Today was a sad day at the kennel.
A few evenings ago I noticed that Slanky, the runt of the 4 week old puppy litter, was in some distress and that something was very wrong with one of her legs.
After several late night telephone veterinarian consultations, it was decided that she needed an emergency vet clinic visit. I spent much of the next day with her at the clinic, taking x-rays and consulting at length about her condition.
What I had hoped was just an unfortunate injury that sometimes happens to puppies in the close confines of their nursery turned out to be something much more serious. The doctors were unable to determine for sure, but it appeared that she had some underdevelopment and missing parts in her joints.
Although it was clear that she would never be a sled dog, I immediately hoped to be able to raise her -- as we have done before -- to become a pet dog. When the vets informed me that they would have to amputate her leg in order to save her at all, however, my hopes were pretty much dashed.
To make matters worse, I was told that we would have to wait several weeks to do the amputation because she was so young.
I brought her back to the Kennel and watched her constantly for the next 24 hours. She looked just awful and in distress. I do not know if she was in pain, but I believe she was.
I did a lot of soul searching, as I always do about all of our dogs, and considered her long-term welfare. Her best prospects were to face several more weeks of pain and distress, to become a three-legged dog and to hope that she would avoid the likelihood of other congenital defects.
Sometimes being an advocate for the dog -- being "dog first" -- means you have to make the hard decisions.
I had Slanky put to sleep today.
I am sorry to share this sad news.
AliyLabels: Dogs