Remembering Annika~

 Annika~

5-17-2012 - 1-26-2023

1-15-2021

The pain of losing our little Buhund girl is almost too great to bear...  

 Fall of 2021, Nika experienced bouts of vomiting.  It started out so seldom I passed it off as having eaten something she'd found & shouldn't have.  But by October, the problem had continued.  I asked Mari Jo & she recommended George Darnell, DVM.  We both liked him right away.  He reminded me of our friend & Vet in Washington.  The clinic was on his farm outside of town.  He had a calm, relaxed manner & Nika was at ease with him.  He suggested a fecal & urine sample - we did both.  The fecal came back negative & the uranalysis - normal.  We made a change in her food, hopeful that would solve the issue.  When it didn't, the next step was blood work.  We received the results from that in February of 22, everything was normal...

Nika turned ten in May!  She seemed so healthy & happy!  Through the summer, Nika was fine - the bouts weren't too frequent & she didn't have any other symptoms of a problem.  She'd traveled with Butch for four-months & lost some weight.  She'd also had more frequent bouts, which we both passed off as truck sick since it seemed to happen when they were in stop & go traffic.  

Once she was home, she started eating two-full bowls of food a day & quickly gained her weight back.  Along with the weight, her muscle tone returned & she was back to running the yard many times a day.  Her fur coat grew thick & shiny.  She was still experiencing episodes of being sick though. Through November, she held her own, but the problem still hadn't resolved, Dr. Darnell decided to try ulcer medication.  

The medication seemed to have no effect.  Through December it was a rare morning when she hadn't been sick during the night.  Now, she wasn't finishing her food.  That had never happened before.  I tried many different things, adding broth, etc.  She was forcefully vomiting, even during the day.  

Dr. Darnell suggested we have her teeth cleaned - just in case she had a cracked tooth.  I drove her to Omaha January 3rd.  The dentist said if every dog who came in had teeth as good as Nika's - he wouldn't have a job.  Dr. Darnell also decided to try a totally different type of protein & we switched her food over to Lamb.   For the first time in weeks, she finished off a bowl of food.  The next day though - she lost everything she'd eaten the day before.  There wasn't a morning when I didn't find a spot of bile.  Her weight had dropped & she had not been herself for many weeks.

Butch returned home 1/26/23 & could see right away Nika was failing...  I called Dr. Darnell & also called Dean in MX.  They concurred that Nika was probably suffering from cancer.  (Going the route of surgery wasn't one we wanted for her.)  We'd been fighting a battle we were sure we'd win...  The drive out to the farm was the most difficult we'd taken in many, many years... 

It was Nika, who helped us made the transition from living on an acreage to living in town.  The first of our dogs to live inside with us 24/7. Now, home alone - I feel her loss every step I take...  I'm reminded of how she would wait a few minutes - then quietly follow & pick a spot where she could keep an eye on me.  She attended Mat-making several times & was a regular at bible study.  She loved visiting her "Grama Doris"!  Evenings, she was to sleep on her pillow in the family room.  Every night, once we were in bed, there would be a little thump as she settled herself on the rug at the foot of our bed.

Rest in peace Nika~ We love you so very much...  The love you gave us & the memories we share - will reside in our hearts forever... 

Our Buhund girl~

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