Tiger Update

Tiger had a traumatic day at the vet yesterday. He was put out to have his teeth cleaned and his hips x-rayed. Plus, he had one bad tooth pulled.

The real story is the x-rays. Unfortunately, the worst that could happen did. Tiger has hip dysplasia. Basically he has arthritis so bad that it is causing his hip to come out of the joint. The vet said it progressed a lot quicker than he would have expected and there's little that can be done for a dog as old as Tiger. Typically hip replacement surgery is done for dogs as young as one or two. It costs two to three thousand dollars and certainly isn't an option for Tiger. He probably wouldn't recover from such extensive surgery, even if I could afford it.

Basically at this point, our goal is to keep Tiger comfortable. The vet indicated that with greyhounds who had been runners typically don't get any older than 11. Tiger is 10 1/2 so he's near the end of his life. We just want him to live the rest of his life comfortably. So we've put him on a more aggressive mediation for the next week to see if it helps. We also discussed the next types of medications we would try if necessary. Cross your fingers everyone, I want Tiger to be comfortable.

The hardest part of all of this is definitely facing the fact that Tiger is an old dog. I just haven't been ready to admit that to myself. I broke down and cried in the vet's office yesterday...poor guy he's such a sweetheart to just accept that I needed to cry. I cried in the car the whole way home and then for awhile when we got home. Tiger is my baby and I'm not ready to give him up yet. I want a couple more years with him. I want him to enjoy the desert with me! But I have to accept that any time I get with him is a gift...no one is promising any more than today. So I'll try to make him comfortable and hopefully he and I can get through this together.

Comments