The Ladies are Together Again

Cirrus on her favorite toy, the wheel

The day after my last post, during morning yogurt time, M mentioned that she thought Cirrus was having trouble breathing. Her breathing appeared to be a little labored, and her nose wasn't its characteristic pink, usually a sign of low oxygen in the blood.  Over the weekend she wasn't very interested in her mealworms and her energy level seemed down.  After holding her weight steady for the past four to five weeks, she was down to 57 grams at her weekly weighing yesterday, her lowest weight since she has been with us. Yesterday M carried Cirrus in a pouch inside her sweatshirt to keep her warm and Cirrus slept there content the whole day. The first thing this morning we called our vet to see if we could get her in to be checked out. Even though they were booked not only today but for the week, they gave us an appointment this morning for a half hour after I called. Off to the University of Illinois Small Animal Clinic we went with Cirrus.

We got in right away. After getting some preliminary information from us they went to put Cirrus on oxygen for a few minutes prior to her examination. Dr. W. came in, examined her, listened to her breathing and her heart, and said that there was some noise on both inhale and exhale. In addition, her heart sounded "muffled".  Dr. W. said that she felt there were three possibilities for Cirrus' distress - pneumonia, a congestive heart problem, or tumors. We decided to go ahead with an x-ray to find out what was going on. We were hoping for pneumonia. At least that would be treatable.

M holding Cirrus after she woke
from from the x-ray anesthesia,

We were expecting to wait for 20 minutes or so while the x-ray was being done, but it was only a few minutes before Dr. W. came out to talk to us - they hadn't even finished the x-ray scan yet. She said it appeared Cirrus had at least three tumors in her lungs, with a fairly large one in her right lung. Part of the reason her heart sounded "muffled" was because the tumor was blocking the heart.  Obviously the cancer had metastasized rapidly. Dr. W. said she could give medication to reduce the inflammation which would keep her more comfortable, but it was only a short term solution.There was really nothing more that could be done at this point. We made the difficult decision to let her go. We were able to spend some time with her after she woke up from her x-ray to say goodbye, and we were there with her at the end. Neither of us thought that we would be coming back home without her today.

Cirrus was a very special glider, and she was M's favorite. We are both heartbroken to have lost her, but happy that she is with her sister again and not suffering.  Cirrus and Virga will always have a special place in our hearts.