I went through this in August with my little mini dachshund, Lucy. Her story was a little different, because she was only 7 (young for such a small dog), but she was a puppy mill dog and had had health problems since she was 4. We were always able to manage her with meds and a careful diet, and she led a normal life until the beginning of the summer. She started having chronic diahrrea and vomiting, becuase her body was leaking protiens and she had terrible irritable bowel syndrome. Basically, she was unable to absorb nutrients from her food. We took her to the vet and her upped her medication, and for a while she got better - but we were still taking her to the vet weekly. Looking back on it, she should have been PTS then. In august, she just crashed. The night before she was fine, then when we got up in the morning she was so weak she couldn't even stand up to go to the bathroom. We rushed her to the vet, who then called us a few hours later to tell us to take her to another hospital (about an hour away) because she would need emergency care and surgeries that the local vet wasn't equipped to handle. We did. There, she had two surgeries (I can't remember the medical terms) but they didn't work. At that point, we asked if it was time to let her go - we were worried that we were torturing her at this point. The vets told us that for the first 24 hours you say yes to everything, and after 24 hours if there is no improvement it's time to think about euthanizing. Well...the hospital called us a few hours later, saying she was dying, despite their best efforts. We tried to get there before she did, but there wasn't enough time. My poor, sweet, trusting little dog died all alone in a cage in a hospital. Even six months later writing that out makes me start sobbing; I will never forgive myself for not being there to say goodbye and hold her while she passed on. Logically, I know that she was most likely way too out of it to have any idea. But still, I can't help thinking about little Lucy laying there dying and wondering why her family abandoned her. It hurts so, so much. I wish instead she could have had some steak and pasta (her favorite) as a last meal, and then gone to be put to sleep happy and relaxed while we held her and just loved on her.


I guess the point I'm trying to make with that story is don't wait until it is too late. As you said Chancie will only get worse. It is very sad, I know, but it will spare her from the pain and suffering the future holds for her. And you absolutely can have the body back. The hospital were Lucy died just throws the bodies away, so we told them we were on our way to get her. They had her in a nice box with a blanket someone found, and we took her home and buried her in our garden. We had stopped home before bringing her to the big hospital so she could pee and say goodbye to our other dog. She just sat in this one spot in the garden for about ten minutes, laying down but with her head up looking around. She was just very calmly looking around, surverying the house, the yard, the garden. She looked so peaceful...that's where we buried her. It helps me to know she's in that spot, kind of watching over us. So yes, definitely ask for her body and bury it in a nice spot. It will help ease the pain a little bit. Good luck in this, I know it is extremely difficult.