Montana

July 18, 2010

This sweet little girl came to us today from some folks who were traveling through.
She had been dumped at the ranch that they work at, and were told that the ranch owner was going to shoot her.

So they brought her to St George with them hoping that they could find her a home over the weekend while they were visiting here. They had no luck, so at the end of the weekend, they called us.

After telling us her story, we couldn't let them take her back up to the ranch where her fate would have been death.

She is only about 4 months old, and has the sweetest personality. She is fun and happy, and LOVES the other dogs. She's very attached to us already, and likes to be the center of everything. LOL.

July 27, 2010

This is probably the most difficult entry I've ever had to write.

Monday night, Montana was in a lot of pain, her belly was extended and she was crying and unable to get comfortable. Wade and I took her into the emergency vet, where they did X-rays, but couldn't find anything wrong other than a lot of gas build up. There was no blockage (which is what we were worried about) and no twisting that they could see.
She was drooling, and lethargic, but didn't seem to be in as much pain as she had been in earlier.

Doc sent us home with her X-rays with instructions to keep an eye on her and take her into our vet in the morning if she didn't seem any better.

When we got home, I laid with her on the couch and massaged her swollen belly. She liked that, and stopped whining and fell asleep on my lap. I loved on her all evening, trying to make her comfortable, and massaging her to get rid of the gas buildup.

When we went to bed, she slept on Amos' dog bed right next to me. She seemed comfortable, and the swelling had gone down quite a bit. She slept peacefully for a few hours.

We kept checking on her, and Wade took her outside to go potty at about 4:00 in the morning.
I woke up at 5:00 and saw that she was sleeping so peacefully I didn't want to wake her up by checking on her.
I guess I should have though, because my sweet baby girl wasn't sleeping. She had slipped away sometime between 4 and 5.

Wade is the one that realized she had left us when he checked on her at 7. I was sleeping, completely unaware that my husband was going through one of the most difficult tasks ever... wrapping her wee body up in a blanket and then having to wake me up and tell me what had happened.
I completely lost it. It was such a shock... we had no idea that her life was in danger. We had even been teasing her earlier calling her gassy girl, and saying how funny it was that we took a dog to the emergency vet for gas.

The pain is indescribable. Doesn't matter that we'd only had her for about 2 weeks. We loved this little gal as if we'd had her all our lives. She was very much a part of our family, and her passing was painful beyond belief.

Wade and I took her body in to our vet, and he couldn't see anything on the x-rays either. He asked us if he could do an autopsy, because we needed to know if whatever killed her was dangerous or contagious to the other dogs.
We agreed, said our goodbyes, and left Montana with our vet.

He called me later and said that Montana had a small twist right where her large and small intestines met. That twist had apparently been there for quite some time, and had died off. It eventually broke away, causing lots of nastiness to flood her abdomen. That is what happened the night before, and what killed her.

Doc said that it was unpreventable and untreatable, even if we had caught it in time.
He said that he was amazed that she had been living a normal life, doing normal puppy things. She should have been acting sick for quite some time.
But not our little Montana... she was happy and fun loving, and never complained about anything.

We brought her ashes home, and will place them in the garden with a memorial stone.

RIP my sweet girl. Have fun with Cara romping over those green hills. We'll miss you till we meet again. *skritch*

This video was taken before we knew she was sick. She was such a happy sweet puppy!