# How to cope with the loss of a pet?



## rebeccaacbrownn (Sep 1, 2017)

Today we lost our beautiful chocolate lab. He was the light of my life and has grown all through my teenage years with me.

Mast cell took a grip of our boy suddenly and quickly and I just cannot begin to describe the numbness and pain of trying to process the worst situation you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.

Mast cell is the most horrible disease ever and it took over my poor boys body and we couldn’t save him

The only saving grace is that he was very peaceful, calm and relaxed and not in pain and my family got to all see him and be with him before he went to the big kennel.

Any advise on how to cope with my boys venture over the rainbow bridge would be greatly appreciate at his tough time.


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## Jazzy (Apr 15, 2009)

So very sorry to hear this :-( My 13 year old (he would have been 14 in March) Bichon went to the bridge just over 2 weeks ago due to kidney failure. He went to the vets for a dental at the end of November but his kidneys weren’t good enough. He was taken off Metacam and prescribed Tramadol for two weeks and retested but his kidney results were even worse and the vet said he was in kidney failure and she didn’t think he would reach Christmas :-( Thankfully he did okay up to the middle of January but was losing weight fast and we had to made the very sad decision to send him to the bridge on the 23rd January :-( He had a mast cell tumour about three years ago but fortunately we got the tumour taken off before it had time to spread and the vet got good margins.


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## Mirandashell (Jan 10, 2017)

It's really hard when they go quickly cos you don't get time to prepare yourself properly. I know how it feels cos my old boy died from a cancer no-one knew he had until it caused an aneurism. He was PTS at the PDSA at 3am on a Sunday morning. 

The only thing that really helps is time. The grief lessens and the good memories begin to predominate. You will always miss him but the pain does goes away.


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## Kimmikins (Apr 9, 2016)

My last dog went downhill very quickly. One day he was fine, then I took him to the vet because he’d been vomiting and the next day he was PTS because he had acute kidney failure. 

I was lost, and I couldn’t do anything without being reminded of what I’d lost. 

I wish there was a magic trick that if you did this, ate this or watched this the pain would go away. But there isn’t. You have to keep getting up and putting one foot in front of the other. Cry when you feel sad, feel happy when you remember happy things about them, and keep going. 

I made a photo album and wrote some thoughts and poems about my dog; the photo album I still have in my bookcase and I will still get it out to have a browse 14 years later. But now the memories are happy one and I can share the lovely times we had together.


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## SpencerK (Apr 15, 2012)

So so sorry for your loss. Grief? I don't know.. Some people like my partner can hide their grief behind a "steel door", and ignore it - only for self preservation and to be able to carry on. This is a good thing, and bad. I am the total opposite and have had a rough time of things since my Barns died. However, I feel he's been close to me, as much as that hurts - but for my partner, the other day I made her look at a picture of him (it was the one year anniversary), I got slightly angry that she seemed to be totally ignoring him, after he gave us 16 years of pure love. She looked at a picture and burst out crying - yes, rightfully so I felt bad. So, as we know grief depends on the individual person and how they deal with it. I have had a lot of bad stuff happen, nothing came or will ever come close to losing Barns. After a year, am I getting over it, I suppose so. Anyway, very sorry for you loss. x


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