Tribute to Benji.
At 7 years old, Benji was a champ. Handled multiple moves, living with other family members while I deployed or had to be gone for long periods of time, and survived multiple stomach and egg issues. She enjoyed running around my earlier apartments, and hanging out in the porch on sunny inside her cardboard box. Benji was always lauded for her size and gentle nature, only ever being upset when I had to give her medicine.
I raised her from a tiny little thing, admittedly as an impulse buy, but quickly learned how to give her the best possible life. Everything was taken care of appropriately l, but I guess I missed something.
The events:
Midday today, Benji passed a large amount of stool. I wasn’t alerted until my girlfriend asked if she looked alright. At first, she seemed tired. Made sense seeing the size of the stool. But I was told that she made a series of loud grunting sounds, like a hiss or groan, and after picking up her stool, Benji began to make very inconsistent and deep breathes, growing paler by the minute and her beard getting darker. I tried to nurse her for an hour, providing water and heat and making sure she reacted to my touch. Her eyes began to close and she became unresponsive.
I called 4 exotic vets in my area, the others were too far away. No exotic vets were available until tomorrow. I proceeded to do some tests. Flipping her over had no effect and she did not react to pokes nor pinches of any kind. Her eyes were now swollen and she did not appear to be breathing. Still unresponsive. I needed someone to look at her. So I took her to see a normal vet, just anything at that point. The vet used a stethoscope and mentioned that there was barely a heartbeat. But her beard had gotten darker and saliva had began to leak from her mouth, which she couldn’t move. It was obvious at the time that she was slowly slipping away. I don’t think she would have survived the night.
With little other options other than to wait around, uncertain if she was in any pain or what the night would hold, I made the heartbreaking decision to put her down. This is the most I’ve cried in a long time. I don’t know what went wrong. I don’t know if there was anything more I could have done. I don’t know.