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Subject: RE: sad news about Katmai
Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 18:00:44 -0500
Thread-Topic: sad news about Katmai
Thread-Index: AcVmMfoXnPSEa/F7SG+zmeQ7+gQBZgAAoLR5
From: "Bywaters, Ken" <ken.bywaters@berbee.com>
To: "Uma S. Bhatt" <bhatt@gi.alaska.edu>
Dear Friends,
Here is a clinical description of the past few days. We have a
variety of work meetings so will be here until 5pm after which we
will go home and be more sad about missing Katmai.
Love,
Uma

Well, we had to euthenize Katmai this morning. He was fine Saturday,
running around with Veda and Renate's 2 dogs who were with us all of
last week. Renate returned Saturday night and took her dogs home and
Veda and Jeff left Sunday morning. Katmai could not move all day
Sunday. He did not have the energy to stand up, so we took him to the
emergency vet in the afternoon, his blood chemistry was near normal
and the vet on duty discussed taking an x-ray to see if he had a cyst
in his heart. I felt that we would not do anything about it anyway,
so we opted for meds, steriods and antibiotics, to keep him
comfortable until our regular vet could see him today. He lay around
all day yesterday, we put towels under him since he could not get up
to pee. He ate only peanut butter and drank no water. The vet had
given him a liter of electrolytes in his back that would get absorbed
as he needed them. He could not lift his head all day yesterday and
by afternoon, I was thinking that maybe we should have him euthanized
at the emergency vet, though neither of us liked this idea. His eyes
had more light in them by the end of the day so we figured he would
make it thorough the night. At 5 am he tried to bark (this is how he
would tell us he wanted something lately), and he drank water. He
hinted to go out so we carried him out on a blue sled and then he was
actually able to stand and he peed a lot. Then he actually walked the
few steps back into the basement to his bed, with only a little help
from David, and lay down. He was wheezing in what sounded like fluid
in his lungs, but it was not. So his breath was labored and we slept
for a bit longer. I held his paw. We got a vet's appointment at 9:45
and we really did not know what would happen since he seemed to
getting a bit better, but we thought that he was not likely to return
home. We had a bit of hope that maybe he had something caught in his
throat. Dr. May looked at him and said he was sorry to say he is near
death and could die at any moment. So we held him and David looked in
his eyes until they faded as the vet administered the euthanasia
medicine. The vet techs who are our friends after so many years of
visits came and kept us company, which made the experience as
comfortable as one could expect. Now with the hectic-ness of work I
have not thought much about it other than telling a few friends at
work. I guess it is more therapeutic for me to be clinical at the
moment and I will be emotional at home.