Dancing with Fred Basenji...

In January 2009, a BRAT email came from my mom stating something about a pair of bonded 14 year old basenjis that were owner-surrendered to the Plano Animal Shelter and they were distressed. Who could evaluate them?

I knew that Basenjis had a bit of a reputation for being snarky, but my Mom’s B always responded to me positively, even when he didn’t with others, so I thought I wouldn’t mind doing this to help out, since it was just right down the road.

There was a sense of urgency, as they were distressed in the shelter, and not very agreeable, and so the possibility of euthanasia was there. Mom and I went and met Neon, who was thin and distressed and howling in the cell by herself because Scottie was out getting his neutering surgery done. She was fine with me, just didn’t like to be picked up.

A couple of days later, January 10th, 2009, in the name of BRAT, I went back to get them both, and bring them home with me to foster. I could see how distressing and loud the shelter was for them. Just the thought of them having to be split up in order to be more adoptable was not acceptable to me. I hadn’t done anything like this before, but I had lost my Golden in August of 2008, and so I had an empty apartment.

After bringing them home, and taking them for a long walk around the apartment complex, they came in and immediately ended up right here:

(This photo is featured in BRAT's 2010 calendar, by the way, and you can order it here:
http://www.basenjirescue.org/calendarcontest/CalendarOrder.asp )

I was very happy to foster them, knowing that I couldn’t afford to actually own one for my own, and since I really was a Big Dog person (or so I thought!), I would love them as they needed to be loved, but I wouldn’t become attached, since I had my sights on a Chocolate Lab someday!

I introduced them to my significant other a few days later, and they explored his house and yard, and didn’t make a mess, and then Scottie proceeded to get on the couch and lean on Daniel (the whole male-bonding thing, I guess) and I think Daniel got sucked in. He’s a bit of a neat freak, and with animals, he’s give or take (how am I still with him? ;]), but these doggies with their cat-like cleanliness seemed to win him over. So much so, that in February, when someone in Phoenix thought they might be interested in them, Daniel said, “no, Phoenix won’t be a good place for them… I think we should just adopt them”.
And there it was.

So, I changed their names, since they didn’t respond to them anyway, to Fred and Ginger, (for Astaire and Rogers, and I’m a dancer myself), since they can’t go anywhere without the other.

Fred was the most loving boy I could have ever gotten. Very healthy and loved to walk, and as long as we went twice a day, he stayed very calm and serene. If you were in a chair, he was in it with you. He followed me pretty much wherever I went. He tried to sleep up on the pillows next to me, but I made him a nest of pillows where I couldn’t roll over on him, and he took okay to that, as long as he could see me. Ginger could give or take sitting with you, so as long as there were blankets to nest with on the couch, then she was fine.

Ginger seemed to be the frail one, with back problems, and skin allergies, and she seemed to be a picky eater. I fed them Nutro Natural Dry for Seniors, but in mid-March I changed to Wellness dry for Seniors, as I was wondering if there was a food allergy relating to Ginger’s itchy skin. They both would vomit randomly, maybe once a week or less, but it was usually waking up right before mealtime, and you could hear it coming. I couldn’t imagine it could be the food, since it was one of the top recommended foods out there! Fred would eat anything and everything, and wanted Ginger’s also, so I had to separate them, so she could get her weight back to normal.

Fred did not have any problems eating until around July. He was having chronic diarrhea issues for a few months before July, which we were on and off of antibiotics, regular type, until the most recent being Smz 480 mg tabs started 6-26-2009. I discontinued those when he started throwing up a few days later, as I thought they might be upsetting his stomach.

One day early in July I ran out of the dry food and went to Walmart and got the best Iams dry I could find, and got their usual the next day, but he wouldn’t eat it any longer.
I figured he was just being picky, but after a week of little to no eating, he had dropped weight quickly, and I took him to the vet. He did continue to drink water this entire time.

So, the vet put him on ID vet food, and I got both wet and dry.
(I also had to put Ginger on wet food, but she hasn't vomited since, and has grown to be very solid and healthy, so she must have been allergic to the dry food!)
He liked the ID and ate it for about 3 days, the wet and dry, and then didn’t like it any longer.

He was also put on prednisone on 7-13-2009, 2x a day for a week, then once a day, then every other day. He had an x-ray done, and it did not show a blockage, but slight liver enlargement. Blood tests showed slight anemia, slight elevated liver levels, but that was it.
All the rest looked okay, from what they said. Kidney levels were normal.
(We talked about the possibilities of IBD, Enteropathy, Giardia, stomach ulcer, SIBO, EPI… I was bringing it all up during the next month, but without further testing (specialists, ultrasound, and the big bucks to go with it), the vet couldn’t be too sure, but he medicated for those possibilities.)

I then went through a couple of weeks where I tried almost every natural canned dog food out there, and he would like it for a day or 2, and then not like it. He was interested in eating, but when I put it in front of him, he turned away.
At this time he was also vomiting almost every other day, without warning, almost projectile.
If there were any vegetables or rice in the food, that would come up intact, even if it had been in his stomach a couple of days.

We started on a 4 day pack of Cerenia on 7-21-2009, and during that time, he did not vomit at all, and then the day after he was off of it, he vomited.

The vet decided to try Reglan, but he continued to vomit or have wet burps every other day or so. We went back on Cerenia on 8-19-2009, along with the Prednisone once a day every day. We also began Carafate on 8-19-2009. I had tried Pepto Bismol a couple of days before that, and his stool turned black, and it continued to be black and hard pellets every day since.

I had not been able to get him to eat anything dog food related.
He would eat chicken (rotisserie) and oatmeal (we started that on 08-19-2008), but the week of 09-20-2009, he was not interested in the oatmeal. He also seemed to be getting tired of the chicken, so I began doing some ground turkey and occasional ground beef. He liked turkey bologna also. I was doing this twice a day, sometimes with a third snack.
I also started to notice loud rumbling in the stomach in the evenings, very alien-like sounds!

He had not thrown up since, except once around 9-19-2009, when I tried to take him off the Cerenia, and he refused to eat the next day, except some stew with roast beef and potatoes I had, which he seemed to like until the potatoes came up intact the next day. So I started the Cerenia again.

He was at 30 lbs before all of this started, and on the August visit, he weighed in at 24 lbs.
He had gotten where he couldn’t climb up the stairs anymore, or jump on the bed. He was just too weak.

Anyway, went to the vet again on 09-26-2009, after he refused to eat the night before, and that morning, and I thought maybe something is also wrong with his teeth, as food sometimes tumbles from his mouth, and he checked them, saw the gums were white (why didn't I notice that??) and did another blood test, where the anemia counts were way low, much lower than the past 2 tests, and so he decided this is the time to put him on Azathioprine (substituted for Imuran), and said that really the only explanation for this was most likely cancer. He said that we will see in the next 4-5 days if the meds will help the anemia. We also tried subcutaneous fluids that day, and it seemed to perk him up, and he ate okay that night.

I had also tried to start Prozyme enzymes, but then he had been refusing to eat... I had also started B12 supplements.

For the next week I tried everything – baby food, hot dogs, Vienna sausages, yogurt, creme cheese, Cesar dog food (for the “picky eaters”), eggs, bacon, mac and cheese, sandwich meat of all kinds, anything to get him to eat something, and he would try it once, and not again.

On 10-01-2009, he was hungry and ate a good meal, and had his first brown poop in months… I thought it was a good sign that maybe things were healing!
But then… he wouldn’t eat any more. By the evening of 10-02, he also didn’t want to drink water, which was a first, and I took him to the vet on Saturday, 10-03 to get more subcutaneous fluids… but I was feeling that maybe his quality of life had finally gotten to the low end. The fluids didn’t make a difference in his eating, and so I started to syringe baby food down the mouth until Monday. Monday, the vet’s daughter was very ill, but the techs called him to tell him, and he said he would come in on his day off Tuesday to be there for us. (All my thanks and love go to Parker Animal and Bird Clinic and Dr. Singh!)

So on Tuesday, 10-06-2009, Ginger went with Daniel and I to help Fred dance on to a new pain-free life in heaven. She was very bonded to him, and would always go to the vet with us all those times because she couldn’t be left alone. She would always flip out when he was taken somewhere else for testing (and I can say that I am a calm assertive Pack Leader to my dogs, but this was something I couldn’t fix). This time, she started to whine the moment we got into the room, and when they put him on the table to give the first shot, she wanted up there, too. I took him down and sat on the floor with him, and she continued to pace, but stopped the whining. I made sure she checked him out, and was there when the vet gave the second shot. She became quiet and didn’t pace as much, and then decided she wanted to leave and went to the door. She didn’t look back.

We all know how heart-wrenching it is to have to do this… I hated that I could not do more to help him, and I could not believe that such a sweet spirit could not recover. The vet called 10 minutes later and said, yes, it was stomach cancer, and it had spread to the pancreas and liver, and so it was best. He’s chasing squirrels in Heaven now with Sierra, Sydney, Honey, Jessie, and all the others.