Good bye to a Dear Friend and Companion

The M Family suffered a great lost this past weekend.. We had to put our Famous Black lab Tosha down..

It was a tough Decision, but it was the right thing to do for Tosha.. 2007 hasn't been a good year for the Super lab.. She was involved in a bad accident early in the year...

She was fine Friday night and all of the sudden Saturday morning she started heaving and throwing up.. Tosha was struggling to breath as well. So we rushed her to our Vet at soon as we could get her in...

(here comes the Sad part)

Our vet Dr. G Diagnosed her with pancreatitis.. Took Several x-rays of her chest and abdomen.. He saw some spots in her lungs and thought we should treat the pancreatitis first.. Gave her a round of meds and she seemed better as the day went on...

Canine pancreatitis is a potentially life-threatening disease that more commonly affects middle-aged to older female dogs. The pancreas is a gland that functions as part of the digestive process by producing enzymes that help break down food. Unfortunately, if these enzymes become activated within the gland, the pancreas begins digesting its own glandular tissue, creating inflammation, or pancreatitis.

At 8:00 pm N and I gave her the next round of meds. He drank a little water and went to the bath room, but her breathing got worse and worse.. N and I put her in the race car and got her to the Emergency hospital in Gaithersburg.. - They took great care of her for the short time we where there..

Dr. R. Diagnosed her with 2 Major issues 1. Megaesophagus 2. An Aspiration Pneumonia.

Megaesophagus is a little known disease that more commonly afflicts larger dogs: an esophogeal enlargement and weakness in the muscles of the esophagus that causes the dog to have difficulty swallowing. The most serious complication is that digestive fluid will at some point pool in the esophagus. Since a dog's trachea connect to the esophagus from the underside, this pooling generally results in aspiration of digestive fluid, leading to pneumonia.

An Aspiration Pneumonia is cause by either solid food, liquids or both, that has been regurgitated or vomited and it is the lodged solid or liquid that causes inflammation of the lung tissues. A bacterial infection can easily take hold in the lung tissues after liquids or solids have been inhaled.

Unfortunately Tosha had 3 Major issues going on at the same time and her prognosis was not very good.. Many days in the Hospital on Antibiotics and no real guarantee that she would get any better.. So at that time we made the tough decision to put her down.. So at about 1:30 am Sunday October 7, 2007 Tosha was gone.. But not forgotten..

Tosha was a great dog and was loyal through and through. I guess we could say she beat the odds for many years and gave us great love and compassion.. I will truly miss her.. But she leaves us with many great memories and laughs.. I could write a book and name it the Adventures of Tosha the lab.. From the Light bulbs to the avocados to sledding..

Thank you Tosha... You are the best lab ever - No matter what Hunter and Megan say...