u/arcwilson

Late last week, i had made up my mind to take Sophie back the vet, bc she wasn't getting any better, but she has gotten worse over the weekend. She never did walk. She was dragging herself, and because of that, her skin is red and irritated. She's got a wound now from where she's been scratching. She's not eating anything with sustenance; i can only get her to drink liquids. And now not very much. She's wasting away in front of me.

So I've decided to send her to the rainbow bridge this afternoon. I can't let her suffer anymore. I'm heartbroken because I tried so hard. But I feel like all I've done is prolong her suffering.

While Sophie is still not back to her normal self, I see progress every day.

I was able to talk to the vet yesterday (phone only) and he suspects, based on my description, maybe she is weak bc she is dehydrated. So we decided to change up a couple of things. I added her water bottle back to her enclosure, which is what she was using prior to the surgery, in case she's not drinking from the bowl. I put her normal dry kibble with her at night, but I'm still syringe feeding in the evening. Then I changed her to Critical Care for the syringe feeding. Im also slowly reducing the medicine she is on.

Last night when I started feeding her, she seemed to be choking on the Critcal Care. I gave her some water to wash it down, and then added some more water to the paste and tried again, and she was fine. The fact that she was choking on a paste concerns me, but it just occurred to me that if she is truly dehydrated, she wouldn't have enough saliva in her mouth to help wash it down. While holding her, she was moving around alot: bucking, picking up her head, kicking her feet, sliding around. A lot more movement yesterday than the day before.

This morning i checked on her and she was lying on her back. Somehow she flipped herself and couldn't get upright again. 😟 She hadn't touched her food that i could see, but she gave me her 1st poop since the surgery. It wasn't the ideal texture, but again, it's progress.

If the changes I made and a couple more days of recovery don't get her walking again, I'll be taking her back to see the doctor to see if there is a neurological issue. The dragging herself around was what she was doing before the surgery, but I thought it was because the tumor was preventing her from walking. Maybe there was something else going on that we didn't know about??

I got Sophie out this morning to give her her pain medicine, and she was lifting her head, kicking her legs, and then she started wiggling around. I just checked in on her a few minutes ago, and she had moved to the opposite end of her cage. I haven't seen her stand up yet, but at least she's moving around now.

Sophie's surgery was a success!! She is still loopy and hasn't moved anything except for her nose, but she's home and that tumor is gone. I couldn't believe how large it was. If you're interested, photos are attached. (If not, only look at the 1st photo. )

After about a week of thinking it over, I decided to move forward with surgery to have the tumor removed IF her bloodwork indicated she was healthy enough to with stand the surgery. Got the blood drawn last Saturday and scheduled the appointment for the 29th. But a few days ago i watched the video from Sophie's camera and saw how bad she was struggling. It broke my heart. The good news was she was leaving her bed to go to the food bowl to eat, but she wasn't drinking, and she was having to drag herself to the bowl. The tumor had gotten so large, she couldn't extend and walk on her front leg. So i called the vet and had her surgery rescheduled to today. Her bloodwork came back just in time, and only showed signs of mild dehydration; poor baby probably couldn't reach her water bottle anymore.

I couldn't find my Critical Care so I just used her normal kibble, soaking it and the mashing it into a paste. I syringe fed her the last 2 days, hoping to get her water intake up and to make sure she was eating enough.

We dropped her off at the vet this morning for the surgery. I told Sophie she better come home today!! I'm a nervous wreck.

Sophie's appointment with the vet was yesterday. While he couldn't pinpoint exactly what the lump is, based solely on the blood sample, he thinks it is a tumor. At this time, I am thinking over the options that were provided to me. The most drastic option is to surgically remove it, but not only is that expensive, it's also very risky. The tumor is sitting right on top of a major artery; also because of it being just above her leg, recovery would be difficult. I am thinking maybe I need to leave it alone? She will be turning 3 next week.

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice last week on Shish, my new betta. He is doing so much better! He is active and eating, and smart! (I've been feeding him in a floating ring, and last night, when he saw me lift the tank lid, he went straight to the ring. )

Yesterday I found this betta that didn't appear to be doing too well in the petstore. Even though he didn't look healthy, something about him made me want him.... out of all the other healthy- looking ones. He's a samurai, which I've never seen before. I chose him.

He survived the night but definitely something is wrong. He is staying at the bottom of the tank, only swims up to the surface for air. His body is curled, he hasn't eaten, and he is very lethargic. I don't see anything that indicates what could be wrong. I believe he's going to die but I need to try to save him. Does anyone have any suggestions for me,

I discovered this lump tonight on my girl. I'll be calling my vet 1st thing in the morning. I've searched this page for similar issues and found quite a few. I really hope and pray it is an abscess that can be drained and not a tumor.

My chunk-a-munk will be 3 years old next week

Look at my beautiful girl, doing her daily yoga. Lol She makes laugh