I cannot believe how much my poor dog Scooby has had to go through in his very short 15 months!!  As you all know Scooby has been vomiting since Jan 2nd and has also been through many diagnostic tests and hospitalisation.  Well 12 days ago my vet opened him up as the bips that they had fed him were collecting down in his gut somewhere.  They suspected a blockage and opened him up - to find nothing.  Scooby had previously had eye surgery that had refused to heal due to him having a reaction to his stitches and after 5 re-stitches on his eyes ended up taking all the sutures out and letting it heal by itself.  Thankfully his eyes are now healing lovely.  However, 12 days ago when they opened him up the vets did not use the sutures that Scooby had reacted to.  He had his stitches out yesterday and had 70 ml of fluid drained from the wound.  Within 2 and half hours he swelled like a balloon and I rushed him over to their hospital at 5.30pm last night.  they sedated him overnight and opened him up again today to remove all the sutures that had been put inside.  Scooby has spent 3 hours in surgery today and the vet said that the reactive tissue was extensive and had to remove quite a lot of tissue including some muscle in his abdomen.  She has re-stitched him but had no option but to stitch using a 2week dissolvable suture instead of the normal 6 week.  She also explained that because some of his muscle was taken away it now means he's had MAJOR surgery and is very poorly and will not be coming home for at least another 2 days.  On top of which they still haven't got to the bottom of his vomiting problem although whilst in surgery the vet took 6 biopsies of his gut, bowel and pancreas.  10 days to go to get the results. 

I can't help but wonder now whether I am being fair to this dog to keep going through this pain and sickness.  If it were my child there would be no question but when is the right time to call it a day.  Am I just being over senstitive because I am struggling to cope with this?  Any advice would be gratefully received on this situation.

Thats really sad news.  I can imagine how you feel, but how is the dog?  Does he still have the fight to carry on?  Only you can make these decisions, hard as they may be, the right one is for you alone.
Dawn.

Well before all this extra surgery he was getting really fed up and sleeping a lot, not getting excited and just slobbing around (which I know is normal for a lab) but he used to follow me all the time from room to room and the last two weeks that hasn't happened.  I think he is really fed up, but whether he is fed up of sickness, pain or life I am not sure.

Ah trish I really feel for you and scooby..I too have a dog named scoobie and we had endless problems with his ears and he had major surgery last march and still kept having problems felt so desperate went to see a homeopathic vet changed his diet to raw and give him supplements etc hes a happier and healthy dog..I know his problems were not the same as my scoobies but just hang on in there he needs you to be there for him and one day you will find a solution,just look positively he's only a young man he will be strong enough to fight back take care

Oh Trisha that's awful. Poor Scooby. :( I hope, for both your sakes, they can get to the bottom of this soon. Thinking of you.

Hi Trish,

How terrible for you and him.  Its so sad that after everything thats been done to him, they still don't know what the underlying cause is.  I would wait for the results, it might be the answer that you've been hoping for.  All I can say, is that you are both still in my thoughts, whatever happens.  Please let us know what you decide to do- You'll always be amongst friends here on CD.

Good luck
Ali

Just stay strong for Scooby Trisha, I'm sure he will pull through and be ok, I have a lab myself (11 months) so we both know what a bagful of fun they are. Your strength now will reward you in the future

Fingers crossed