~Anne~

Thanks everyone for your lovely words. Helen, thank you. I agree, he will never be gone as I will always hold wonderful memories of my good boy. He is now with Monte and Molly and all of the furry animals members I known and loved over my life. ❤️

A final pic. His urn.

My Boofy.

Much loved, dearly missed. You're now back together with Molly and Monte. You were always my good boy and I miss you. A final farewell to you, big fella. The story of Boof We drove several hours to where you were born on a property just outside Singleton at a place called Doyles Creek. For whatever reason I was drawn to you as you ran around our feet with your siblings. You were so cute. With the exchange done, I placed you on my lap in the car and we headed back to Sydney. The day was an incredibly hot on in January and the air conditioning in the car blew up on the drive to meet you. The breeder kindly filled a bag with ice for you to lay on in the car. From the first day we saw how eager to please you were. You were such a good boy and toilet training you was a breeze. You got into the usual puppy mischief... the rungs of every dining room chair still bears witness to your penchant for chewing wood while teething and for a good few years after! You loved barking at birds and raiding handbags left within reach for lip gloss or lollies. Your quest to eat saw you, and your brothers in crime, eat packets of worming chews. It also saw you make yourself sick by gobbling a whole bag of lollies and stuffing yourself stupid when you got to a bag of kibble. You were so fat you waddled and did nothing but fart for days. The first time you met with your killer you were only about 7 years old. We caught it very early and we thought we had conquered it for a few years. Then it came back and soon another type of killer began to invade you internally. Again we thought we caught them all. In March this year we learned that it was back and this time it would not be a battle we could win. You were given your sentence. The tumours were growing so quickly. I was so worried for you. I couldn't bare to think of you in pain. On Saturday 2 May we gave you your wings. You let out a little cry and slipped away with me holding you. I love you big fella.

Thank you everyone. He is now back home (pic of his urn). I feel at peace with the decision and his passing. Olivia... not so. She is settling in as an only dog with some lumps and bumps which is keeping me busy! I left her inside the first day - she peed on the lounge. The lounge! I put our old dog fence up the second day (it contains her to an area) - she got through it. I put her outside the next day - she tore a hole in the screen door. I covered the lounge in plastic the next day - she peed on it again! On the plastic! Thankfully, it didn't run off anywhere. It's just as well as I love her. She is keeping me sane and sending me insane at the same time. :laugh:

Thank you everyone. He's gone. One little dog missing makes the house seem so quiet. Olivia also seems a little lost. I cuddled him while my husband held up his leg, and the vet injected. He sooked when the needle went in and let out a little cry. He always was a sensitive little boy. I had my face against his and just kept whispering to him that everything was ok. Until he was gone. His urn arrived during the week and he was collected this afternoon for cremation. I hate the thought that the tumours killing him will be included in those ashes. I'm sorry if that sounds strange. His stomach was so big with them.

Thank you everyone. He will be sent to the bridge at 12.30pm on Saturday. I know we need to do it and I know it is for the best and better for him, but it is so heartbreaking. Olivia will be the only one left. I've been trying to think of how she will react. As she was a rescue, I have no idea if she has ever been on her own before. I guess the weekend will show us what to expect. I feel gutted. This count down is awful..In light of recent events and the countdown to life in Bali I feel almost selfish with my pain.

Boof is deteriorating and we have made the decision to give him his wings this week. I can't bear to see him suffer. He has begun to not want dinner unless it is something special. He had chicken schnitzel last night and this morning. He can't eat much at any one time because there simply isn't room for food. I always said that pugs never refuse food unless they're not breathing and I believe this is my signal. Even though his abdomen is grossly extended, I can now feel his spine. His breathing worries me too. The tumours are so massive they're pushing on all of his internal organs. I'll be confirming the day and time with my vet later today. I just ordered his urn. :cry: :cry:

Boofy is still ok. The ok gets less ok by the day. He's so swollen now he is sometimes unsteady on his feet. This morning I picked him up to help him up the stairs and he is so heavy!!! The tumours must weigh a lot. In the last few days he has begun to slow with his appetite. Normally he would Hoover everything and then some but as the weeks have progressed, his hoovering has slowed. He now eats slowly and leaves the crumbs. Leaving crumbs was unheard of before. Last week he was good. He even picked up a toy on one evening to play! My girls had come to say goodbye to him and stayed overnight and he must have been feeling good that they were there. This week he has slowed. There hasn't been any interest in toys. He is still wanting to eat though and he still looks expectantly at me when I am eating hoping I'll share. When that stops, it's time.

I've just noticed this. No advice, just a cyber hug. Boof is also on limited time. I can understand how you must be feeling.

That does seem like a heavy dose. Boof is on tramadol as pain management for his final days with cancer. He is currently on 40mg per day split into two doses and he is 11kgs.

My Boofy as a baby. He was so incredibly cute!

A couple more.

Boofy's stomach continues to expand. He now resembles a pregnant bitch. He is losing energy but I'm happy to say he's going ok. I know that could change suddenly but every day is another day with my boy. We had a day at the beach recently. He enjoyed it as always but didn't have the energy for his usual pug run when he was let off leash.

Boof has battled both MCTs and fribrosarcoma over the last 5-6 years and Olivia has just had her first MCT diagnoses. She had 3 low grades removed with clear margins last week. Boof has had 6 MCTs in all if I am recalling it correctly. He currently has several suspected MCTs but, given he is now terminal anyway (the fibrosarcoma got him instead) we are not removing them or even testing them. He had all grade 1 MCTs and one grade 2. He underwent surgery for each on and two surgeries for the grade 2 as they didn't get clear margins. We never followed up with chemo as his specialist believed it wouldn't do anything as he had no evidence of any tumours once they were surgically removed. Our issue was that they just kept coming. I trust that won't be what happens with Olivia. Anyway to cut a long story short, if I had his time over again I am not sure I would have put him through so much surgery. Low grade MCTs are slow growing, don't metastasise and are not invasive. We would have saved this little dog a lot of stress had we left them as he would have died of old age before they killed him. I guess what I'm saying is that MCTs are not the end of the world unless they are high grade. I've heard a lot of info on, but not experienced, a dog on chemo. I understand they do not get sick like humans do. I think (but I'm not 100% convinced) I'd rather try the chemo option instead of surgery if I could go back a number of years. I'm contemplating trying Olivia on chemo if any further tumours appear. As much as Boof loves his life, he doesn't think of death and it is me who wants him to live for a long time.

Thanks westiemum. He's still going well although he has been drinking more water than usual. My vet said this will be because of the liver tumours. Olivia's test results are back. The three lumps were all mast cell tumours. Thankfully only grade 1 and removed with clear margins. A relief but also a concern. MCTs seem so prevalent in pugs now.

Thank you all for your kind words. They've estimated 6-12 weeks at best. I thought it wasn't going to be good but hearing it spoken was upsetting. At this moment he is ok and he's not in any pain. In fact, he is brighter than poor Olvia tonight. She was with him today at the vets and she had a tooth removed and three lumps removed. We now wait for the path results.

It's not good news and they've given him only a very short time left. He has two tumours in his liver and one attached to his small intestine. They believe it was the fribrosarcoma on the spleen that metastasised. Even if we wanted to, there is nothing left we can do. :cry: :cry:

MCT are so variable in their presentation and how they progress that no two are the same. They do, however, seem to follow similar characteristics in individual breeds. Pugs, for example from my knowledge and research are commonly diagnosed with low grade MCTs and live a reasonable time frame after diagnoses. My boy, a pug, has had both grade 1 and grade 2. His first was at least 6 years ago. We had no more for a few years and then quite a number in a short time over the last 3 years. He now has other complications that may, or may not, have links to his MCTs. It appears not at this moment though. Im not sure about the incidence of MCTs in Boxers. Is there a boxer forum you could perhaps join and speak to others? I'm not fighting his anymore. He's been put though enough and I personally feel he is better off without further treatment, even if it me as his life will be a year or two shorter. He's now almost 12.5 years old. He's done well. I have another female pug, Olivia who is 10, who has two lumps that are being checked tomorrow. I suspect one is an MCT. They're a devil that also is haunting me and my pugs it seems. Good luck for your girl. I know what you're going through.

Thanks everyone. I've just re-read this thread. Holy cow, what a journey my little boy has had! These threads really serve as detailed records. I must remember to download it all. The support shown by others is incredibly touching. Thank you all. He really is such a beautifully natured, sweet little thing. All of his life he's been fascinated by children and babies. If you have a room full of adults and little children, you'll find him sitting next to a child. He's like a little guardian of children and is simply fascinated by them. He always has been.

Thanks Panto. I confess to being very afraid this time.

Well it's a little over 12 months later and Boof is heading down the ultrasound track again. He has a mass in his abdomen. In the last 6 months he's aged a fair bit. He sleeps a lot and has gone totally and utterly deaf. I was surprised at the speed of his hearing loss. Anyway, his ultrasound is on Thursday. If you can spare a luck vibe or two, please send them his way. The vets have tossed up different ideas, one being the splenic tumour metastasised, another is it is something very different. They think it may possibly be a kidney this time but, obviously, these are only guesses. The ultrasound should show us more.

We used to use acepromozine as a relaxant before surgery on dogs. Not sure if this is still common practice?

I should add that he was also on phenobarbital and potassium bromide . The Valium was in addition to those drugs when he was having a particularly bad cluster.

Monte was only a 9kilo pug and I was able to give him up to 4 x 10mg of diazepam, rectally, without issue. He was zonked on 40mg but it wasn't a dangerous level as I understand it. It never killed him or hurt him and he was given that dose on several occasions to stop his seizure clusters.