My sister's little baby girl Smudge was a little angel in our lives. So full of life, full of character, a right shmarmy little madam and oh those eyes could kill you in a second if she was not happy with you. When she turned 10 she started suffering with her breathing. The vet diagnosed her as asthmatic and put her on quartezone...problem with this is it made her insatiably hungry. As it was they had a tough time controlling the speed at which she ate.
Anyway, my sister went away for a couple nights and I came in regularly to give Smudge her food, medication and just general play with her. Saturday, January 15th 2005 it was. At 7pm OH and I turned up to check on her and gave her food and I found her breathing a bit sluggish. My sister had said vet had said that was to be expected. The vet had completely ignored my sister when she said the laboured breathing was not normal and it was stressful on our poor Smudge.
I sat with her a bit and she seemed to perk up when she got her meds and her food. So I left. It was the worst thing I could have done. I called my sister to tell her about the breathing and how Smudge had perked up. At that point they were already on their way back home, about an hour away. My sister got home and called me. They were taking Smudge to the vets.
An hour later I got a call, my sister in tears, saying that it wasn't asthma. The emergency vet ran a simply scan....Smudge had lymphomas in her throat which were so big and were causing her laboured breathing. The vet told them openly and honestly, there was nothing more to do. My sister kissed her baby goodnight and gave her a kiss from her auntie Ruth. Even my brother-in-law was beyond words.
I keep thinking to this day, two years later, that there was something I should have done. If I had got her to the vets earlier instead of just relying on what I was told. My sister has never blamed me, saying that there was nothing we could have done. The first vet would not listen and to the end they could have made Smudge's last days more bearable.
I don't think the vet was bad, I think that his compassion and his willingness to listen to his patients rather than go only with what he thought was right, was just not there. If he had thought outside his high and mightly perch, he would have gone that extra step to see if there was anything there. The emergency vet ran the scan just as a safe guard. And look what he found.
can't see through the tears. I miss Smudge every day. She was the little baby of our family. Lexy even looks like her and that was a pure spooky thing when madam chose me to come live with me. Sometimes, even if you have a good experience with a vet, its just like a doctor...not all of them are brilliant.
