From A.. eh, Almere to Almeria: Estrella farewell

On October 15 2021 Estrella came to live with us, she left June 9 2023.

Farewell dear Estrella! After seeing you 4 years alone in your cage, fantasizing we would just grab you, you came to us, and stayed almost two years. But all really good things come to an end.

She suffered from an insulinoma, a malignant growth in the pancreas, excreting excessive insulin, causing glucose in the blood to be extremely low. The moment that is noticeable it’s already too late. Prognosis is bleak. We had an appointment for a diagnostic utrasound the morning of June 9, but the evening of June 8 it was clear there was no future, and we had to (make) let you go.

We had noticed some signs early on. Sometimes she would stumble. Fall clumsily off the sofa when stepping off. Strangely crossed her front legs sometimes when walking. But, don't we all? Mentioned it to the vet last year, but it was not that severe, could be something neurological, and we decided we'd just keep an eye.

About a 3/4 year ago she would be reluctant to walk on, especially when we reached the end of the walk, and were on the way back home. She would drag, and be unwilling to walk the same pace with us. Blamed that on stubbornness. This dog had character, you know.

April this year the stumbling became worse, and early May she had what we thought was an epileptic seizure in the afternoon. Took her to the vet later that evening, as the seizures did not really pass. Sedation is the treatment for epileptic seizures. Normally a seizure should then pass, but it didn't. She needed supervision and controlled sedation during the night, which requires 24h monitoring. Nearest that was available was the Vet Hospital in Murcia. Off we went, with a moaning Estrella all the way. She did not enjoy all of this, and neither did we. The vet had also heard a murmur in her heart. It could even be a heart attack!

They did a blood analysis. What stood out was very low glucose. That can be the the after-effect, or the cause, of seizures, or a heart attack. They would take care of her and let us know in the morning. We were home at 3:30 in the morning.

They called: she's up and about! They gave her glucose, and that improved her condition rapidly, no more sedation necessary.

We could collect her, which we did.

A dog can have epileptic seizures just once in it's life, to never have them again. So they wait to see if it ever happens again, and only then investigate, as the procedures are invasive. They want fluid from the spine, etc. Other causes were quickly mentioned, like low glucose can be a pancreas problem. A quick fix for low glucose is to put some honey on her gums, with your finger. That passes quickly into the blood.

Early May she stumbled and fell into the water bowl. Hmm. And we saw more and worse stumbling. A few weeks without major trouble, then end of May another seizure. Honey on her gums did the trick. But... not good, this. Meanwhile an enormously increased appetite! June 6 Coco needed vaccinations, and we took Estrella along for blood sampling.

June 8 the results were in: very probably an “insulinoma", a malignant growth in the pancreas, excreting excessive insulin, causing glucose in the blood to be extremely low. The moment that is noticeable it’s already too late. Prognosis is extremely bleak, even with treatment (an operation).

We had an appointment for an ultrasound for the morning of June 9, but by the evening of June 8 it was clear there was no future, she had more seizures that we could not stop. Not with honey, nor with valium. How to get her through the night? We really did not know. By midnight we called the vet's alarm number, she passed away at the vet's, June 9, 00:45.

Wrapped her in blankets and took her home for burial. We are so very sad.

We don't know her age, we think 8-9-10? Not young, but not old either. 4 years in that cage nearby, 1 and 3/4 years with us. Her attention seeking never ended, until now. Farewell dear Estrella, you were very welcome to stay with us for years and years more.

Our reasoning for letting her go was that if an insulinoma was indeed visible in the ultrasound it was probably too late to operate, and if not, what else? And if yes, when could an operation be arranged? The success of seeing an insulinoma on ultrasound is low, too, max 40%. Also, the first signs we saw a year ago, which is a long time for this disease, where metastatis is more common than not. A max survival time of two years post op is a bleak future. And how much of those two remaining years are with a good quality of life? As said, we did not see how we would get her through the night before the scan. Goodbye dear strange funny lovely Estrella.

Crying again.

But life goes on, there are now 6 left to care for.