They Don't Always Tell You It's Time - Page 1

Posting this for all of you out there who are facing that dreaded decision on whether it's time to end your best friend's life.

It's something I'm struggling with right now myself, as my 13 year old GSD has arthritis in his spine that has affected the feeling and mobliity in his hind legs. He is sometimes incontinent because he can't feel what's going on back there, and I have to help him climb the stairs. He also is partially blind due to cataracts, somewhat deaf, and is drinking a LOT of water. That means he's also dribbling urine in his sleep, and sometimes when he first stands up. He's still eating well, though, and when the girls try to take a toy away from him, he puts them in their place!

Excellent article!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jessica-vogelsang/the-biggest-mistake-pet-o_b_8166102.html
 

So sad for you =( Dogs should be eternal...
Had a similar experience some years ago (now that I'm thinking about just realized it was already about 15 years ago...) I was just a child but remember it all like it was yesterday...
Had a female Dalmatian that had epilepsy, also have now a miniature poodle with the disease I can see how different vet med became in this time, at the time the treatment was very very expensive, and my parents couldn't pay for it, we just had a shot that stopped seizures, nothing to prevent then... She had her first seizure by the first time she was in heat, by the time she was 2 years old, she got really bad, had a lot of seizures, she knew they were about to happen and was very scared, only our other dog at the time a medium size mixed breed was able to calm her down. She started to lose all her senses... She became blind, deaf and was losing also smell... He had to putt her to sleep =( it was a terrible experience...
Has I said dogs should be eternal...
Good luck to your baby, and you will do the right thing for him for sure...
Hugs, Ana

Ah Sunsilver, sorry to hear you are facing tough times w/ your old guy. I'm still reeling from losing two last year and miss both Remy and Nemo terribly.

You might find some SAMe ( available at Costco - goes on sale every 3 months) will help both his spine and his eyes. Well known to help with bone and joint pain and a friend who I gave some to for her old girl found it also helped quite a bit with her pannus. It's a strong anti inflammatory and anti depressive ( for humans do not combine w/ MAO inhibitors or serotonin boosters) but without the side effects of rimadyl and similar drugs. For humans the safe range is 400 mg to 1600 mg. I always start low. It can have a loading period of several weeks tho for my friend's girl she saw immediate improvement in the joints at the 400 mg level. It might just give you a window of time where for a moment he feels a bit younger and the two of you can visit some old favorite pastimes.

Thank you for the article. It's never easy and the older I get the tougher it gets. I really felt two things last year -1. how come it's always me that has to play God and 2. I don't know if I have another one in me.

Remy was particularly tough because even tho w/ hemangio you know its coming and soon, there is a piece of you that finds a way to ignore the realities. I managed to stop one bleed with Yunnon Baio about 4 weeks in, but a month later I got up one morning and it was clear she was not operating on all cylinders tho she wanted to go out an lie in the sun. About an hour later I went to get her in cause I did not want her to get too hot but she struggled and couldn't get up. That's when the panic struck because I knew the time had come but I had no way to get her to the vets. She was a big girl - the maximum size for a male and weighed about 73 pounds and I could not carry her from the backyard to the van. I ran outside looking for help but it was midmorning on a weekday and not a soul in sight - all at work. No one I could call either. I went back in thinking perhaps to get a rug under her even tho I did not think it would work. That's when as a friend said, Remy performed her last service for me. From someplace deep down in her heart she found the courage and strength to stand and help me cause she knew I was upset and we slowly made our way to the van. I truly do not know what I would have/ could have done without the grace of this final gift she gave. She was a grand tough wonderful girl and will always be missed.

I wish you and your old guy the blessing of a time of peace and companionship.

Very touching stories. I would certainly say that the most difficult part of dog ownership is dealing with what you are going through right now. My last shepherd had a similar issue to yours. I elected to incur some expense to keep him comfortable in his last year (12) and I can say that I gained new levels of appreciation for the grace exhibited by our breed. My ultimate decision came down when I came home one day and he was unable to stand, after appearing okay that morning. We had a good bond and it was clear that he was in a lot of distress. My vet did suggest that a "wheel chair/cart" might enable him to move around, but I elected to not have my final memories of my fence jumping, field running, fearless friend having to drag himself around in such. However, that solution may be very viable for others. As with every decision regarding end-of-life, it is a very personal choice on how to proceed. You have my sympathy..

The last gift the girl in my sig gave me was to die in her sleep. She was 14 1/2, so I knew it was coming.

There's a Quality of Life link in the article, and I clicked on that, and analysed my boy. Hmmm...still doing pretty well, except for the mobility issues, and even those aren't all that bad. He can't feel where he's putting his hind feet on the steps, so I have to boost his rear end when he's going upstairs, and support him around the waist when he's coming down. The incontinence is more of a problem for me than for him, and it's been better lately for some reason.

Tig, hemangio is horrible. Having heard of so many dogs that passed away due to it, I would likely euthanize right away if my dog were diagnosed. That final bleed-out has to be agonizing for the dog. I've heard even with surgery and chemo, the life expectancy is measured in months or maybe a year if you're lucky.

The problem with hemangio is it often times it takes them far too early. When I first got into the breed you saw it in older dogs 11-14. Nowadays that's often 7 or 8 and I've seen it younger. Plus it does seem to have a family connection. People should be asking about it not DM as I know of whole litters who died in that 8th year and of a line who struggles with it in aunts and uncles and cousins (tho the breeder on that one has her head stuck firmly in the sand). Of course we now know that external factors also affect the incidence such as early s/n which will increase the risk by 500%. In my post last year about Rem there is info on how folks can help with the research into this disease including donating senior "normal" blood. http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/community.read?post=785214-the-hallmarks-of-a-good-shepherd#785282

 

For some the severity of the first major bleed will dictate in all kindness euthanisa even tho it may deprive you of the time to say goodby . For those of us who catch it earlier the decision is more complex and in someways tougher. For me the decision was to do surgery tho knowing full well it gives you a limited amount of time (generally about 2 months which is exactly what I got with Rem). It confirms the diagnosis and you just might be lucky that it hasn't spread to surrounding organs and gives you time to say goodby . My first GSD actually survived a splenic bleed w/o surgery and died two years later from something else. Not knowing what it was at the time because the vet misdaignosed it but knowing she was severely anemic we dripped chicken liver blood into her to revive her. Who knows maybe somehow it gave her blood factors that fought this insidious disease.  My experience thank God is not that it is agonizing, it's just like all of a sudden they have gotten terribly terribly tired.

Our extra two months gave us time to celebrate Rem's life by doing the things she loved best - her voran and her packit and playing with little boys at MacDonalds a memory I shall always treasure. But I know I was lucky that we had a relatively uneventful two months.

I agree with Ana. Dogs should be eternal. Though in a way I think they are. They continue to live on in our hearts and soul.