This morning, Reggae started screeching at about 8am. I didn't think anything of it. He does this every morning when I let Tehya out of the house. He loves her and yells until she's back in his pen. I went out a bit later to put Tehya in with him and Reggae didn't come running to the gate to greet her. I found him laying in a patch of fireweed, alert, yelling but unable to move on his own.
Fortunately, Candace was on call and met us at the clinic right away. Reggae's gums were grey and he was not quite as responsive by the time we got there. An x-ray of his chest showed a massive tumour that was pressing on his lungs, heart and vagus nerve. There was no other option but to release him.
Reggae was a good dog; noisy, shy and always happy. Just last night he was yelling at me through the fence when I was too slow bringing him a treat. He'd recently gone blind in one eye, but he had no other obvious health issues. He'd even had a full senior check up with bloodwork last month that showed no issues. Candace said that the location of his tumour meant it would be symptomless until it caused major issues, like it did this morning.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...ps34ecba5a.jpg
Tehya will miss her daytime playmate. I will miss my noisy boy. It is oppressively quiet here right now!
