[Gpdd] [Announce] Charlie has gone to the bridge

[Roy Millea]

Rebecca - don't beat yourself up over  Gemma. You did the right thing.
We had to make the same choice over Charlie our 6 mth old  lilac boar.

On  Tuesday morning I gave him and his cage mate Dizzy some 
chicory(endive) leaves and noted that they were munching well.

In the evening I noticed that Charlie was in the little house with Dizzy 
camped outside. Oh Boy, I thought another siege! They did a lot of sabre 
rattling and chasing each other but were good friends.
Anyway I took Dizzy out but Carlie stayed in. So I took the house away 
but Charlie just lay there.

So, cuddles for Charlie. He didn't look good so I tried him with some 
celery he had just a little munch. Put him on the sofa and he just 
looked listless.  Got another cage out and put him in there with 
cucmber, parsley and other goodies. No joy. he was, by now, making 
little groaning type noises. OK phone vet (time 22:30). He said there 
was a GBP70  + tax night fee and would it be better if we waited until 
morning? When I said he was not even eating cucumber and not passing 
anything for over and hour he agreed that it was better to see young 
Charlie.

Andrew and I got him to the vet. He had a weak and irregular heart beat 
and seemed to complain when his abdomen was pressed. We also found that 
he had a urethra plug still stuck to him - maybe he had been unable to 
urinate and the bladder had ruptured.

The vet said he could give him a set of injections and see how he got on 
or euthanasia. We chose the latter. Young Charlie gave us such a kicing 
as we tried to hold him for the jab we decided he wanted to live so we 
gave him the shots. We left him with the vet who said he would euthanase 
him if he didn't improve in 2 hours.
At 23:30 the vet phoned to say he had just died.

Could we have saved that extra half hour of possible discomfort? Who 
knows but we gave him a chance.
The post mortem revealed no problem with the abdomen and we agreed that 
it was probably a heart attack for it to happen so suddenly.

Rebecca you saved Gemma a lot of suffering and did the right thing. You 
did the best you could but we all have to bow to the cycle of life.
Goodbye Charlie.
Rod could you post a bridge please