My friend adopted a sickly dog.

Just got back from a sad visit to the vet. My friend had to put one of his dogs down.

He adopted her when the county animal control decided to change their policies and adopt animals out instead of euthanizing them. I guess they saw how much money the humane society was making on adoptions. Their stated goal is that, "no abandoned pet goes without a home." Sounds great, right?

I was with him in Petco when he adopted her. She was a really sweet older dog (12). We were assured that she had a clean bill of health, despite having to have her mammary glands removed due to numerous small tumors. They told us that those were the sequelae of incessant breeding by some former owner (prolly a pupply mill outfit). Since my friend already had a dog, I asked them specifically how she got along with other dogs. We were assured that she got along with other dogs "just fine." Because he/we had fallen in love with her, he adopted her for $275 (vaccinations, microchip, etc.) with a no-return policy.

Once he got her home, problems quickly arose. She was very aggressive toward his other dog. Fortunately for his dog, he is a jumper so could jump up onto the back of the couch to get away from her (where she could not jump). They did have rare playing sessions, however, so it's not like she was injuring him or anything. They were about the same size and weight, which helped.

My friend was never instructed to follow up with regular x-rays, but he was taking her to the vet regularly for routine care and exams so didn't think anything about it.

Fast forward. About a month ago she developed a weird cough that turned out to be CHF. She was x-rayed, and a large tumor was found in her chest coming off the thymus gland. The vet said that she has breathing on 1/3 of her lung function. The vet placed her on Lasix. Because she was "normal" in all other respects (playing with the other dog, etc.), my friend decided that he wasn't ready to give up on her yet. Plus I think he wanted time to process the info; the news had him in total shock.

Even though the Lasix helped, the dog's quality of life slowly deteriorated over the last month. A few days ago she started crying when you picked her up, and yesterday she started crying when she rolled over. Her breathing was labored. So, today we had her put down. A very sad day for us both, especially him.

The vet's conclusion was that the thymic tumor was metasasis from breast CA, even though the path report at the time supposedly was benign.

Now, given the flat-out lie that the county agency told us that she "got along great with other dogs," I am wondering if they falsified the paperwork on this dog. I know that agencies like this operate on funding, and funding depends upon NUMBERS. So they need to tout that they have X number of successful adoptions, expecially given the new county goal that was declared.

At the very least I think they should have instructed my friend to have this dog x-rayed at regular intervals to make sure she was still "clear." Sadly, that was not done.

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My friend adopted a sickly dog. - MT

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