Category: Dende

This morning we said goodbye to Dende.

He will be sorely missed.

But it was time.  He was clearly in pain and not truly living anymore, but rather working to stay alive.

So, we all said our last goodbye’s and Tim loaded him into the truck to take him to the vet.  On the drive Tim rolled down the windows to let the breeze come in across the seats.  As they were driving Dende lifted his head and took some deep breaths of the morning air and then peacefully stopped breathing.  I would like to believe that he enjoyed his last moments of smelling the wonderful outdoor scents.  Those scents that used to send him howling in one direction or another.  Or maybe a thought of chasing a squirrel ran through his head.  Or maybe he remembered our countless walks, with his nose plastered to the ground searching for dropped morsels of food.

We were lucky to enjoy almost three extra years than we had expected with him.  They diagnosed him with Lymphoma on Valentine’s Day 2011.  He was predicted to die within the month and he kept holding on and holding on and made it all the way to June 2014.  I’m happy that Chloe will have so many memories of him and that Josiah (even though he probably won’t actually remember him) will have pictures of himself with Dende.

He was a good dog.  The first real addition to our family.  That will forever hold a special place in our hearts.

Dende and the kiddos

I can’t remember if I’ve update you all on Dende recently…

He was diagnosed with Lymphoma in February of 2011.  We looked at our options, started to “say our goodbye’s” and put him Prednizone.  Then we waited.  They told us it would be a fast downward spiral.  I remember I was pregnant at the time and constantly praying he wouldn’t die in the same month that I had Josiah–I wasn’t ready to deal with both at once.

So, we continued to wait.  And wait and wait…

We took him back in for his yearly visit last February (a year ago now) and they said it seemed like he was doing fine so we started to wean him off of the medicine.  In fact he was doing so “fine” that at the beginning of the summer they came to the conclusion that he was cancer free.   So, we took him completely off the medicine.

Meanwhile, we had to deal with the effects of going easy on our “dying dog” and whip him back into shape.  Literally.  We (well, mostly Tim) started to spoil him a bit when we were dealing with the idea of him passing, so he gained a bit of weight.  Plus there were some annoying habits that we had started to let slide.  But now that he was fine again, we decided that we needed a well-behaved (as much as he can be, at least!) dog.

And the summer was great.

Then we found a lump on his neck again.

So, we took him back in and they confirmed that the Lymphoma was indeed back, so we put him back on the Prednizone (again).  And, just like that, the lump went away and he returned to “normal.”

Interesting, huh?

Yesterday marks 2 years since he was first diagnosed with Lymphoma.  TWO YEARS!  And they told us he would be gone in less than two months.  Can you believe that?  I guess the medicine is very effective on him.   The funny part is that that medicine was never intended or expected to actually help for any significant amount of time.  It was merely meant to help make him more comfortable for a little while.  It’s a good thing we opted for the cheaper medicine option since we’ve now been paying for it for almost 2 years…

So, Happy Day After Valentine’s Day, Dende!  We’re happy to have you with us still!

Dende and the kiddos

Many of you are probably wondering how our dear dog Dende is doing these days.

If you recall one year ago (on Valentine’s Day) Dende was diagnosed with Lymphoma.  Here’s my initial post from last February:  http://amadeusacademy.com/family/?p=2702

We decided that since he seems to pretty much have plateaued that if he made it a year we would take him back in to get checked.  So that’s what we did.  And wouldn’t you know, the vet said he can’t find any evidence that he still has Lymphoma.  No more lumps.  But he also recommended that we keep him on his steroids since they appear to be working!

The medicine still makes him unbelievably hungry and thirsty, but we’re getting used to that now.  The one thing that we just can’t get used to is his incredible stinky-ness.  He is SO gassy it’s literally suffocating.  (Kylene and Justin can vouch from when they stayed here over Christmas!) So, we’re trying to figure out how to help.  We’ve switched his food, smashed up his food, added water to his food, tried taking long walks with him and even giving him Beano!  All to no avail…

But it’s still nice to have him around.  And Josiah just loves him.  I’m glad we’ll have pictures of them together.  If Josiah is on the floor he’ll roll to where Dende is and try to “love him” (a.k.a. pull his hair/tail/ears/whatever he can reach).  And he just laughs and laughs when Tim does tricks with Dende.

So, here’s to hoping we’ll have him around for a while longer yet.  Oh and also that we can figure out how to make him less stinky.  Ideas anyone?

I mentioned yesterday that Dende is starting his fourth month of steroids.  I think both Tim and I are surprised at how well he is doing–Tim had even said, when we first found out in February, that he anticipated Dende being gone before he started his work season.  All of the information we had been given on Lymphoma  seemed to point to a quick illness and break-down.  Yet, here we are, a whole month into Tim’s work season and Dende is plugging away.

He has, however, started to display some new characteristics over the past month or so.  I’ve already mentioned that the steroids he’s taking make him unbelievably hungry and thirsty.  But recently he’s also started panting much more than normal.  We call it his “smile” face.  He’s panting and the corners of his mouth are turned upwards–which is odd since that used to be a sign that he was going to throw-up.  But now it’s like he just can’t catch his breath or he’s very hot.  The lump under his chin is significantly larger now.  This might explain why he’s panting more–maybe it’s just harder for him to breathe.

But back to being so hungry and thirsty.  It’s started to take a toll on his bladder control.  We’ve had to move him into the bathroom for the night with a blanket on the floor.  Tim takes him for a walk just before bed but despite that, he can’t make it through the night without wetting on his blankets.  Which makes for a cumbersome new morning routine:  Open the door to the bathroom, make a face at the awful smell, carefully pick up his blankets by a tiny dry corner, toss them in the washing machine, come back upstairs and mop the floor, set back out the shower rug for the day, don’t forget to switch his blankets over later in the day or he’ll be sleeping on wet blankets, and get ready to do it all again tomorrow.

I’ve started to analyze the cost of having to wash/dry his blankets every day and it’s started me thinking about the possibility of trying doggie diapers.  I know I’ve scoffed at them in the past but it might be the more cost efficient way of handling this, and since his quality of life otherwise seems to be fairly normal it might be worth it.  However, we’re unsure if he would leave it alone and not rip them to shreds… I wish they sold them individually so we could just experiment with one.  I just hate to buy a bunch and then discover it won’t work.  And then again, I could just keep washing his blankets and forget about it…