As many of you know, we lost our pup, Baci, last week.  He wasn’t even 4 years old.

It all started less than 2 weeks ago with him being a little lethargic.  It progressed into him not wanting to eat or drink for a few days.  Not even treats.  We knew something was up, so we brought him to the vet and they gave him some special food for upset stomach, and some pills to take.  He didn’t want to eat the pills or the food, so we brought him in again a few days later so they could give him the meds through an IV.  The doc said if it was a stomach ache, he would start to feel better within a few hours.

Well, that didn’t happen, so I left work early and brought him back the following afternoon.  The vet recommended we go to the ER so we could get blood work done.  We took him right away.  The doc at the ER wanted us to leave him there overnight so he could be hooked up to an IV and stay hydrated.  I went home, thinking it wasn’t anything serious.  We got a call a few hours later, and found out the reason he wasn’t eating or drinking was because he was in severe kidney failure.  The doc said that the unfortunate thing about kidney failure is that dogs don’t show any symptoms until their kidneys are 75% or more damaged, at which point it is hard for them to ever fully recover.  It’s called “the silent killer”.

The first question I asked was will he die.  And the doc paused… and said most likely, yes.  She said that we had two options:  put him to sleep, or pay $10k to aggressively treat him and do surgery to find out what was causing it.  He would need to be in the hospital for at least a few days, maybe weeks.  She said that even with all of the treatment available, there was a 90+ percent chance he would not make it past a few months.  Worst case scenario, it would be kidney disease and he would not last more than a few weeks after treatment.  Best case scenario, it would be an infection and he could live another 1-2 years tops, but would not be the same dog because he would be living with damaged kidneys.  We wouldn’t be able to find out exactly what was causing the kidney failure and what his prognosis was until we put him through all of that surgery and treatment and hospitalization.  There was also a large chance that his body wouldn’t be able to withstand all of that.  It was the worst decision we’ve ever had to make, but we knew what we had to do.  We cried.  And cried.  And cried.

It broke our hearts to think that our little Baci was going through all of this.  He was completely normal just 2 weeks ago, playing with toys and chasing squirrels and barking at street noise and begging for treats and supervising home improvement projects.  We knew he would die someday, but not this young and this suddenly.  We got Baci when we first got engaged almost 4 years ago.  He’s been with us through our whole relationship, and was always so loyal.  He made us smile every single day.  He wasn’t perfect, but he was perfect for us.

Baci, we hope you’re having fun in doggy heaven, chasing squirrels and eating treats and going on nature walks and sitting in shopping carts and watching birds all day long.  You’ll never have to get your ears cleaned or take a bath ever again!  And you can get doggy hair EVERYWHERE and no one will care.  We’ll never forget you, buddy!