Rex not well – Last Sunday he just wasn’t his normal self. He struggled to get up, couldn’t settle, panting….. It got so bad that we called the vet. The vet said that his heart didn’t sound good, and gave him a shot of Prednisolone. We took him back for a blood test on Monday. The blood test showed nothing exceptional although the vet said that there were signs of inflammation.
Vet gave us Prednisolone tablets. One a day for ten days and told us to come back the following week if Rex didn’t improve. The next couple of days followed a similar pattern. Rex would really struggle in the morning, then as the day went on he’d get better. We even got a glimpse of the old Rex. But, mostly he wasn’t good.
I sat with him all day with Wednesday and Thursday and most of the night. By the middle of the Thursday afternoon I couldn’t watch him suffer any more. Very carefully, I took him back to the vet in the hope that he would be able to give Rex some relief……..
We had Benzapril for him. The plan was that the Benzapril will help his heart. We should have seen improvement in 3 to 4 days. But not guaranteed. We had two-weeks worth of drugs, and at the end of that time the plan was to reassess.
I ccouldn’t bear to see him suffering like he was. Completely exhausted yet unable to sleep. Struggling to get up, then just standing there not knowing what to do.
The vet reckons there’s no chance of him ever being back to normal. Having spent the last two days reading up on dog heart problems all the classic signs are there – shortness of breath, coughing, getting up suddenly for no reason….and his appetite gone. He used to feed like he’d never been fed in his life. Now he struggles to take toast with honey on – his favourite.

FAST FORWARD TO FRIDAY… 2nd December…
Rex continued to go down hill. By Friday morning I knew he couldn’t go on. He was in a terrible state. We took the tough descision to set Rex free.
At the vets…I held him in my arms and spoke softly to him until I was sure he was free.

Rex, aka – Fluffy’ead, The Fluffy One, Royal Rex, Sir Rex of Gorre, My Lovely Boy…. He was only with us for one short summer. We knew when we adopted him that he wouldn’t be around for long. He was well over 10 years old. But we didn’t think he leave us so soon. He was part of the family and we were looking forwards to our first Christmas with him. We miss him so much. He was a special dog and we were gifted to know him.

Run free Rex, run free……