My dog, Shadow, was a healthy one and a half year old Labrador Retriever mix that I adopted from a local animal shelter. She became part of our family when she was six months old. Although fierce and energetic, she was great for her twin daughters, who both have autism.
On the last day, one shadow fell on a chair at the kitchen table. I thought she was just having an unplanned moment, but my boyfriend seemed to throw her into it. We don’t think much of the incident as it was in the second half of the game.
A few months passed and the Shadow had fallen into another situation. This one was clearly not out of a slump or a slump. When she was lying on the ground, she was frightened and looked confused. Again after a short time he arose and looked well. Once every three or four days he began to rush. It always happens when she is moved: someone comes to the door, goes hunting, or something active.
We took her to the vet, who told us that it was likely a fainting episode, or syncope. However, our work did an EKG and some blood work and then referred us to a specialist. Up until that time I had never thought of a cardiologist dog, but it was the shadow we had to see.
He was a great cardiologist. She was very friendly and open to discussion. After an extensive four-hour examination, we had more information about Shadow’s syncopation. Unfortunately, the information we learned led to several questions.
The shadow of the right lung lobe was “dead”. It was not completely out. On the x-ray, the right lobe of the middle lung looks like a black mass. More tests were needed to find out what was going on inside the lungs.
In addition to the lung issue, Shadow also had a congenital heart defect in common with labs. He did not explain the heart defect though his syncope. In addition to that heart problem, Shadow also had both atrial and ventricular tachycardia. Atrial tachycardia is caused by the upper heart valves contracting irregularly, resulting in a rapid heart rate. Ventricular tachycardia also caused her to have a high heart rate Which of the following conditions could cause syncope?
We decided on a course of antibiotics, assuming that the lobe of the lung was filled with bacteria. We also started to try some Sotalol to make it heart raterebere and start a rhythm.
After finishing the antibiotics, the right lung shadow still showed a black mass on the x-ray. We decided that the doctor would try to draw a fluid sample from it.
The cardiologist drew some fluid from the lungs and from the sinus fluid that was next to the lungs to see what was present. The results with the lung did not indicate what was going on, so that a lobe of the lung was removed, which would probably happen sooner or later.
the lobe of the right lung was successfully removed; unfortunately, the upper right lung was punctured during surgery and had to be removed as well. The surgeon also found a lot of fluid in the atrial cavity when he opened it, which was not expected.
Shadow was to be allowed to come home once she was quiet producing only fluid in her chest cavity, which is not at all rare after surgery. Usually two to three days post-op is the normal recovery time.
Shadow spent about six days in recovery before it was decided whether or not we should have another surgery. At this time it would be correct to correct the fluid problem, which turned out to be idiopathic chylothorax. I did not know what condition this was at the time, or how fatal the lamentation was. The surgeon describes the procedure to us, which will involve threading the tubes that drain the lymphatic fluid into the chest cavity, as well as removing the pericardium, which surrounds the heart. Laceration surgery alone only had about a 50% success rate; put the success rate of pericardectomy and laceration surgery up to about 75%.
Shadow came with us one night before the second-hand house. It was another dog. Tired, timid, lascivious, she had lost her air. I was hoping I wasn’t going crazy to take her to a place where things seem amazing. I think not to be mad, but rather to be confused and frightened.
He had a second surgery and recovered in two days. She was allowed to come home with us. His staples and stitches made me think of some kind of Frankenstein dog. We fought because we put her shirt on because it made her more comfortable. He didn’t want anyone looking at or touching his staples. She became much more secure with the shirt.
We continued discussions with the cardiologist to ask why she continued to have syncope episodes. We were hoping that the pressure on the lungs and the heart fluid would make them go away after the surgery. Unfortunately it wasn’t.
He had also continued to build moisture in his chest, but much more slowly than before. She would have died within two days after the first surgery if the chest tube had been removed. Now it would be most likely that we would be able to start several months before the work was exhausted.
We worked with a cardiologist for a couple of months working on medicine and supplement cocktails to see if they could drive away the fluid. When sit to urinate, where she was, Shadow began to have incontinence issues when sleeping.
Between March and May I finally found a way to reduce the fluid in the cabin. We had to urinate and stay in the supplement if we could achieve progress without incontinence.
Only ten days after our news, Shadow fell ill. He started vomiting on Thursday night. She was tossing French fries, so I thought someone had been feeding people too much food recently. He continued to be ill during the night. On Friday morning he was playing around a bit, but still didn’t want to eat or drink much.
By Friday afternoon she seemed really bad, so we decided to take her to the pet emergency place. On that road they seemed calm and peaceful. Let me hold my head in my hand, and then put the head in the center of the solar car, so that my boyfriend could pet it.
We were almost in the emergency when she tried to vomit again, but was mostly dry. It smells really bad, so he sat down, facing me from where he was lying on the back. I could sit down to be nearer to him. When we pulled into the parking lot and tried to get her out of the car she wouldn’t budge. It struck me that she was dead, but I did not believe it.
We didn’t want to move her in case it made things worse, so I went in to help. I don’t know why I don’t say “I think my dog is dead”, but I don’t. I asked for help getting my dog out of the car.
At which point my friend must have been either unconscious or dying as he picked her up and brought her in. I can still see the image of him, with his arms in his pocket, his tongue hanging down. Then I understood that she was dead.
The emergency room team tried to revive her, but were unable to do so. The cause of his death was too much fluid in his chest: he could not inflate his lungs to breathe and his heart had pressure of fluid in it.
We’re not sure what exactly caused such an improvement in fluid production, especially since it was only ten days before we saw the first marked improvement. It could be a vomiting disease that caused his lymphatic system to over-fluid, so more was leaking into his chest than it could repair it.
It wasn’t until after he was released that I learned that most dogs have surgery to treat chylothorax. No more than three months left after the surgery. I lived in the shadows for a week shy of three months past his surgery.
