| A month went by without any
further incidents of seizures. Cookie seemed to be doing fine. Then one
day his foster mom noticed he was having difficulty breathing. You could hear the
rattling in his lungs. His foster mom took him immediately to the vet's office (Wake
Forest Animal Hospital) and left him the entire day to be examined and observed.
When she picked him up, she was told by the vet that Cookie did not have any fluid in his
lungs and had bronchitis. She gave Cookie his medicine as instructed and thought
everything was fine. The following day as she came in the door from work, Cookie was
no where to be seen. She thought this very odd and went immediately to look for
him. She found him in the foyer in the final seconds of a seizure. She
immediately called the vet and reported this to him. He began telling her about
seizures and the many different things that can cause seizures. He basically had no
idea why Cookie was having seizures and gave her no suggestions on what to do
next. That same evening Cookie's foster mom
went out shortly for a couple of hours. Upon her return, she found spots of foamy pink
mucous that Cookie had coughed up or thrown up. She figured he was coughing up
something from his lungs. Alarmed, she called the vet at home at around 8 p.m. at
night at his home. He told her it was not blood, that if it were blood it would be
red and had nothing more to suggest. His foster mom thought he would be ok
because the vet did not sound alarmed at what was happening. When she asked the vet if she
could bring him by the following day, he said he would not be in the office and did not
offer any assistance.
Cookie's foster mom had gated him in the kitchen area to
prevent this fluid from getting on the carpet. The next morning when she arose, she
went to wake Cookie up. Cookie was laying on his side. His foster mom thought
he was asleep. She reached down to gently rub him and wake him. He did not
move. She touched him again and he still did not respond. That was when she
saw the pool of fluid at this mouth and realized he was dead. She became extremely
upset and immediately called another rescue volunteer to tell her what had happened.
She then called the vet at 5:30 a.m. to inform him that Cookie had died during the
night. He hesitated and said "there must have been more going on".
That day Cookie's foster mom was in no condition to go to
work. She took his body for an autopsy to determine the cause of his
death. The next day it was determined that Cookie had a lot of fluid in his
lungs. This is contrary to what the vet at Wake Forest Animal Hospital had told her
two days previous. The actual cause of death was Atherosclerosis....a deposit of
plaque containing cholesterol and lipids on the inner walls of the arteries of the
heart. In other words, Cookie died of a heart attack.
During those four months Cookie was in his foster home, he
knew he was loved even if he had never been loved before. He slept in a soft bed, went on walks them,
played in the backyard with Kirby, and traveled to and walked on the beach together. Cookie will always be remembered and have a special place in our hearts... especially in the hearts of his foster mom and
Kirby who loved him dearly.
One last note. This veterinarian may not have caused
Cookie's death but he did nothing to help or to prevent his death. We have never
been back to him and will never for any reason go back to him again. |
It was the end of June, 1997 when we got the
call about Cookie. Cookie was a member of a family for nine years. The family
had a child and after that child was born the excuse was that Cookie had snapped at the
child. That is the story that we hear too often...the family blaming everything on
the dog. The truth is they were not responsible pet owners. The family took Cookie to their vet and had asked him to euthanize him. Thank goodness the vet
would not because Cookie was a very sweet dog in perfect health. Cookie was an absolute joy to be around. He craved attention and as it turned out, was great with children.
