Pearl takes the tube

I have been keeping busy with the cute little beagle you see below.  She came home from the hospital after a week, seemed better for a day or two, then just went downhill.  I thought it was due to renal problems and was so afraid there would be nothing we could do.  Mr. GV took her for a vet visit and she had a 103 fever!  No wonder the poor thing felt so bad.  She wasn't interested in taking anything by mouth, so she received twice daily IM antibiotic shots. 

She still didn't want to eat a few days later, and was getting weaker.  She would show interest in food---taking it in her mouth or sniffing it, but wouldn't eat it.  There was no vomiting whenever I could get her to eat a tiny bit of food, so it wasn't a matter of keeping it down (common with renal failure.)  We were not going to watch her starve to death, and we questioned whether it was the time to consider euthanization.  We talked to our vet, and she suggested a feeding tube. 

Now let me just say this:  I always thought of a feeding tube as an "heroic measure" for all kinds of animals--including humans.  And of course it is if you are at the end of your life anyway due to terminal cancer or something else from which you cannot recover.  But the more I read up on it, the more I found that it is used as a temporary means to overcome the problem of not wanting to eat/can't eat.

Now obviously I can't read Pearl's mind, but her reaction to food leads me to some deduction using personal experience and scientific reasoning.  My father had chronic renal failure and he said food did not taste good to him.  I believe he said everything tasted bitter.  A bitter taste in nature is a warning that an item is toxic.  And so this leaves me to believe that food perhaps is tasting bitter to Pearl, and her brain is saying "Danger!  Do not eat!" or possibly just "Yuck.  No thanks." 

 And so, we had the feeding tube put in Monday.  It's a simple procedure, and not expensive either.  The placement of the tube cost $50, and already it has made a BIG difference in how she seems to feel, and I no longer feel I'm letting my dog waste away. 

See those cute little freckles on her legs?  Love them!

 She is getting a renal diet through her tube feeds, which is the same food she would be on if she was eating by mouth, just with water added to make it thin enough to go though the tube.  I've only been doing the feeds for two days now, but I am gaining confidence in my abilities. 

Today Pearl has more energy and strength.  She went outside and rolled on her back in the freshly mown grass, something that she has not done in weeks. 

My main thought is this:  If she passes away in the near future from renal failure, I know that I did everything I possibly could while still preserving her quality of life.  What more could I ask for?