Such sadness today at the clinic.  It makes me long for my carefree time at the camp when my only concern was how to make the big dogs trip over each other.
The first sad story was about a old lady American Bulldog, named Burley.  Her sister Bessie came to the clinic a few years ago and died from a disease where her body ate her own red syrup.  I admit that the red syrup smells tasty, but I'd just as soon my body didn't eat itself!  So there was already a somber mood when Burley's mom came in.  "Burley's been vomiting for the past 5 days, she can't seem to keep anything down.  The strange thing is that her belly looks bigger, and according to Sally, Burley weighs more now than she did at her visit three weeks ago."  Mother adopted a 'that's curious' head-tilt and I knew she was concerned; especially when Burley didn't even try to lift her head when she walked in.  Burley just lay on her side like a she'd swallowed balloon.  One feel of the old lady's belly and mother had Burley on the black and white humming table.  A few more minutes and mother was delivering the news to Burley's mom:  "She's got a mass in her belly and a mass in her chest.  It looks like cancer.  We can try to get biopsies, but her prognosis does not look good."  "We decided after Bessie that we wouldn't put another dog through a lot of treatment just for our sake" Burley's mom said as the water started to fall from her eyes.  "We just want to keep her comfortable".  So Burley got some fluid for under her skin and some pills to help her stomach feel better.  It was all Burley could do to heave her big belly up to walk out the door.
The second sad story was a Jack Russell terrier pup named Miss.  She had the sad look from the moment she was carried in; a look like at any minute the kibbles were coming up.  Sure enough, ten minutes after she arrived they did, all over the visiting room.  "She's been doing that for 2 days" Miss' mom said "we only adopted her 3 days ago.  I know we've changed her food, but she seems sicker than that".  Patient Pam had a hunch and started a test for the Parvo.  Sure enough, her hunch was right.  "Miss has parvo" said mother as she broke the news to Miss' family.  "She'll have to be in the hospital for a few days.  There's nothing we can give her to attack the virus, but if we keep her hydrated and give her medicine for nausea and to fight off bacteria, she should pull through."  The family seemed to take the news well.  "After all, we did say we were going to rescue her, right?" Miss' dad offered.  Since it was late in the day, Miss had to go off to the overnight clinic. 

I was sure glad to leave the clinic tonight, I'll definitely be dreaming about being back at camp.  Ahhh, the good ole days.