Shih Tzu Rescue of Central WI
 
Sparky was surrendered to a vet clinic when his owners had to move someplace that did not accept dogs.  The clinic tried to find a home for Sparky for a year but had no luck so they asked us to take him into our tender paws program since he was in liver failure and possibly had dementia.  Sparky came to us on February 16, 2013 a playful happy boy of 13 years.  At times it seemed he was confused where he could not remember his name or how to get out of the corner he walked into.
 
After a few weeks Sparky seemed to have more memory troubles so we took him to our vet who did some more testing and suggested an ultrasound.  On March 22nd Sparky and I went to Green Bay for an examination and ultrasound, he was not very co-operative that day so they had to sedate him.  We found that his liver was so small it could not process his food so ammonia was pooling around his brain causing the dementia like symptoms.  He also had a large mass in his gall bladder and spots in his lungs.  Unfortunately most sedatives are processed through the liver and Sparky’s was not able to.

On March 27, 2013 Sparky and I made one last trip to our vet where I said goodbye and put an end to his suffering.  We always wish for a miracle with these special cases and in a way I guess the miracle was that he was able to spend his last 6 weeks living in a home.  Sparky was a joy while he was here and he will always be missed but we take comfort in the fact that he is no longer suffering