28/12/2023
Fringe Warrior Princess "Xena"
May 8, 2022 - December 27, 2023
It goes without saying that I'm having a hard time finding the words for this. I prepared myself for the future heartbreaks of being a breeder, like having to pay for medical treatment for the dog who has a genetic condition or losing a puppy in the first 8 weeks. My preparation didn't take me so far to imagine losing a 1.5 year old that I had bonded so strongly with.
Xena was a singleton. As Kenchii never produced milk, she was my bottle baby. For 5 weeks straight (with the exception of a few days where Colina Edwards-Lunney was kind enough to give me some respite), I did 24/7 care with her. Having a single was something I always feared, but this puppy was a dream to socialize and she remains the most sociable miniature poodle I've met. She loved other dogs, humans, or whatever else you introduced her to.
The hardest part of show training her was the stand for exam. She was quite convinced the proper way to do this was to wag her tail so hard her butt wiggled, and then proceed to try to climb up on the judge and give kisses. When it came to humans, she had never met a stranger. Dogs were about the same, she particularly loved and was the gentlest soul with young puppies. Her best friend was our genetic dumpster fire rescue chihuahua "Chewie". She loved being big sister to Tendi and her littermates.
I had a big goal for her to start doing therapy work after I finished her champion title. She was so darn intuitive and empathetic with people, always seeking to love the person who seemed lonely and left out. She loved kids and junior handlers. Her favourite thing to do at home was drape herself over peoples shoulders and poke their ear with her wee nose.
Unfortunately, my world was turned upside down with her this fall. She fell ill one weekend with diarrhea and vomiting. With completely normal bloodwork and what felt like a hard spot on her abdomen, the emergency vets and I thought the most logical explanation was a gastric obstruction (though I could not think of possibly what she could have eaten... I run a militant household). Instead it was found she had an enlarged mesenteric lymph node. We ordered full pathology, with the first assumption being bacteria, virus, or another sort of immune reaction, and started her on oral steroids. We discussed the "very remote" possibility of lymphoma, but most vets thought it was an extremely unlikely diagnosis.
When we started weaning Xena off steroids, symptoms returned, and shortly after, pathology results came back suggesting cancer. we got a referral to Dr. Kara Magee, who got Xena in within a business day. Unfortunately, her interpretation of the results was T-Cell Lymphoma. For those not familiar with canine lymphoma, it is very similar to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in humans. The prognosis for T-Cell Lymphoma is extremely poor, and most of Xena's individual characteristics reduced the likely effectiveness of chemotherapy. I searched high and wide for answers, even looking at a bone marrow transplant in the USA. However, the risks and the pain to her greatly outweighed a likelihood of a reasonable remission or cure. In the end I decided it was the best thing for her to receive palliative care. Palliative care kept her stable and happy for about 2 months. We spoiled her as best we could, sleeping on the bed every night, bully sticks every day, numerous new toys she was welcome to shred to her heart's content. Every day until the end she wanted to wag her tail and play.
On Christmas day, she didn't want to play any more and stated having major GI symptoms. We took her to emergency for IV fluids and additional medication. The conclusion was that her palliative care medications were causing multiple ulcers and lesions in her GI tract. There was no further medication to try. It did give her a bit longer, and she was able to come home for Christmas, we had a good boxing day together and she got to say goodbye to some special humans. This morning she was still happy but also clearly in pain, so I decided it was time to say goodbye.
Prior to losing Xena, we worked with the Ontario Veterinary College to send samples to their canine cancer bank. I hope some day I might know exactly what caused this, but today I'm still in the dark. Over the last few months I've done a crash course in lymphoma, had friends help me do extensive pedigree research. There is no definitive answer for the "why?".
I have not had a chance to speak to all of the owner's of Xena's half siblings and relatives yet. I'm going to work on doing that over the next while and hopefully answer questions. The big piece of information I can provide is that Dr. Magee, Xena's oncologist, was quite firmly in the position that this is highly unlikely to be hereditary, given Xena's age and breed, and likely sits on the side of major novel mutation. Pedigree research has not revealed any cancer history and generally has dogs with long lives. I'm genuinely sorry I didn't do it earlier, but the learning curve has been steep and my main focus was giving Xena what she needed. I was not ready to have all the conversations yet because I didn't have answers to questions (and I still don't have them all).
That being said, please everyone take the time to hug your dogs and show them how much you love them. Looking back the only thing I wish is that I had taken more pictures and videos.
I want to convey my thanks to the veterinarians and staff at Queensway West Animal Hospital, Eagleson Veterinary Clinic Kanata, and Capital City Specialty & Emergency Animal Hospital. This has not been an easy time for me. You were all patient, kind, and took the time to answer my questions. A special shoutout goes to Dr. Blanaid Donnelly at Queensway West, who helped me connect with the Ontario Veterinary College and to collect and send Xena's samples. It was the one thing that gave me a bit of hope and peace through this.
I didn't do the traditional Facebook birthday request for donations, so I'm going to do so now. The Smiling Blue Skies Cancer Fund specifically funds cancer research at Ontario Veterinary College. The Ottawa Valley Poodle Club did make a donation this year and I hope to now support this ongoing. Xena and I would be honoured if you would consider making a donation in her name.
https://bbis.alumni.uoguelph.ca/BBIS_Cannon/give/ovcpettrust-tribute?f=57
