Euthanasia, also known as Mercy Killing, has always been an unresolved subject matter of this world. If you still don't know what it is, it's how you put to 'sleep' and allow an individual to die rather than have said individual face further pain, normally from an incurable disease, that will inevitably lead to death.
We're at a dilemma. Our dog, a Labrador whom we loved so dearly in the past 12 years is deteriorating in terms of health. BTW, his name is Doggie and I know how funny that sounds but he loved his name and so do we ;D I know how inevitable that is with dogs and their life span but it's just hurtful to see ours go this way.
He's been doing fine until his balls started growing abnormally. It grow probably bigger than my fist and seemed so hard if you get what I mean. I wasn't able to know the name of this condition but the vet decided to castrate him to help out in his condition.
Now a couple of weeks ago I even blogged how our dog overheated with certain signs. And yes, it did help that we followed what the vet said. But later on did we realize that he was already displaying symptoms of lymphoma.
Lymphoma is basically a cancer, an inflammation of lymph nodes, which also breaks down on the immune system. You can see the lymph node points of a canine in the photo above. As far as I've read, the normal life expectancy of a dog suffering from this is around 2 months. Theoretically, our dog can be cured somehow through such a painstaking and costly process. There is also said to be five (stages) of lymphoma in dogs (via Mar Vista Animal MC):
Stage I:
only one lymph node involvedStage II:
several lymph nodes in the same general area involvedStage III:
all peripheral lymph nodes involvedStage IV:
all peripheral lymph nodes plus the spleen, liver, and/or anterior mediastinum in the chest involvedStage V:
bone marrow involvement, regardless of any other areas involved
The harsh thing about this is how Doggie seems to already in stage 3 and will definitely reach stage 4 in a short amount of time. How do I know? You'd be surprised as I was to realize how fast the stages go. It's like yesterday he has 1 inflammed lymph node, the next 2 days he has 2 and so on. It's that fast-paced and it's a sad fact.
What's even sadder is that he's got two of his lymph nodes inflammed in his neck/nape area. I've got reason and auditory senses to believe that he's having a hard time breathing because of this things. And those lymph nodes are also affecting his nasal and visual senses. His eyes are getting red and swollen which kind of hurts to have him look at you with such pain.
Lately, he's been lying so much, resting so much and eating so less. I don't know if it would really help him to just go to sleep and end the pain he's been suffering.
Pet owners should realize how much we would all want the best for our best friends and I'm really in such a confused state if I should even consider euthanasia on him. I mean, we all love him and we don't want to put him to sleep, but at the same time, we'd be more than happy to have him suffer no more.
Do you think it's a practical and more considerate measure to put him to sleep? I'm such in a dump to think and I don't really want to wake up and know he's been gone for hours during my sleep.
Makes me think about how Owen Wilson's character did put his Labrador named Marley in the movie to sleep. Maybe it is accepted well enough among pets. I wouldn't really know.
I've already had my one on one session with him though, talking to him in the middle of the night. I don't know if he understood me that well but I know he felt what I mean very clearly.
Now the decision still remains. As a pet lover, do you think pet euthanasia is that very well of an accepted and a normal practice?
Read up: 10 Dog Commandments :(
Update: Doggie passed away 6 hours after this post.