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A Tribute to Bambi


This is going to be a page dedicated to my only child (and now my guardian angel) Bambi who passed away on June 8th 2002, when she was only 7 years old.

I lost my baby to AIHA (Auto Immune Hemolytic Anemia, for all of those who dont know what it is, I will leave a link at the bottom of the page for you to look at) and the vet also said she had a tumor on her spine, so that didnt help matters much. She had blood work, urine sample, and adominal tap done at the vet. Also she had fluid on her lungs.

The first sign I should have noticed was her not eating her hard food. But she gets like that from time to time. That she gets tired of her food, but I should have known. So we just feed her mush food in with her hard food to get her to eat it. We just thought she had the typical flu/cold and didnt want to eat anything.

Then one afternoon we went to put her out, to do her business and she collapsed before she even got to the door. I wasnt at home since I dont live with my parents anymore, I live an hour and a half away. But my brother took her to the vet. They knew right away what it was by the color of her tongue. So she gave us prednisone. She was on 16 pills a day!

The vet asked us to bring up a urine sample up the next day while she sent Bambi's blood work away to confirm that she did have AIHA. The normal level in dogs is 35%, Bam's were down to 17%. Which isnt good at all. Not the point of IV needed but bad enough to cut off oxygen to her brain making her pass out. She was breathing very deep and shallow by now. It was a pityful watching my once hyper dog, just laying around on the couch all the time. She was at the point where we held her dish of food/drink up to her so she could eat/drink. And take her pills.

Unfortunatly I had to return to work. I didnt want to leave her but I had to returned to work. By the weekend when I got home it was really bad, she hadnt moved in 24 hours. Not even to go out and do her business. It seems her insides were shutting down, since she didnt do her business in those 24 hours at all. She got so bad that we had to hold her head up. Those last 24 hours that she was alive she layed on her one side. She also had a cough now, everytime she tried to eat/drink, or lick someone she would cough. I have read about why that would happen and it means infection somewhere. Depending on how severe the cough is, to what the cough means. And Bambi did have a tumor so i assume its cause she had cancer, she began coughing. Cause the vet asked us if she had *the cough* yet.

My parents waited till i got home to say goodbye to her. Which I thanked them for, I dont think I could live with myself if I didnt say goodbye to her. So on that nite, June 8th 2002 at 8:30pm we made the decision to let her go to Rainbow Bridge. It was for the best, her laying on the couch, never getting hyper/worked up again was not a life for her. The vet said there was nothing more they could do for her.

I am going to add a page later on as I work on this webpage, on her life and the happier moments. And also a picture page and poem page.