So since I posted my last message on Monday, Baloo took a turn for the worse and was euthanized, sadly yesterday morning. When I got home on Monday, Baloo was his bright perky self, still weak in the hind end but happy to see me and eating quite well. I started him on pred that night in hopes that it would help his mobility. Tuesday morning Baloo seemed about the same as the night before so I gave him his second dose of pred and a fed him breakfast. When I came home Tuesday night; however, Baloo was in the same spot I had left him that morning which was definitely not a good sign. When I picked him up and carried him to the washroom to clean him up he started mouth breathing...I immediately put him down and noticed that the paralysis had got significantly worse. I rushed him to the vet where they did a few x-rays and started him on oxygen. We saw 2 things in the x-rays - a very large mass attached to the kidneys and a very swollen prostate. *As a side note, Baloo had adrenal surgery in August of 2009 and although he was clinical, both adrenal glands appeared relatively healthy and therefore did not warrant removal. In May we implanted Baloo with a Deslorelin implant which helped calm his symptoms significantly. * So we decided that since things had progressed so quickly we would do an exploratory the following morning. I took Baloo home, gave him lots of love and hoped for the best. By 6am; however, I knew that he would likely not survive the surgery and definitely not the recovery process. Baloo was having a very difficult time breathing, was entirely flat and was very disconnected. I brought him to my vet first thing and decided to euthanize him instead of going ahead with the exploratory. My poor little man crossed the bridge peacefully.
I decided that I would like a post-mortem done on Baloo to see what took his life so quickly. When my vet opened him up the most obvious issue was the enormous adrenal tumour. When my vet opened up the tumour a very large amount of blood clots where inside. My vet said that had he been alive when he opened up this tumour it would have been very difficult to control the bleeding and that he likely would have euthanized him then. Baloo’s prostate was also very large even though he did not have any issues eliminating. The other concerning matter was that Baloo’s stomach was quite thickened and looked very unhealthy so it is likely that he was also suffering from a gastrointestinal cancer. My vet could not say for sure what exactly caused the paralysis and the rapid decline, it could have been the tumour or the blood clots it was producing but there is no way to know for sure.
All in all both my vet and I felt I made the right choice in letting Baloo pass peacefully. I can’t say it was a hard decision as watching him deteriorate and waste away to nothing in a matter or days made it obvious that something was very wrong and it was obvious that he was suffering.
I will miss my little man who always enjoyed my company more then the company of his other 4 legged friends, but I feel better knowing that he is in a good place. Until we meet again dear friend…
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