[Gpdd] RAINBOW BRIDGE Guinness Piggyfriend.

[New Dominant II]

I haven't been able to respond much to piggie passings for quite some time
... actually I wasn't able to even read them, which is why I quit reading
the GPDD a few years ago and only started back up a couple months ago.

But I felt I should respond to this one as I had a similar decision to make
last fall.  Samantha had had several problems earlier in the year ... an
abscess in February, some mysterious lumps on her tummy in April, and
finally what we thought was a cyst in September.  The abscess was on her
chin and made it difficult for her to eat, so I fed her pellets, just making
sure to get it way back in her mouth, until the abscess healed and she
started refusing what I was offering sometime in April.  When she started
needing feeding again in September, I thought maybe the abscess was coming
back, but the vet said she had a cyst and would need it removed the
following Monday (we took her in on Friday, but the vet didn't want to do
the surgery then).  Over the weekend, I noticed that her incisors looked
long and then one of her bottom incisors fell out on Sunday.  So I asked the
vet to look at her molars on Monday.

Well, Monday (October 2) came along and the vet called around 12:45 (during
lunch hour) and told me that her molars and incisors were long and he had
trimmed them already.  He was going to be taking care of the cyst next.
About twenty minutes later he calls me back and tells me she doesn't have a
cyst and that it's a large inoperable tumor supplied by a large artery and
asks if he should revive her.  For awhile I didn't understand what he was
asking.  A group of third graders had just come in for their lessons, so I
was somewhat distracted by them as well.  But eventually I got the message.
My baby had inoperable mammary cancer, which probably metastasized (those
mysterious lumps found earlier).  She was probably in pain, which is why she
stopped eating and caused the teeth to overgrow.  Since he couldn't remove
the tumor, she'd continue her decline and the inevitable would happen in
days, maybe weeks.  I told the vet to let her go to sleep.  When I got off
the phone, I could barely talk to the kids.  They asked what was wrong, but
since I couldn't say anything, I just had them practice their poem and then
had them watch a video that was scheduled at the end of the hour to give me
time to get a hold of myself.  Since I knew they knew something was wrong,
at the end of the hour I told them I had to put my guinea pig to sleep (I
found out the following week that the kids didn't understand what I meant
... as they asked how she was doing and if she got enough rest).

Well, I didn't mean to go on so long about it.  It's only been recently that
I've been able to talk about it ... it hit me very hard and still hits me
hard when I think about it.  I still cry over her loss and can't imagine
having to go over it again someday again, so I can imagine your feelings
right now for your little (well, not so little ... my current biggest is
only 1250 grams) Guinness.

Realize that you did what you could and you made the final decision in the
best interest of Guinness.  That's what I keep trying to tell myself.