Bogenwald

Please be advised this hasn’t got a happy ending!

You have been warned.

A bit of a hard one to write. Sadly we had to let Bella go today. She bled 5 times since yesterday evening. The vet went to do the op on the teeth and sadly her blood tests showed that she was failing fast. She basically was losing platelets so her blood wouldn’t be able to clot.

They therefore couldn’t do the operation as she was also so anemic that caused a problem, dehydration was setting in, so they put her on a drip which thinned the platelets more. They had a blood transfusion set for tomorrow but they couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t delaying the inevitable. They also couldn’t be sure that if she started bleeding then she wouldn’t stop.

They think that she may have had some form of tumour causing the bleeding.

We therefore had to make the extremely hard decision… I am a firm believer of it’s better to be a day too soon than a day too late.

First off, thank you to everyone who passed on positive waves and good vibes and also for asking after her health. Well the good news is she is still with us. The bad news is she still hasn’t had her op. This is primarily because of the weather. The boats have been somewhat erratic of late.

They wanted her on drugs prior to the op to basically thicken the blood. Unfortunately they didnt have any left…They were really good and sent Esther to the pharmacy (the human one) with a prescription for Tranexmatic Acid. From my understanding this is what you give haemophiliacs. So although she is still bleeding at times is it a bit of a dribble, rather than the sudden gush like normal.

If you want a graphic idea of what I mean, get some nice runny red paint and fill about half a cup of it then drop it from about a foot and a half. Oh yeah,… for the full effect get someone to chase you through the house while doing this to simulate trying to get hold of the dog while she is getting upset. Repeat once or twice a day.

Needless to say stress levels were a bit high during these episodes.

Honestly though she is a lot brighter than before the medication. We reckon blood loss would have made her very lethargic and feeling like crap.

Esther is phoning the vet tomorrow to see if they have any ideas on a timescale as the tablet’s run out in three days.

So here is the old lady in her usual pose…