19-12-2018     Cearrean Argyll O’Cockaigne     7-1-2021

Thursday, January 7, 2021, a pitch black day for O’Cockaigne. This day we put Cearrean Argyll to sleep.

Since the beginning of August we have known, after a visit to the naturopath Judith Adriaansens, that Cearrean had terrible headaches. After several acupuncture sessions, osteopathic treatments, natural remedies, regular medicines, the MRI scan that showed that there is a cyst in his head, special medication including Gabapentin, Tramadol and prednisolone, all of which helped little or nothing, we had to make the incredibly tough decision to give Cearrean his rest.

The past few days it went downhill very fast. You could see in Cearrean’s eyes that he had constantly terrible headaches and he was no longer enjoying life. He growled all day and night at everything that came close, didn’t want to play with Cranston anymore, often lay out on a bed until late at night and ate badly the last few days. He regularly act ugly to one of the other hounds and he didn’t like the puppies anymore. In the house we had to keep him separate from the puppies to avoid annoyance, but the days before it went well outside and he still liked them.

After consulting again with the people who were treating Cearrean, we made the decision on Wednesday and I asked Victoire Weijers-Koperberg, the acupuncturist who is also a regular vet, if she was willing to come here and to free Cearrean from his headache. Fortunately she wanted to do this and we agreed for Thursday afternoon.

It became clear that it was the right decision when we walked the puppies through the garden on Thursday afternoon and Cearrean followed. The puppies of course walked to him but Cearrean did not like it and grabbed a puppy. Loudly screaming all the puppies ran back home and Cranston also was totally upset. Fortunately, the puppy had no injuries and recovered very quickly.

But we no longer had to doubt.

The grief is immense but we are also relieved; there is peace and tranquility in the house again. We also notice it immediately with Brandir, Cytaugh and Cranston, they are much more relaxed and free; they don’t have to fear getting caught anymore. I am glad we are leaving this horrible time behind us, it is in and in sad that this had to happen to Cearrean and that there was no other solution available. He was such a bon vivant!