Well today was a very sad day in our house...we lost a true friend, one of our Golden Retrievers Skye had to be put down. She was recently diagnosed with spinal arthritis and had been treated for it but wasn't really improving. Then over the past fortnight she'd become very, very clingy and wouldn't leave your side. She was walking very wonky due to her back problem and yesterday she didn't want to eat. She kept just standing in parts of the yard and staring into space so I knew she wasn't well. Yesterday the membrane in the lower eyelid was covering half of her eye and today the eye was bulging a heck of a lot so I rang the vet early this morning after I found her sprawled out in the backyard. When we arrived, the vet diagnosed her with dehydration but I had seen her drinking yesterday. With the heat and being ill, she may not have had her normal intake which was always heaps and heaps - she was a big drinker. He said it was an absyss behind her eye that would be usually due to a rotten tooth and the root getting infected. Those nerves lead down to the back of the jaw and when he tried to open her mouth, she tried to bite him. Other than that, she looked well but wouldn't walk or stand up due to her back. She must have been in the backyard spot all night as she smelled terrible. He said without doing any tests that he thought there may be something else going on inside her that has caused the eye problem so they kept her there for a couple of hours and did a blood and urine test. Turns out that her kidney was failing and getting an absyss that would normally be treatable had flared up very quickly because her old body wasn't working properly. She was 13 and a half and we've had her since 2000 when she was around 5 years old. We got her as a companion to our other Golden Zak who we got as a pup in 1995. The vet gave us the option of putting her on a drip to flush out her kidneys but he said she'd no doubt end up with some further infection and not have the strength to fight it off again and I didn't want to put her through any more pain. She looked terrible this morning and after we decided to have her put down, it was like a big relief....very sad, but knowing it was the best thing for us to do. My Dad, the kids and I all went down to say goodbye to her and she looked like she knew it was time. I can't even type this without getting very emotional but I need to get it off my chest. When I came home tonight, Zak ran straight up to me and just sniffed me madly. I would have smelt like Skye as I'd carried her to the car and into the vet and then patted and cuddled her to say goodbye. He'll be okay but I'm sure he'll miss his good old playmate....all they ever did was wrestle around on the ground but now with both of them having arthritis, the wrestling was usually one-sided - the other one never wanted to join in anymore! So, Skye, we'll all miss you dearly and as Toby said, she'll be up in heaven with angel wings and she won't need to worry about walking on her sore legs. Toby even asked when we were going to Skye's funeral and then at Mum's this afternoon, they were yelling goodbye to Skye up to the sky (ie Heaven)! They are so adorable and I'm surprised that they weren't the slightest bit upset by knowing she wasn't coming home. Here's some pics I took of her over the past year or so and one with her best mate Zak.....
