Bad weekend

Over the past week, Dexter has suddenly started to act funny - becoming very lethargic and unwilling to eat. After we let him out late last night and he laid down in the snow and wouldn't get up, Colin and I decided it was time to take him to the emergency vet. Going into the vet, we were thinking that maybe he had eaten something funny or chewed up something in the backyard, but the news became much worse. After taking some x-rays and an ultrasound, the vet believes that Dexter has cancer, lymphoma to be exact. They believe he has a large tumor in his abdomen that he has probably been living with his entire life, but finally hit the tipping point within the past week. He has deteriorated very quickly and has been staying in the hospital now since last night. Colin and I were completely shell shocked last night when they dropped the bomb on us. When we started this whole thing on Friday morning, this was definitely the last thing that I thought - especially with a 2 year old puppy.

We have an appointment at the University of Minnesota tomorrow morning to meet with a specialist to discuss our options from here. The prognosis is if left untreated, he may live another couple weeks, or it may be possible to do chemotherapy and extended his life for another year at the most. Bottom line, he is not going to live to see old or even middle age =(. Colin and I are having a really really hard time - you all know he is our child. We want to do what is best for him, and it's really hard because he is so young and he can't tell us how he feels. Hopefully we will get more answers at the U tomorrow. The next few days are going to bring more answers, but also some tough realities.