June 15th a sad day for Ted and Susan (tissue alert)

Our poor little Max continued to get worse.  We took him to the vet on Tuesday when we got to Springfield, Missouri.  He was not eating (even his favorites) and was still having bad diarrhea.  They took blood, urine and feces tests.  His tests results showed a problem with his liver.  They took an X-ray but it was not definitive.  Dr. Powell decided he needed an ultra sound but we knew there was only a small chance that it would be something that could be treated.

They made an appointment for Monday because only ultra sound in Springfield was broken and when they got the new part on Thursday, it did not fix the problem.  Max was going down him so Dr. Powell called University of Missouri-Columbia Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital.  They don't normally do ultra sounds on Friday but agreed to do it for Max.

We got up very early on Friday and drove three hours to the hospital.  We were there by 8:45.  Two fourth year students took us right away to do history and do a preliminary exam of Max, his overall health, temperature and stomach.  The vet, Dr. Lewis then came in, talked with us at length about what had been going on and also did an exam.  We did learn that Cocker Spaniel's a tendency toward liver problems.  We had not heard that before.

The next step was to do the ultra sound.   They told us it would be a couple of hours so we went and got some breakfast.  We were sitting in their parking lot when they called us back in and gave us the bad news.  Our poor little guy had lymphoma cancer and probably cancer in his liver.  The liver was abnormally shaped and dark.  There were liquids leaking from his liver into his abdomen.  The best result would be only three months with chemo or possibly one month with prednisone which would possibly keep the diarrhea under control.  His quality of life had already been so diminished in one week that we just couldn't do that to him.  It was a hard decision to make but we felt it was better put him to sleep.  The vet agreed that it was probably the best thing for him.

We spent some time with him and he had one last little piece of bacon (which he really enjoyed and was about the only thing he had eaten in several days).  They gave him his shot and he was at rest.

Ted and I cried all the way home and shared our stories of the little guy.  He was such a good dog and a great little traveler.  We really miss him and have a big hole in our hearts!  We took one last picture of Max with each of us, notice his little belly was shaved for the ultra sound!

Missing our Max...