With Regard

Beloved Brindle Boy Bruno

This past year has been difficult for the Vacdepot Dog Pack. Our Alpha male and female, after gallant and brave efforts, succumbed to disease. Bruno was consumed by cancer, Charlotte assailed by an autoimmune condition. Both ailments initially presented very similarly. Neither of them easily detectable or curable.

Hemangiosarcoma

It was early Sunday, Bruno wouldn’t rise to walk, his favorite activity, nor did he wish to eat. Those were the only telltale signs that something was wrong with Bruno that morning.

Hemangiosarcoma is a rapidly spreading cancer of the blood vessels that causes tumors most commonly in the spleen, heart and liver. As in Bruno’s case, this cancer often goes unnoticed until the tumor bursts and the dog bleeds out. Bruno survived the initial tumor rupture on his spleen but felt weaken by the loss of blood, that blood now pooling within his body cavity. To us, Bruno appeared only slightly bloated, but thank goodness the emergency vet suspected differently. He performed a blood test, which showed anemia and a low platelet count, and sonagramed Bruno’s torso. Bruno went directly to surgery. The tumor remnants were cleaned from Bruno’s abdomen in an attempt to prevent the cancer from seeding to other organs, and Bruno spent the next four days in ICU recovering. A nasty arrhythmia was the souvenir of his experience.

Removal of the tumor and chemotherapy are the preferred treatments for hemangiosarcoma. Even so average survival time is 2 months, up to 9 months in the best cases.

Bruno’s vigor returned by about half after a long recovery, much medication and a few turns for the worse. We were so glad to see him bounce back, the pack celebrated his return. For Bruno rides replaced walks, catching sunsets replaced chasing jackrabbits. But slowly his heart weakened, he had trouble rising and he would faint; from the last collapse he could not recover.