thank you all for the kind words, it has helped. everybody's still in shock a little, but it's gotten better. and thank you Loki Love for pointing out that so little is know of this condition, or stomach twisting. not to repeat myself, but a lot of why I wanted to post the bad news here was to warn others. for anybody who doesn't know much about it, I implore you to read up on it. and for those that do, don't hesitate at the first sign it may be happening. by my estimation, based on her condition when I found her about 8 hours after it probably happened, I doubt I had more than a 4 hour window to do something. as bad as she was, even if I had got her to the emergency vet (which isn't actually that far away) I doubt they could have safely sedated and operated on her. and part of me wonders if it wasn't for the best. she was a massive doberman, a breed that typically lives 10-11 years. due to her size, she was probably looking at less than that. not sure that surgery involving permanently attaching her stomach to her ribs would have been easy on her, or even in her best interest. it may have been keeping her alive for our benefit rather than hers. not to get the wrong idea, if given the option I would have done it in a heartbeat. just not totally sure it would have been in her best interest.
but there is some good new. I contacted the breeder we bought Lucy from. He felt pretty bad about it and is going to move us up a few notches on his waiting list and give us a pup from the next litter he breeds, probably in Jan. and the best part is, he actually will be using a cousin of Lucy's with one of his best males. I couldn't believe it when he said he would do it. so now we get a few months to remember Lucy and prepare for the next one.
but one more time, thank you all............you made a very tough time a little bit easier. and I just have to throw this last picture out there, was always one of my favorites
