a chicken that had been mauled by a dog

a cat in end stage congestive heart failure

a ferret with a golf ball sized hard mass in its abdomen

a flea ridden dachshund with a softball sized tumor that had grown so large it had broken through the skin and was necrosing.

an emciated geriatric ferret who was wasting away.

a hamster with a severe rectal prolapse.

One thing I never post about is animals who aren't euthanized but just die on their own. A cat came in this week, brought in by a man whose wife had recently died. It was his wife's favorite cat and he was taking over its care. He had brought it in for a teeth cleaning and it died while under anesthesia. While not unheard of, it is a rare occurrence. It's not the first time I've seen an animal give up shortly after its owner died. In fact, I've seen it several times. The connection we have to animals and them to us is unspeakably powerful.

a 21 year old cat with a tumor on its and face and an abdomen full of fluid. her body was one giant mat of fur.

a dwarf hamster with a severe malocclusion in addition to a respiratory infection.

a sweet old yellow lab with cancer whose body was shutting down. my co-worker was sobbing before we even started.

a 950g rat that was all tumor

a chinchilla who had just suffered massive head trauma when his cage fell over on top of him as it was being cleaned.

a baby rat with an upper respiratory infection.