thanks for the thoughts. really appreciate it. dealing with Josephine's loss is still pretty rough. wed night when i got the follow-up call from the vet saying that she wasn't going to make it, i knew driving back in to see her would be the last time. and then seeing her lying there really struggling was extremely difficult. she looked up at me a couple times and her ears went back when she recognized me. but i think she knew it was almost over. her breathing was difficult and she was very weak.

according to the vet surgeon, even with some type of plasma-treatment to help with blood clotting her chances would have been less than 20%. i didn't want to put Josephine thru any more suffering. she had already been thru enough already so i decided to have her put to sleep.

right now dealing with all kinds of emotions-- grief, sadness, guilt, anger.

in addition to the tremedous grief, i still am having a difficult time understanding WHY this bloat happened. i never could get a comprehensive explanation from any vet. Josephine went 9+ years w/o any bloating problems. and then it came out of nowhere.