Sadie’s heart spot

Sadie Linn Bodner was adopted on February 12, 2004, from a shelter in PA. The shelter didn’t know much about her backstory, only that she was picked up as a stray. She was a 13 lb. papillon mix and the vet told us that she was probably 3 years old which was a surprise given she had such a puppy face. She was the light of our lives and immediately fit in with us as we adopted her around the time her mom and I started dating.
The first few years were amazing as we built our bond together as a family, bought our first home as a family, got engaged along with many trips/memories the three of us built together. This all change in January 2007 when we noticed her breathing seemed rapid and the emergency vet informed us, she had congestive heart failure with a stage 4 heart murmur and gave her 6 months to live. We were shocked and scared after only 3 years we were facing the death of our little girl. Life pointed us in the right direction when we found Dr. Tod Beckett with VCA. After his examination, he agreed with the emergency vet but said not to give up yet. He prescribed meds, put her on a low sodium diet, eliminated all junk treats, and encouraged walks and playtime. Due to this diagnosis, we moved our wedding up because of our desire to have Sadie be part of it and we quickly planned a backyard wedding in four months. She walked Kristin down the aisle, stopping to poop midway which drew laughs and smiles, and it was the best wedding we could have hoped for because she was at our side.
Dr. Becketts statement of don’t give up yet rang true as 6 months came, then it was 8 months, then it was a year and then we were at the 3-year mark and not once did Sadie have a setback or a medicine adjustment. The 3-year mark did present her and us with another challenge. For her usual 6-month check-up in January 2010 the chest x-ray revealed a cancerous mass in her right lung. Because of her heart condition, removal of the mass was not possible and again we were told she may have 6 months. Sadie again beat the odds and fought her congestive heart failure and lung cancer until September 2011 when we noticed a change in her breathing. We rushed her to the vet, and we were informed that her lung was filled with fluid. Dr. Beckett initially thought that the fluid was from her heart starting to get worse. However, the news was much worse than that. After he tapped her lung (shaving a spot on her side and sticking a needle into that side spot to drain the fluid from her lung) he told us that the mass had developed a tiny hole and was leaking blood into her lung. We were told that we may have one weekend left with her if the bleeding continued. The vet told us that the bleeding could stop on its own, so we clung to the hope that we would once again be granted a miracle. We took her back two days later and were overjoyed to find out that there was no new blood in her lungs. We developed a schedule for taking her every Friday for a chest x-ray and a possible tapping, and we began to carry her up and down the steps in our house to avoid overexertion that could cause the mass to bleed more. We also had to cut her beloved walks and ball playing, because anything that increased her blood pressure could be a danger. After the second tapping, we began to get a surge of good appointments with our hope being the hole would eventually close up on its own and we could keep living life with our precious baby. Following her second tapping, we got her groomed and our phenomenal groomer formed her shaved spot on her side into the shape of a heart. This became her signature mark and brought much hope to us and her vet care team. The care team and techs told us what a perfect patient she was. She always laid on her back perfectly on the x-ray machine and she stood still and brave when the needle was inserted during the tapping, never uttering a yelp. The time would stretch longer between her needing to be tapped, and there was a period when she went three weeks without needing to be tapped. Sadly, things began to change, and she began to need to be tapped on a weekly or bi-weekly basis again. This is also when we finally noticed a change in our spirited little fighter’s behavior. While giving her pills used to be a special treat twice a day for her over nearly five years, she began to balk at taking them. We had to find new and creative ways to give them to her, and we were often at a loss for food ideas to disguise them in that would appeal to her. She also began to eat less and less of her dinner, and lost weight- going from 12.6 lbs., to only 10 at her lowest. We continued to hold out hope, and we did everything we could to keep her happy and healthy. We took daily car rides with her to take the place of her walks, and she really enjoyed them. She went from an active little dog to a lap dog, but she seemed to understand there was a reason for it.
The evening of November 14, 2011, after a great car ride together, we were cuddling with her on the couch when we noticed her breathing seemed a bit labored. That night, sleep alluded us and we were filled with dread. We took her to the vet on Tuesday morning, and our little VIP patient was once again greeted with love and affection from everyone at our vet’s office. We were told she needed to be tapped again. We were so dejected because the x-ray the previous Friday had been clear. The vet told us that it was the nature of her disease, and things could change at any time, and not to be surprised. We took her home after having her tapped, and for the first time, noticed that her breathing had not improved. It was still rapid, and we were alarmed. We called the vet and were told to wait a few hours, because she could be stressed. We waited, and knew that something was still wrong, so we took her back. By that time, our regular vet had left, and we met with an internal medicine specialist. As soon as we walked in, we knew this would be a different visit. Everyone was treating us with sympathy, rather than the fighting spirit we had come to experience from our vet’s office over the years. The vet sat us down and showed us the x-ray. She pointed out the mass, which we had grown accustomed to seeing on her x-rays over the past nearly two years. Then she pointed to some white spots in other areas of her lungs. Our regular vet had thought those were just areas of scar tissue, however, she told us that they were in fact cancer. The cancer had spread, and it was taking over the healthy tissue that pulled oxygen into her lungs. Despite having just been tapped, she was still breathing heavy because she didn’t have enough healthy tissue in her lungs to get the oxygen she needed. We were assured that she wasn’t struggling or suffering, but if we waited too much longer, she would be. We knew that we could never let our strong little baby gasp for air, so we knew we had to do the right thing.
We took her home that afternoon and had four and a half perfect hours with her. We took her on her regular walk around our neighborhood. It was a route we walked for years but hadn’t been able to take her on for the past two months. The vet had warned us that she might not be able to make the walk, but she made it the whole way and loved sniffing all her favorite spots. We took her leash off and let her take her time, and she never faltered once. We brought her home and sat on the floor and threw her favorite squeaky ball around. She chased that ball, and her tail wagged like we hadn’t seen in two months since this whole nightmare began. After that, we brought chewies out, that we previously wouldn’t let her chew on because of the sodium that could hurt her heart. She chewed the red stuff off of all of them – her favorite part. We gave her some rich food that she wouldn’t normally be able to eat, and she eat every bit of it. Then we took her on a long car ride, each of taking turns to drive so the other could hold Sadie. We cried a lot during these last four and a half hours with her, but we knew that we owed it to our beautiful baby girl to give her the best time we could. We came home and sat in our front window with her, as she had done every day for the past several years. She barked at a couple dogs and then curled up next to us. We brought her into our bedroom, and she laid down right between us in bed, touching both of us. She slept, and her breathing began to increase again. We spent the next hour crying and petting her and telling our favorite Sadie stories, and we knew as we looked at her that she was telling us it was the right time. Finally, just before 6:30 p.m. we took her to the vet. Sadie crossed the Rainbow Bridge on November 15, 2011, with Kristin and I holding her as she took her final breath. We held onto her and sobbed, but we knew we had to be with our baby so she wouldn’t be scared.
Dr. Beckett was always amazed at how much a fighter she was and had the lung cancer not developed and spread she would have been with us for many more years as she showed no further signs of her heart giving out. Sadie’s story is an amazing one and should be shared with all pet owners who are battling this terrible disease with their pets and even us humans can learn from her life’s journey.

PS: If you select Sadie and would like a better picture let me know. I included this one since it was part of her cancer story and a bright spot by our groomer to show our fight and to give us inspiration.