persistence

Anyone who gets very attached to their pets will understand what a challenge it is to raise a puppy up and into old age. The challenge being caring for an older pet, especially when they start having medical problems. My dachshund Missy is 13 years old, she will 14 in December. Her sister Shirley died a year ago in February at age 12. Shirley appeared very healthy and ran around playing still. Liked her toys and floss ropes. One day I was playing with her , she was running around and then all of a sudden she flopped over on her side with her legs flailing and she was also crying out in pain. I thought she was having a seizure. I held her and after awhile it stopped. but it would start again off and on. We took her to the emergency veternary on call and when he listened to her heart he told us her heart was very bad. I wish I would have gotten a second opinion on how to help her, but I didn't because after the vet put her on some pills she seemed to start getting better. But within 2 weeks she was dead. Dying in my arms. The strange thing is I was told that my other dog missy had a bad heart and so I always worried about her. I never knew shirley had a bad heart also. I was never told this and I am sure when taking her to the vet for other things they must have listened to her heart at some point. so it was a shock to have shirley die this way. Now the challenge with missy is the last time a few years ago ( i need to find out the exact date out of curiosity, i really can't remember how long ago it was ) I took her to the vet to get her teeth cleaned. The vet called me that missy's heart had stopped twice under the anesthesia! They were able to revive her which I am so thankful for! but said she could never have any anesthesia again. due to this they were not able to clean her teeth at that time.. Missys' teeth have continued to rot and decay really bad. We really didn't know what to do about it though. but over the last few months because of the rotting teeth, missy's mouth has smelled so foul. I mean because I love her, I was able to put up with it, but it just kept getting worse where even I could not stand to be near her much. so I kept asking (pestering) the vet about what my options might be to help the situation. they didn't offer me anything. They kept saying in order to clean her teeth properly she would have to be put under anesthesia but of course missy could not be put under because of her heart so they said nothing could be done. I pestered them then about could they brush her teeth for me maybe if i brought her in. ( i tried to brush her teeth at home myself but she fought me too much , wouldn't let me near her mouth.) they didn't want to do that and said it wouldnt help anyway. So I inquired on couldn't they just mildly tranqualize missy?? and just do the best they could on getting at least some cleaning done? they didn't think they could do any good cleaning just under a tranqualizer. I persisted in doing it anyway and so they finally gave in ! And today was the cleaning day. I took missy in at 8:30 am and told them I would like to wait. I wasn't sure if missy would make it through even tranquilzing so i wanted to be there. They wouldn't let me be in the actual room with them while they cleaned . but everything went great! I am so happy I persisted on this! They were able to clean really good and the vet even said he was so surprized and amazed at how much he was able to do. Missy's front teeth are white now! I could n't believe it when i saw them! and they were able to pull out 5 rotten teeth that were pretty much just hanging there. It sounded like they numbed her gums up good so I sure hope Missy didn't feel too much. Missy seems fine but is still a little drowsy from the tranquilizer. I bet her mouth is gonna hurt for awhile. they gave her a shot of anti-inflammatory so hope that helps. probably tonight will hurt the worse for her i am thinking and then hopefully start getting healed up she is also on antibiotics.. right now she smells like antiseptic. I am hoping this will cure that terrible smell . they gave me some cleaning gel to put along her gum line each day.to keep her teeth clean and prevent the tarter buildup. that is gonna be a challenge as she doesn't let me near her mouth so hope i can figure out someway to do that. so the moral of this story is: don't take "nothing can be done" for an answer. keep persisting in a way to help the situation you have to deal with.