R.I.P., Zip

Poor little Zippy. Thursday morning he was lethargic and vomiting, so I took him to our vet. Bob gave him subcutaneous fluids, shots for nausea and an anti-inflammatory, and liquid amoxicillin. Zip had a moderately high fever.

Thursday evening, Zip was almost himself, begging for food, perky, happy. He ate a little chicken and rice. Friday he was lethargic again, just drinking water. Of course, it had snowed all day and no local vets were open, much less Bob, whose office is 40 miles away over a mountain. The emergency vet's office didn't open till 6 p.m., and the snow was too bad to attempt the drive (20 miles away).

It snowed all day Saturday. Zip vomited in the afternoon, bringing up food that he'd eaten on Wednesday. Totally undigested. We started giving him a few tablespoons of water every half hour; he kept it down for a couple of hours, but started vomiting again.

We decided he needed to see the vet that night, so after digging Betty's car out of the driveway we took Zippy outside. He was so happy; he even performed one last zip on the way out. He loved to ride in the car.

We managed to get out of the driveway but got stuck in the road right in front of the house. Greg dug us out, and after a little pushing, we were on our way.

It was such a surreal trip. We stayed off the interstate; there have been some nasty accidents on there during snow. The main road was covered with snow, but it had been plowed and we were able to drive along at 30 mph. Fortunately there was very little other traffic; we drove down the center of the four-lane road without any trouble.

We got to the vet's office after 11 p.m. We were taken into the examining room right away and Zippy was examined. His temperature was normal but he was still vomiting.

After blood work, the verdict was in; Zippy was a seriously sick little boy. He was severely diabetic; the highest the machine would register was >700, and that's where his blood sugar was. He also had kidney disease and pancreatitis. He would have never been able to have any table food or treats ever again. Zippy loved his treats. The very last thing that he ate and kept down was two tiny bites of a muffin.

After debating the options, and a lot of crying, I decided it was better to let Zippy go peacefully rather than hospitalize him for up to a week to stabilize his diabetes and treat the pancreatitis. He would have had to have shots twice daily.

He died very quickly and peacefully after Betty and I took turns holding him and telling him how much we love him.

We miss him terribly.