We are still living in a surreal disbelief not having our dear Matilda with us in physical form anymore, not seeing her presence when we wake up each day or when I work in my office, her bed in front of me sitting here for long hours whilst I used to work.
So, I thought it was fitting to write a bit about Matilda´s later years of life and then in future posts a lot will be covered of her life with us before she became ill and the many memories that are imprinted in our minds of her.
It was almost 6 years ago that our Veterinary Surgeon diagnosed Matilda with a sudden severe highest grade form of Mitral Valve Cardiac Failure. Along followed a series of cardiac ultrasounds every 3 months in which we were present and it was evident to all of us that Matilda´s heart was failing.
She was immediately placed on a combinations of diuretic medication and heart protectors that we changed the dosage of accordingly over the coming months.
Almost 6 months after the initial diagnosis, Dr Alexandre, told us in the middle of January during a rather miserable Portuguese Winter that he did not expect Matilda to live until the Summer and for us to prepare for this - Teresa and I were devastated. A well known Portuguese Fado singer released an album and had a title track "Until Summer" in it which whenever I hear it brings back memories of this time.
So time passed and Summer arrived and guess what? Matilda was still with us, late Summer came and she had her Birthday, so she had already beaten the odds.
Into the following year or two Dr Alexandre basically came to the conclusion with us that he would not give a life expectancy of Matilda anymore as she had become an inspiration for many of his other patients and he often recounts the story of Matilda to shocked owners when they are told their dogs have heart murmurs.
Matilda continued this way for about 4 years, initially there was a lot of fluid accumulation and she had to adapt the way she lay on the couch or on her bed, but she adapted to a sideways position and did not think twice of it, she was still able to partake in all activities she did with us including the famous Guincho beach walks, I watched her carefully that she never really got out of breath, that little heart kept beating!
In December 2015 we noticed Matilda was getting more lethargic, losing an interest in food and something was very wrong. Hence in early January of 2016 off we went to here Dr Alexandre was working as he had left his last place of employment and along with another veterinary partner of his Matilda was clinically evaluated. Due to her love of chicken over the years, Matilda´s teeth were in a bad way... prior to this it was not considered wise to surgically clean them under anesthesia due to her weak heart but now it had become an emergency. The two surgeons decided that a high risk cleaning procedure would have to be undertaken as bacteria from plaque build up was causing an infection that in turn was threatening her life. However the surgery was considered very high risk.
We took her to Guincho ahead of it and she had a fun afternoon there. When we arrived at the consulting rooms, bloodwork had to be run ahead of this procedure and then another shock surfaced... Matilda´s kidneys were failing and failing so badly that her BUN readings were off the chart on the machine the vets were using. So surgery was impossible and all that they could do was give her antibiotics and do sub cutaneous diuresis of saline solution which is a form of dialysis of the kidneys without doing it intravenously as with her heart condition this was not possible.
(Matilda, loyal to the end, following Teresa at Guincho beach)
Of course Matilda did not like this, but in fact in was the initial lancet prick that was the worst part of this as once the needle was in the saline did not bother her. However Matilda was a little fighter and it was not easy for the vets to do it.
As we had to drive almost 40 minutes each way to get to where our vet was and this had to be done daily, we were taught how to do it at home, teresa did not have the heart to do it, so I was given the daunting task...
As she showed a positive reaction to the saline and in dramatically increased her kidney function I started doing this here in my office.
This was a one man operation as Teresa was not comfortable doing it. However as it caused minimal initial discomfort and I truly believe Matilda realised afterwards how her appetite always got stronger as well as her, I learnt how to do it and devised a system to suspend the saline bag above her bed and a technique for initially inserting the needle in the scruff of her neck to make it minimally painful.
(Above is the makeshift Berlin Wall support I used to suspend the saline bottle from for the entirety of Matilda´s treatments)
The initial treatment from January to March of 2016 worked well and her BUN and Creatinine levels returned to manageable amounts and she got a lot of life back in her. We were able to stop treatments for almost 6 month period in 2016 and she lived a completely normal life.
(Matilda´s 15th Birthday September 29th 2016)
(The gang of 3 in my office)
However by late October her kidneys started faltering again and I had to re start the saline treatment daily which I did until the evening of her final night with us in July of 2017. She knew it helped her and I managed it either daily or twice daily depending on how I felt she was. It became part of a routine and I would say she lived well with it, and would happily treat any other animal that I had to this way as I know the incredible good it does, the power of saline!
(Matilda on my lap having the sub cutaneous saline a week before she passed away)
But Matilda remains a true inspiration for us, in the face of imminent kidney failure she bounced back as she did from her cardiac issue, it was sad that at the end of her life her gum condition had spread to a mass in her mouth that I believe was malignant and it came to a point that we believed she really did not have the quality of life we wanted Matilda to have, but this was only really in the final week of her wonderful life. All throughout her illnesses she bravely marched forward and taught us how to face adversity in our lives.
Only on the last evening with us she gave me a strong flick of her nose, from a very weakened state she was in, and looked straight into my eyes - I felt strongly she reminded me of years before when she used to knock my hand with her nose in the car trying to get belly rubs, her message to me at that final time was -
REMEMBER ME FROM THE FLICK OF MY NOSE, THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU HAVE DONE FOR ME.
And we too Thank you Matilda for everything you did for us on this earth and continue to do for us from where you have moved on to. Thank you!
It was time to let Matilda go, run free from her frail body and for the suffering to end. We had seen Matilda age and defeat the impossible, now it was time to not keep her simply surviving on this earth and to think of her and to stop her suffering, time to set her soul free and for her to continue her work here and in the Universe but in a different way.
