Keep numbers handy

On Monday, May 19, Victoria Day, my beloved dog Max died.  I have written about my four-legged gang many times, Max and Friskie, the canine contingent; Harley, Luce, Toots and Angus, the felines.

You may remember Max had a torn cruciate tendon and was waiting for an operation.  Everything possible was done for my boy, aquatic therapy with the wonderful folks at K9H20 to maintain muscle surrounding the tendon and to make sure his overall fitness was maintained as much as possible.  I hired a dog sitter to stay with him when business called because sudden movement would have been a disaster. Max was on medication to help the tendon and finally pain pills started just days before the scheduled operation. Like I said, everything possible.

Over night Sunday, Max started to vomit and as soon as I could I called my vet’s office (this was a holiday Monday remember) and got a recording advising me to call an emergency vet in Langley.  I followed the advice I received which was to take Max off the tendon meds and leave him on the pain meds and monitor the situation.

Max started slipping into a coma by early afternoon and I frantically started calling all the vets in Mission, except one which I forgot about in my panic. 

All messages led to the same clinic in Langley, which under these extreme circumstances could have been Mars. Administering CPR while trying to find vets’ phone numbers and the growing, gut-wrenching knowledge that there was no help available was a feeling I just cannot describe. 

I called the Langley clinic and, with the help of two friends, carried Max to the van and two of us continued CPR for the 45 minutes it took to reach the clinic.

Needless to say, everyone at the emergency clinic was superb and moved Max into the life support room immediately but, as I feared, within a few minutes the vet advised me Max was gone. This whole experience was so brutal I could not talk to anyone for many days about what happened and even now, as I write this, I am weeping for this huge loss.  We don’t know for sure what happened, but the consensus is he had an unknown ulcer or tumour that started to bleed, probably from the meds, and he bled out internally.

I never want to be in that position again, and I don’t want any of you to deal with such despair trying to get help and not finding anyone close.  I have started to put together a list of all the vets in both Mission and Abbotsford, their addresses and phone numbers and hours of operation. It will take me a few weeks to pull everything together, but if you would like me to e-mail you the list when complete, please e-mail me and, when it is ready, I will send it along. 

Bless you Max, you were a great friend.

dundarave@shaw.ca