Yogi’s story submitted by Carole R.

I saw a picture of Yogi on a local shelter’s website just 2 weeks after I lost my beloved Max to cancer. I sent my husband and daughter to the shelter (I had to work) and they picked up Yogi at 4 months. He was everything we wanted in a dog: affectionate, smart, loyal, etc. He was the perfect dog in every way.

In April, 2014, Yogi had a lump on his leg which turned out to be cancer. My vet removed it and was sure she got it all. She said there was a chance it could come back and if it did, would probably be in the same area. Yogi NEVER stopped licking the wound. We would tell him “Your leg is never going to heal”. He would stop licking until we looked away, and then he was back at it.

In late February, 2016, my 7 year old Sheltie mix, Shelby, started limping horribly. She had two torn CCLs and was overweight (as was Yogi). I put them both on Prescription diet food and limited all treats. After one month of the diet, I brought them to the vet to be weighed at the end of March. Yogi had lost 13 pounds in one month, but I wasn’t putting 2 and 2 together at that point. Around April 1st, He was limping a bit. At first I thought he maybe twisted his leg, or got some sort of infection from the constant licking of the previously mentioned wound. After a few days he was still limping so I made a vet appt. for him. I totally expected to leave that vet appt. with my silly licking dog and a bottle of antibiotics! I also noticed he had a few small bumps: on his leg, back, neck, head, and a cluster on his side. Having dealt with cancer with him and a few other pets in the past, I would get any and all lumps checked out when I found them. When I brought him in, they x-rayed his leg and there was a shadow seen, but of greater concern to my vet was the small lumps. She did a cytology on one of them but she didn’t have to wait for the pathology to come back. She knew right away what it was – histiocytic sarcoma. She had to tell me that I would lose Yogi within weeks. That was on April 8, 2016. A week and a half later, I called her and asked that she come to my house that Friday to put him down. We put him to rest on April 22nd. I watched my baby go downhill so fast over those two weeks. In a way, the aggressiveness of the cancer was a blessing. We didn’t have to watch him suffer long or agonize over the “when”. His rapid decline decided that. We miss him terribly but have since filled our (and Shelby’s) hearts with a little sheltie

Naar onze Histio website in het Nederlands