[Gpdd] [ANNOUNCEMENT] Gemma

Rebecca Jones rj1571 at yahoo.co.uk
Tue Feb 3 06:14:15 EST 2004


It is with a heart ripped apart that I write to you today to let you know that my poor baby Gemma had to be put to sleep last night. 
 
I had taken her to the vet on Thursday to get treatment for bumblefoot and we were progressing with treating her with antibiotics twice a day to clear it up. On Sunday she stopped eating and drinking and was crying out in pain.  I spent all of Sunday tryng to encourage her to eat, tried syringe feeding her water but to no avail.
 
I got up early Monday morning expecting the worst but she was still with us and she did take two halves of cucumber slice from me so I hoped that things were improving.  But she wouldn't take anything else from me even though I tried her with all her favourites and she wouldn't take any water.  She was crying out every 20 minutes or so.  I took her back to the vets to see if maybe she had something wrong with her stomach or mouth which was stopping her eating.  The vet could find nothing wrong, but found that her feet had got a lot more swollen and she felt that it was the pain from this that had made Gemma stop eating.
 
I was then given the hardest choice I have had to make.  The vet said that we could force feed her food and water, up the painkillers and antibiotics and see how it went, but she said that she had only seen one case of bumblefoot as bad as this, in a rabbit, and they had battled for two months with it and had to put the rabbit down afterwards anyway.  Or, I could end her suffering.
 
I remembered reading a submission to this list a while ago where the person had said that sometimes you have to think are you doing this for your pet, or becuase you can't let go yourself.  Gemma was in terrible pain to stop eating, she looked tired and miserable.  I made the choice for her rather than me.  I held her in my arms as she went to sleep.  All I kept saying was I'm so sorry baby, I'm so sorry I let you down. Becuase thats how I feel, I let her down.  If only I'd noticed her feet earlier, got her to the vets quicker. I failed her.
 
My beautiful Gemma was the most strong willed soul I have ever met.  I got her and Daphne when they were 18 months old. They were ex showgirls although you would never have known it with Gemma.  She always acted the rebellious teenager. You could see every emotion in her eyes. She would rip up the floor in the hutch and I would call out her name and you would just see her eyes peeking out over the hutch door and you could see her thinking, I know you don't want me to do this but I'm going to anyway.
 
Daphie is hearbroken.  She looks lonely and scared.  I didn't know what to do for her last night to comfort her, so I gave her the towel that Gemma was last wrapped in and I found her sleeping curled up in it this morning.  She looks as heartbroken as I am.  I just can't cope with the guilt of whether I made the right decision or not. I keep thinking that I should have brought her home again, given her more of a chance to recover, maybe today she might have started eating.  
 
I'm sorry this is so long, but I know that the people on this list will understand how I'm feeling more than anyone else.  Others sympathise, but they just think that at the end of the day she was just a pet. But you will understand that at the end of the day I have just lost my child.
 
Goodbye Gemma
 
Beki
 


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