Saying goodbye to Lilly

I apologize, I have been so busy with work in the past year I simply have not had time to update my blog. I have debated on weather or not I should close it since I have not posted anything in so long. But something has come up and I feel like I need to tell those who are interested about it.

Some of you who follow my blog will remember our girl Tiger Lilly, the dog who came to us over 2 years ago. She had been shot in the face with a shot gun. She was blind in her left eye we suspect one of the pellets damaged a nerve to her eye. She had many things wrong with her at the time. She was VERY dog aggressive but we could see the kindness in her eyes and as sick as she was she always wagged her tail when she heard our voices. After several months of her being sick then well then sick again and no one wanting to adopt her we decided to keep her. In time with lots of love and patients she started getting along great with our other dogs and became best friends with them. I never would have dreamed she would eventually sleep with them but she she does & they all get along perfectly.

Bad news: Back in late fall of last year I seen a tiny spot on the floor, it looked like a drop of pink water. Then a few weeks later I seen it again, then again. Finally almost a month later we realized it was coming from Lily’s nose. But it was so little. She had began scratching quite a bit so we figured allergies so I began giving her Benadryl. After the Holidays we were seeing a little bit more blood than pink so we took her to our vet. Everything seemed fine , she prescribed some pills, we brought Lilly home, still no better. So over the next few months we took her back to our vet for more test and tried different pills. They treated her for allergies, fungus infection and other possible infections but nothing worked.

So our vet suggested we take her to a Hillcrest Animal Hospital in Little Rock (over 2&1/2 hours away) to have them run a scope into her sinuses to see if they can figure out what was wrong.

They did the procedure and X-ray (which we had never had done). Upon looking at the X-rays Lilly had way more pellets in her face than we had imagined. The doctors there seen 3 pellets close to the orbit of her eye and her sinus cavity. They felt like a infection sort of “rode in” on the pellets and caused a really nasty bacteria infection in her sinuses. So they removed the infected area and sent her home with 3 months of very strong antibiotics.
 We were so HAPPY to know she was going to be ok and determined to help her get well. But over the week she  didn't get better, she actually got worse. I was supposed to call the vet at Hillcrest back Monday, a week later to see what the results of the culture were that they sent off. That's when we found out in was not a infection, Lilly has Hemangiosarcoma. A very aggressive cancer.  At this point they could not recommend anything, no treatments, no surgery, no hope for Lilly. Even if the cancer could be removed it will come back and it still would not buy her much time. Most of the time this type of cancer starts in the spleen or stomach, lungs or heart. And most of the time people have no idea there dog is even sick until the dog dies or is almost dead. We are just broken hearted over her. She came to us so sick, almost dead and we saved her. And now we are helpless, we can’t save her this time.

We did  LOT of research online and found many people who were using Holistic medicine to treat there dogs and some dogs were living many months longer, some even a few years longer. The #1 treatment that stood out, that so any people are using and it has helped their dogs was Yunnan Baiyao. A Chinese Herb. The main thing it was supposed to help with is the bleeding. Many said it stopped the bleeding. So we checked into to make sure with our Vets that is was safe. We ordered it and gave it to Lilly right way but no changes, her nose still bleeds. This seems to be her only discomfort. When she lays down the blood goes down her throat causing her to cough, sneeze and have terrible snorting episodes.

We got the horrible news 2 weeks today, the vet gave her 3-6 months to live though I think the cancer is even more aggressive since the procedure. Since then the cancer has ate away part of the top of the sinus cavity. so we are not sure she will make it that long. All we can do is love her and spoil her and try to make her as comfortable as we can. It kills us to think of loosing her but we are so grateful we have had 2  great years with her and time to try to say goodbye. She has taught us many things.

I have been taking lots of pictures. As you can see in some of them she has been pretty playful, It makes me so happy to see her run.

We have been doing as much as we can with her. One of her favorite things is to ride the Mule. So we have been taking her, Biscuit & Lucy for rides at least once a day sometimes many more.

As I type this, she is laying at my feet snoring. I don’t know how many more times I will have her here with me like this but I am very grateful for every moment we have with her.

He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.   ---Unknown