My sweet baby

It's a very sad time here. My poor little baby Cleo is in the veterinary hospital. She started having major breathing problems Sunday night and I was up with her from about 2:30am on. I was talking to Jeff on the phone yesterday morning about getting her to the vet when she had another "episode." Jeff rushed home and we rushed her to the vet and they had to put her in an oxygenated cage, which she has not been able to leave. They said that her heart and lungs are surrounded by fluid which is making it very difficult for her to breathe. They have been trying to expell the fluid but I don't think it's working. I am crying as I type this but it look like we are going to have to make a very difficult decision this evening. Please keep her in your good thoughts.

***UPDATE***

Jeff, Laura and I went up to see her at lunch today. It's super sad because she's in this glass cage but she looked good considering the circumstances. They've been giving her oxygen, lasix and heart meds to try and get her through this. I only lasted a few minutes in the room before I had to leave because we couldn't take her out and she kept trying to climb into my arms. The vet is supposed to call in a few hours to update us but they did tell us that they might end up keeping her anther night, which we are hopeful means that something they are doing is working and we might be able to bring her home for a while but they've also indicated that she is unable to breathe for very long outside the cage. We are really in a bad spot because we don't want her to suffer but we don't want to put her down if she still has some life left in her. WHY DO I HAVE TO DECIDE THIS? I'll post another update later. Thanks to you all for your nice words. They really mean a lot to us.

***UPDATE II***

I just spoke to the vet and we have GOOD NEWS (sorta maybe). Cleo has had a really good afternoon and she is respoinding really well to her treatments today. They are going to take her out of the oxygen tank and give her a few hours out to see if she can keep her breathing regulated on her own. They are being really positive and said she's quite a little fighter and they think she can do it. This is no news to us. This the same dog that throughout her 14 years has had plant growing in her nose (seriously. she sniffed up a juniper berry and it sprouted and grew in her sinus cavity until it almost got to her brain. AMAZING but totally gross) and she also had a debilitating spinal issue that they said would require surgery that would probably paralyze her but instead we got acupunture and she was fine in a couple months, no surgery required. Both times I thought she was a goner and she managed to pull through it so I shouldn't be surprised that she's fighting this with all she's got. Sadly, this is only temporary and we know that it is going to end soon regardless of how hard she fights and how badly we want to keep her here, but at least this means tht she might be able to come home again and we can properly say goodbye. There is also another puppy here that misses her sister.