Murdoch 13.10.06 - 07.04.19

RIP our beautiful boy. You were the best dog we could have ever wanted, much loved by all the family and you are going to be missed so very much. We are all in tears and heartbroken at losing you.


I cannot believe I am writing this. Yesterday Murdoch did not improve and he seemed to be very uncomfortable so last night we took him to the emergency vet hospital. The vet on duty said he was in extreme pain and what pain killers we were giving him were having no effect, so he was immediately put on a drip of methadone which is the strongest drug that can be administered to a dog. This morning the vet phoned to say he was very comfortable on such a strong drug but he could not stay on it so they were going to put him on a regular pain killer and see how he fared - if the pain returned they would do an ultrasound as it then would indicate that there was something else going on besides the pancreatitis. He had the ultrasound this afternoon - luckily for us the vet who came on duty today is a specialist in ultrasound as apparently it is very difficult to do an ultrasound of a dog's pancreas.

The ultrasound revealed a large abscess next to the pancreas, and that the entire abdomen was infected due to a tear in the intestine. This condition was very serious and very painful for him. It would require immediate surgery to rectify, but the surgery was very specialised and very tricky and because of how bad his case was there was no guarantee he would recover, so the vet advised against surgery and putting him to sleep. 

We were shocked when we got the phone call to tell us the bad news. The whole family went to the hospital to spend some time with Murdoch and say goodbye. Luke and Meriel were in London watching the boat race, and they immediately came back to see Murdoch. We were all in tears as we said goodbye, we cannot quite believe our much loved beautiful boy is gone. Only a week ago he was fine. This past week he has had a constant high temperature and has been in such pain, I feel so awful thinking of how he has suffered.