What is compassion? Compassion is the feeling of empathy for others. Compassion is the emotion that we feel in response to the suffering of others that motivates a desire to help. In the context of being a pet parent, it is our responsibility to see the signs and get help. They are not able to verbally articulate, so these cues come from their behavior, how are they acting, do they have a sparkle in their eye, are they sleeping more, I could go on and on. At the end of the day, our job is to make things better. Now, to what measure? That is really up to you.
Because I don't have any children, Darby, Duncan, Codie, and Birdie are my children. Duncan and Birdie are happy go lucky, and in good health. My Codie, well, she is an old lady, but still going strong, and you know about Darby. Darby is the reason for this blog. She has provided an avenue for me to help others. Although everyone journey is different, I hope that I can provide some insight and some clues to help you through yours.
Where we left off:
I loaded Darby up on Colostrum over the weekend, and it seemed to have helped, she had an ok Saturday, and a pretty awesome Sunday. The spring was back in her step, she looked strong, she ate well, everything was looking up. Come Monday, and Tuesday, I noticed that she did not want to eat. Through varying degrees of enticement, I was able to get enough food in her so that i could administer her medication, but she needed more. It was later that evening that I remembered an appetite stimulant that I had, so I gave her one. Sure enough, she ate well on Tuesday a.m. and p.m. However, something was not right, there must have been something else going on because she started to obsessively lick her paws, she even started to lick her babies. Darby usually exhibits this behavior when she is hurting or sometimes when she has an upset stomach. I worried all night, regretting the appetite stimulate this evening. I decided to let her eat on her own on Wednesday, but unfortunately she did not. This was a huge sign. Darby was not feeling well, something else was wrong. I contemplated all night on what to do. As Darby's mama, its my responsibility to gauge her quality of life, and assess her future. My baby girl has a UTI that has not been controlled, and she has a bladder tumor. These two combined are terrible, however, they are under control and under extreme supervision; therefore, there must be something that I am missing...How can I solve this problem? CAN I solve this problem?
I woke up early on Thursday, not feeling well, and I had also decided that I would let my baby go. I called my mom, and she came over, I called my neighbor Mary and she came over, my roommate Lydia whom I had not seen all morning was also caught by surprise. I just wanted to make things better for her. I walked into Dr. Allen's office with the intent of saying good-bye. He walked in and talked to me a bit, answered my questions, and if I decided otherwise, he even helped outline a "plan". He left the room, I needed some time to think. Then, an epiphany...the medicine, its the medicine. There is something about this medicine that is not sitting well with her. She has given me cues all along, I did act on them, just not in their entirety. The first time I saw her getting irritated was 7 days into the Piroxicam, so we started her on the antibiotic, then next time I saw her get irritated was 2 days into the antibiotic. Darby was missing an antacid all this time. PepsidAC had a tough job to complete. Now for all the unwinding to begin.
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