The day started off normally enough. Mrs. DTR had to work, so I cleaned the house and gave the dogs a bath. Rudy had a vaccination update appointment at the Vet at 3:30 and Mrs. DTR wasn’t home from work yet, so I took him. He did great, was feeling find and acting great. I bring him home and he was slow to get out of the car but nothing alarming. Bright him in the house and even though Mrs. DTR was now home and his sister was excited to see him and jumping on him, he just laid down.
At first I thought “well he just got a shot so he’s just not feeling good.” My wife then noticed that he was panting, and then it got worse. She called the vet and they said he was probably just having a reaction to the shot, so bring him back right away and they’d give him a shot of epi, and adrenaline and he should be fine. So I tell him to get up so we can go “bye-bye” and he won’t move. Now I know it doesn’t feel good because he usually knocks you down getting to the front door if you say those words. Enough groundwork. I had to carry my 115lb Golden Retriever to the car, and then. carry him into he vet. THey check eyes, mouth etc. (stuff they just checked 30 minutes ago) and get very concerned, rush him to the back and give him the shots. He gets worse, not better.
Then things go off the rails, the vet comes in and looks at his mouth, and they are taking his blood pressure, heartbeat etc., and he rushes him back to take whatever you call it where they hold that thing on his stomach and see what’s going on with his insides. Soon they have a vet and 3 vet teachs all working on Rudy and he says the image indicates that he has a mass on his spleen and fluid all around it. They work on him until 1 hour after the vets office was supposed to close and then send us to Cincinnati to an emergency pet clinic. They sent all his results to them and we take off the the city with Rudy on an IV in the back.
After multiple tests, they confirmed that he had a mass on his spleen and that it must be a tumor, and must have burst open. They also said that when I had to pick him up to carry him into the vet that he was in shock from internal blood loss. They said that while they didn’t now for sure he had cancer, he definitely had a mass on his spleen and internal bleeding. They said that even if they did the surgery, that usually once it gets bad enough to burst and bleed inside, it’s spread to other things and he wouldn’t last a week or two at best after the surgery.
So at 8:30 tonight, just 5 hours after he was outside playing, we had to put him down. I am completely in shock. HE seemed totally fine. They explained that they are usually very functional until the tumor bursts and that’s why he seemed OK 5 hours ago. We just got home. I’m exhausted and have a headache. Rudy is the same age as my grandson, and my grandson absolutely loves him. Those of you who follow me on Instagram of seen pics of Jude laying on Rudy, playing with him at the lake, etc. My daughter actually told Jude because he overheard her telling her husband. At 11:30 when we got home, (3 hours past his bed time) she said he was still in bed crying. My wife cried herself to sleep. Our last Golden made it to 13 and this one is more active and was in better shape. This is a complete blindside blow to the head. Sorry this post was so long. I’m just in shock and my mind is racing.