That is a very lovely bond between humans and animal. Exceptional, I would say! I am sorry for your loss but I think it is safe to say that Bayley left with a happy heart. He was blessed to have ended with yout family that truly values creatures like them. You made him learn to love again. And he chose to die with your family, not with others.
You mentioned Bayley stayed with you for 7 1/2 years though I wonder how old he was when you took him? Did the vet mention how he got the fluids around his heart? I just thought it may help inform other dog owners like me.
Thank you, @macoolette
Such wonderful questions.
He was two when he came to us.
They said it was very rare. They said it could be genetic or poison (yet neither of these fit his profile as he was always with me and we have a non-toxic house) and also a tumor could cause such a response. I will say though that he always had this 'cough' response when he'd get over excited that I wonder about. Coming to us as a rescue, all of his history is not known - but this never worried his vet - he seemed to be a very healthy boy. And the only additional piece I can add is that 6 months ago, he had his teeth cleaned and he seemed to have a really hard time recovering from the anesthesia - he seemed to not bounce back with the same energy he had before this procedure. And in the case of fluid around the heart, he was drinking a lot of water because all his fluids were going to his heart making him dehydrated - then he had an IV to replenish his fluids at the vet which added additional fluids around his heart. It was only when the emergency hospital did an ultrasound that they discovered the fluid.
I don't think others need to worry about this happening to their dog. It was a very rare circumstance.
That makes Bayley 9 1/2 years old when he left. I made a quick search on Google about dog lifespan and 10-13 years came out. He left a little early but again, he lived a happy life with your family so I would say his last 7 1/2 years were all worth every moment.
Thank you for all those background info. It looks like his case is indeed rare.
Do you plan to have another one like him?
It wasn't that long ago that dogs' lifespans were 15 - 17. There is a border collie that lived to be 27 yro!
Some feel that this is due to dietary changes among other things. Too much carbohydrates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_dogs
Oh, that's cool for dogs to be living that long. You got further search result there while I stopped at just what came out of Google. 😊
Too much carbohydrate as cause of death sounds off to me. But well, even the vet can't pinpoint the COD so who really knows?
What happened was that I knew about the border collie but wanted to check first in case it was one of the 'myths' that ended up getting passed around. That's how I ended up with the wiki list. :)
I just came back from a conference with a well-known vet, Dr. Becker, and she and other vets were saying that cancer in dogs is nearly 'all' will develop it due to the high amounts of carbs in the commercial foods (I guess sugars feed cancer). That's not to say that carbs create the cancer, but that the diet feeds the cells. As well, so many dogs seem to have the same diseases as people now - notice that? Just makes you wonder when looking at past average lifespan and disease rates.
Yeah, I thought about that when you mentioned about longer dog life span before and then I thought that was the same case with humans before. I guess that is where people's claim that quality of life is degrading as time goes by...
Yes, so true @macoolette