So I am confident he didn't stick anything in there. But it is clogged and no amount of plunging or toilet opening enzyme product is making much a difference.
Speaking of awake, the sleep gods have forsaken us. Hopefully temporarily. Cooper would not go to sleep last night. He never fights going to bed. But he was wound up. I don't know what happened, but at 10pm he was still AWAKE and Bob finally decided to lay down in the guest room with him, and that is how they fell asleep. This had better pass.
Is Mercury in retrograde or something? Dogs, toilets, kids not sleeping. GAH.
6 comments:
Sorry about Buster. It is a very difficult decision. As time marches on...
My neighbor's dog just had this thyroid surgery several weeks ago! It was very costly and involved daily blood work and expensive medication for weeks on end. My heart goes out to you for having to make a biblical decision about your pet.
This is so hard, we know. Never easy - hurts the heart. We are sorry.
As one who has A) had kidney stones... grains of sand actually, I feel for the poor pooch, B) had a dog I paid out a ton of cash to remove several tumors that reappeared a year later, C) had no money to spend again on a pet that deserved more than I could provide and D) sat with her while she was put down...
why do we do these things to ourselves knowing full well what we will have to do?
Sorry. Not a choice we ought to have to make.
I am so sorry. I worry about this with our old dog. If she develops something we will not be able to treat her, either.
We just have to be realistic and do the best we can.
And sleep issues are hard on the whole family, glad they found a spot where they could settle down for the night.
awwww the Buster...so sad.
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