Jack, My Beagle, Is Sick

Jack has been with us for 15 years + and that is about 80 man years ( no, you are not supposed to multiply it by 7 as I saw a poster on the conversion in the Vet office today ).

About 2 weeks ago, Jack was not well and refused to eat ( can you imagine that... a Beagle not eating...!!! ) and also did not want to move at all.

After consulting the Vet, he was thought to have strain his back or having arthritis so some pain and anti-inflammation medication was given. It helped a bit and he was up again but then he was sick again;   no appetite to eat and not keen to move too much.

We thought it could take some time for the medication to work and he just needed more rest.

But as the days went by, we were starting to doubt if there could be other issues as he vomited once and his tummy area looked bloated.

We took him to the vet again and we wanted a blood test done and if necessary, an x-ray too to eliminate other potential causes of his illness.

Thankfully, the blood test results are good and no issues with his liver and kidney.

So we move on to do the x-ray, and it showed that there are some water in his lung that could be causing him to cough often. But there was some mass in his abdomen that was not conclusive so we took Jack to do an ultrasound this morning at their other clinic which has the equipment for it.

The results showed that there is some cancerous growth in the spleen and some fluid too in that area and this is causing the discomfort and tummy bloating ( there was an increase in his weight of about 1  kg in-between the 2 visits to the clinic ).

Options given are :

- Perform an operation to remove the growth but there could not be an guarantee that it will not return but importantly, Jack may not be able to take the operation due to his old age so it is very risky; 50-50 chance. If the ops is successful, Jack may have another 1-2 years given his current age assuming no other illness that may come along the way.

- Take medication to remove the fluid in the lungs and abdomen, with the pain and inflammation medication to help with any discomfort. Also, take a steroid to control the growth in his spleen. This may buy Jack some more time but in months only if it works.

The Vet recommended the latter option and after some discussion within the family, we decided to proceed with her recommendation.

Jack taking his car ride to get his ultrasound done, good dog...!

 

Jack's abdomen was shaved for the scan. All the excitement in the morning so he needed an afternoon nap....

Up and about again, looking good.. Jack...!

We love you so much, Jack....!