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Back in February of this year I drove North to Scotland
to be with my mum when she recieved the news from her consultant
that she had lung cancer. The consultant was very open and
honest about her illness and when my mother asked the question
"How long do I have?" He replied that on average
the survival time was around 6 months. It will come as no
surprise that on receiving this information we were both
a little fazed to say the least.
How ironic was it that within 24 hours of returning back
to work at Fairfield I was delivering exactly the same news
to "Treacle's" owners. The only difference being
that in dogs the survival time is generally considerably
shorter.
Six weeks later I had the privilege to examine "Treacle"
once more. His owner was also clearly affected by the diagnosis
but was clearly puzzled. If "Treacle" had such
a serious illness then why did he appear so well? It was
apparent to me that "Treacle" had lost some weight
and there were increased respiratory sounds on auscultation
with my stethoscope but there was no disputing how happy
"Treacle" looked.
No-one had told "Treacle" that he had a serious
illness and quite frankly he wouldn't have cared if you
had. The fact is that like most dogs from the time they
wake up until the end of the day there only function is
to derive pleasure from practically everything they do.
They are not blighted by the notion of worrying about what
might happen in the future but to anticipate life's next
pleasure whether that is a meal or simply a walk.
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