Koda- Chesapeake Bay Retriever

Our life with Koda - a Chesapeake Bay Retriever.

He spent just over 8 years of life with us, from a young couple to life with two small children. In January of 2012 he was diagnosed with lymphoma. At Thanksgiving of 2011 we noticed some small swelling in his neck. The vet felt he may be fighting an illness and had us monitor it for a month. After a month, it had suddenly began to grow rapidly in size and within days had the cancer diagnosis. We opted to treated him with chemotherapy given that he was only 7 years old, he had four rounds of doxorubicin, having treatments every 3 weeks. He tolerated the treatments well and it did not seem to impact his quality of life, other than requiring a gentler diet of cooked chicken and rice. For the first day after treatment, he would be sleepy and mellow, but then he'd have 2 1/2 weeks of spry energy, sometimes acting like a youthful puppy. The treatment we were told would provide any where from 6 months to 2 years of quality of life for him. We also treated him with acupuncture at home. Sadly, after his 4th treatment, his body revolted and he went into liver failure. After 5 days of intensive care at the vet clinic, he had turned a corner and was doing much better. He came home home where we continued with IV fluids for another week. We opted not to complete the fifth and last rounds of chemo to avoid another negative reaction. The tumors were all but gone. We had nearly 3 months with a happy healthy dog. But then one morning he woke and we knew it was time. We took him for one last swim in Lake Michigan, a hamburger and an ice cream cone.

It's been nearly 9 years since that day and we've had and lost more Chessies since, but the first one cuts the deepest.

Music by the piano guys