Babe is an 10 year old merle female.  She came to us from an abuse situation and was meant to be temporary…she however stole our hearts and started a chain reaction.  On days when we’re frustrated because of too many dogs or too much rescue work to try to get done, we always blame Babe and it makes us smile.  Babe has been an excellent learning experience for us…we think to prepare us for the many things we’d see later.

About a year later, we discovered a growth in her mouth.  She had a place on her tongue that actually looked like dead tissue.  We took her to the vet and they suspected cancer.  They decided to remove that before spaying her (we’d been working for more than a year to get her healthy enough to be spayed).  When they got into the tumor and began to excise it, they discovered it was much larger than what we could visually see…they had to remove a portion of her tongue!  The tumor was sent to a lab.  The initial report came back inconclusive…they suspected malignancy, but sent it to an additional lab for an exact diagnosis.  The second lab determined it was non-malignant, but by the time we received the report from the second lab, we had found a new tumor…this time on her leg.

The second tumor was removed and during surgery a third tumor was discovered and removed.  Both of these were also sent to a lab…one was benign, one malignant.  We were devastated, but the vet assured us that all of the cancerous tumor had been removed.  She recovered nicely from these multiple surgeries and we were finally ready to have her spayed.

When she was spayed, she didn’t seem to wake up right.  I expressed concern and was told it was simply because she was such a big dog.  We carried her to my car to take her home and I would just sit with her until she was awake enough to walk…BIG MISTAKE.  She vomited blood and I called the vet.  Again, I was told it was a simple reaction due to her size.

Late that evening when Daddy returned from work, we were still sitting in the car.  Daddy helped me get her up and into the house.  Within 5 minutes of moving her, she vomited blood again.  I again called the vet who said I was over reacting, but they’d see her if I wanted to bring her back.  We took her back only to find out that they believed she had an ulcer that was aggravated by anesthesia.  There was pretty much nothing we could do except watch her.

By the next morning, she was able to move around a little, but we noticed blood in her stool.  When we contacted the vet, we were told it was again due to the ulcer.  We questioned this as she hadn’t had any problems before surgery, but were assured we were just worry warts.  A few hours later, she had blood in her urine.  This time, the vet said we were looking for problems and that she was fine.  She just didn’t act herself and this blood was coming from everywhere.  We continued to monitor her per our vets advice and noticed a little blood dripping from her nose.  Now, we were VERY concerned and decided to skip our regular vet and go the the Emergency Room.  It took them about 15 minutes to determine she was having a hemolytic reaction to the anesthesia and would need a coombs test and serious steroids.  She was monitored very closely and given supportive treatment until the next day when a coombs test could be performed.  It was indeed positive.

When we contacted our vet to tell them what we had learned, they didn’t believe us and acted as though we were making it all up to make them look bad…time for a new vet!  We took her to her new Dr. and he began treatment for AIHA (Auto-Immune Hemolytic Anemia) and informed us that this would actually be a lifelong problem any time a foreign substance was introduced into her body.  This made surgery a big no-no except in a dire life/death circumstance.

When Babe was about 4, she was diagnosed with ‘chronic wobbler’s’.  We refused the myelogram due to the possible complications associated with it and opted for a CAT scan instead that told us it was “consistent” with Wobbler’s Syndrome.  Because she has the symptoms (thankfully, they only gradually get worse with time), that was good enough for us.  She was obviously not a candidate for surgery and we began looking into gold bead implants for her.  We later discovered that because of her AIHA, she was not a candidate for that either…her options were VERY limited.  We can give her steroids to aid in her spinal swelling and try to control her auto-immune system, but that is about it.  She has days where she can barely get on her sofa, but we don’t mind giving that bottom a little boost and she is definitely a happy girl and still full of love!

Babe has had other challenges along the way, but has seemed to do very well.  She currently has three more growths, but due to her age and health, we have decided to leave them where they are unless/until they become a problem on their own.  They have been looked at by a vet, and are believed to be only fatty tumors, so we just watch them and wait (ok…there’s a little worry in there too).