Last Saturday, we had Bridget put down. It was an extremely hard decision but she had been very sick off and on for the past couple of years or so, and sick constantly for the past month. About a month ago, after another trip to the emergency vet where she was hospitalized, we went ahead and had a bunch of different tests done to see exactly what her illness was as the special diet and medication we had her on were no longer working. She had an ultrasound, colonoscopy, endoscopy, and various biopsies of her gastrointestinal system. The findings were that she had inflammatory bowel syndrome, which we had suspected but didn't know for sure until the tests. There was no cure, all we could do was continue to try to manage her condition with a special diet and additional medication to try and keep it from progressing. At the end of last week, she had degenerated to the point where we had run out of food brands she could tolerate, and she wasn't even able to stomach boiled chicken and rice. She was constantly sick, and the side effects from the already large amount of medication she was on were making her even more uncomfortable. Last Saturday morning, she had another episode which would have required hospitalization to stabilize her. Since we were unable to effectively manage her condition anymore and it seemed like we were just prolonging her suffering, we decided the best decision was to put her down. She was hurting so much and so uncomfortable in her last minutes of life, it is a relief to know she is finally at peace. We're glad she doesn't have to suffer anymore, but we loved her very much and miss her greatly. She was a very good little beagle.
