Over a year ago I noticed that my little dog was not able to jump nearly as well as she had in the past, I atributed this to being almost nine years old and not getting as much excersise as she should riding around in my truck. Then about late september she started coughing and gagging and throwing up her food, this resolved itself in a matter of about a day and a half, but about a month later it happened again so I took her to a vet who gave her a full run of test that were inconclusive, put her on antibiotics for a week and the issue was resolved itself for about a week and then came back. I then took her to four different vets over a three week period, the last one decided she had an enlarged heart and put her on Lasix and Enalipril, this did very little good but she did seem to be a little happier. She would not do too bad during the day but at night it was bad as she would cough and vomit sometime as much as fifty times a night and she went from 28 pounds down to 22 pounds in about two months. I took her to a few more vets who ran no test and agreed with the heart problems took my money and sent me out the door. Then she developed a bad skin condition on her head and face and legs, she was looking very rough. When I was home a couple of weeks ago I went to another vet who was more concerned about the skin condition than the other problems and gave her an injectable steroid shot twice, that made her deathly ill both times but it started clearing the skin up but now she was extremely sick and weak. I took off on a trip to California and after two days she completely stopped eating and was vomiting nonstop I bought low calorie gaterade and diluted it with water for her to drink but it seemed she was allergic to fluids as about a minute after drinking she would projectile vomit violently every thing she had drank. I went into a restarant and had them specially prepare her some boiled chicken and rice with no spices and she managed to eat a good bit but regurtitated most of it back up. She was now very weak and I had to do every thing for her. I headed back home and drove 880 miles one day so I could get her to another vet I had made a an appointment with. She seemed to feel a little better the closer to home we got, but on wednsday night she had a very rough night at home. The next morning she did not feel very well but on the drive to the vets office she perked up a bit. The vet ran several hours worth of test and decided that there was nothing wrong with her heart and finally took notice of her atrophyied muscles in her hind legs and neck area. an xray after a dose of barium revield her esophigas was almost 5 times as big as it should have been and all her food and water would just lay in it and not reach her stomach, drain down into her lungs and make her cough it all back up. This disease is an autoimmune disease called Myasthenia Gravis or MG and is something that Jack Russell terriers get on occasion, it is not very reversable. She also had went from 22 pounds to 17 pounds in a week. Her white cell count was through the roof. I then made the decision to put her to sleep and have been a total wreck ever since wondering if I made the right decision or if I not tried hard enough. I took her to at least ten vets and can not help but think I should have taken her to at least twenty.This dog was my 24 hour companion for over nine years and was smarter than a lot of people I meet.
To honor her I have decided not to get another dog for a while as this is not about me and would not be right to discard her life and replace it with another.
She has made a huge impact on the direction my life has taken the last several years as everything I did had to be planned to include her. She has now left an even larger void than she had filled now that she has gone.
CJ, your daddy loves you very much and hopes you are at peace and will forgive the mistakes I have made.
I have a new little dog now, she is in many ways very simular to CJ, but in a few ways completely different. CJ was very vocal and would talk to you to let you know what she wanted. My new dog Sophie is not as demanding and much quieter, but has much more energy and would play 24 hours a day if you would. Sophie is great to take hunting as she is very quiet and rarely barks or growls. She seems to have a little more hunting sense about her and will try a little stalking rather than just chasing the manure out of every living creature. CJ despised cats and sent many a feline to the big kitty litter box in the sky. Sophie just thinks they are interesting and wants to play with them. I think Sophie knows that something is missing in my life and is doing the best she can to fill CJs tracks.
I hope that the blessing that was my friend CJ will give me the strength to go in directions in life that I would have never considered a few years ago.
Thanks for reading.
Ron
