it has been a pretty stressful past 24 hours...we were finally able to arrange for a home vet visit for capone yesterday. folks probably do not realize how difficult it is to safely get a 165 pound non weight bearing giant into the clinics...no easy task. not only could we have further injured him if the moving him went sideways...but because of his size, his weight and his immobility we could have been injured as well.
anyway..colleen said it could be his knee or his hip (or both) but what she was really worried about was an osteosarcoma. as soon as that was mentioned..i felt the panic setting in...we had jesse (the wolf hybrid) fracture an osteosarcoma limb and I never wanted anyone to have to go thru that again.
we started formulating plans...we tried to arrange for our large animal vets to come with their portable xray machine so capone would not have to be moved. the vets were willing to do this but the whole thing was getting so complicated in terms of timing..colleen was now away...eastridge could see him today but not tomorrow so those xrays had to be done early today.
I finally just bit the bullet and said the staff needed to try to load him up on the stretcher and try to get him into the van. this was ruisky on several counts..one our stretcher is damaged and I was not sure it could safely hold all that weight and two..capone was not yet a fully "down" dog..meaning that he could no longer get up. I knew he could still get up on his own because I had him outside last night for a pee. a dog who can still rise under his own steam is too dangerous to carry around on a stretcher..if they panic and try to get up to escape..they can fall and the folks holding the stretcher can be injured also.
they got him on the stretcher and it took 4 of them to carry him to the van..luckily he did not try to get off the stretcher until he was safely in the van.
I was working so I met them at the clinic and capone was carried safely in. I thought when dave was examining him that we were most likely safe...capone was handling the manipulation of his sore leg with very good grace. I was sure if there was cancer in the bone, the manipulation would put him thru the roof, but he was doing ok.
he was sedated for the xrays and was still sleeping on the table when dave took us back to look at the xrays..thankfully the cancer that was obviously present had not progressed to the point of fracture.
capone never woke up..with erin and renee and me at his side he was given his final injection to end his life.
capone was a truly great dog..despite his hard life, he had soul full of grace and a heart full of love.
rest in peace our gentle giant, you will be forever in our hearts.
It isn't the same without him hanging out at the barn. Miss him, such a great dog.