Say Goodbye or Not Yet??

Lexie

Hi all,

I have a heartbreaking decision to make. One of my terriers (13 year old) has just been diagnosed with Canine Cognitive Dysfunction, aka Doggie Dementia or Alzheimers. Basically he occassionally forgets who we are, wanders around the house confused, howls/winges for no reason and soils uncontrollably in the house. Otherwise he is perfectly healthy, except for a heart problem that we are currently treating.

I have spoken to my vet who has been very helpful and said that the kindest thing would be to put him to sleep. But the thing is, I just can't do it. Basically Im just looking for some advise, maybe someone whos had a similar experince with this illness.

I think the hardest thing is that he is not in any physical pain so why put him down. Im tormented and extremely heart broken because I really dont want to put him to sleep. Its like loosing your best friend!

Just dont know whats the right thing to do........

Barlow07

Lexie wrote: »

Hi all,

I have a heartbreaking decision to make. One of my terriers (13 year old) has just been diagnosed with Canine Cognitive Dysfunction, aka Doggie Dementia or Alzheimers. Basically he occassionally forgets who we are, wanders around the house confused, howls/winges for no reason and soils uncontrollably in the house. Otherwise he is perfectly healthy, except for a heart problem that we are currently treating.

I have spoken to my vet who has been very helpful and said that the kindest thing would be to put him to sleep.

I would take the advice of your Vet, they dont take the decision lightly when telling people im sure. The dog may not be phyically problems, but it must be very confused and probably scared at times if its suffering from Alzeimers among the others. I'm sure your looking for second opinions but i would take advice of a qualified vet, the longer you leave it the harder it will get and you dont want the dog to suffer in the end if you decide to leave it.

I had a dog a few years back and when i was expecting the Vet to tell me it would be best to put her to sleep which he didnt, but about month later i brought her back and he agreed after seeing her, one of the hardest things i had done and it was made worse because she did suffer for the last month and i regretted not doing it sooner.

Whispered

Lexie, I'm so so sorry to hear that. It really is an awful desicion to have to make. I know that vets don't like putting pets to sleep so he wouldn't have said so if it wasn't the best course of action. Only you can make the choice, as you know how distressed he is so whatever you think is best for your little man is what you should do as a loving owner. If thats letting him live a bit longer then great, if not, you know you are doing what is best for your pet.

EGAR

My soon to be 17 year old RWx has the same, she used to pace, bark etc. She has no physical ailments apart from being a wee bit stiff from age but other than that she is fine. So I tried a DAP Difuser with her and it has worked wonders. She calmed right down and the quality of her life is much better now.

Only you can make the call.

tulipandthistle

Oh, I really feel for you, it is such a hard decision to make. Thankfully I haven't had to make that decision because our old dog was actually my husband's Labrador. He'd reached 16 years and he had arthritis for a few years and it just got worse. My husband decided it was time when Bas couldn't control himself any longer in the house, we saw on him that he wasn't happy any more. He now feels guilty because he thinks now that he left it too long.

I wish you a lot of strength in this difficult time.

Banjoseph

I had to make this decision myself a couple of years ago with a dog who was only six years old. The only silver lining I could put on this was that when the time was right I was able to replace him with another dog from the pound that would have been otherwise PTS.

Annika30

EGAR wrote: »

My soon to be 17 year old RWx has the same, she used to pace, bark etc. She has no physical ailments apart from being a wee bit stiff from age but other than that she is fine. So I tried a DAP Difuser with her and it has worked wonders. She calmed right down and the quality of her life is much better now.

Only you can make the call.

I would recommend DAP as well, it's extremely effective, you can buy either DAP collars, spray or plug ins.
Annika

cowzerp

The kindest thing to do would be to put the dog to sleep, think of the dog and not yourself..:(

Annika30

Lexie wrote in her original post that apart from the Canine cognitive dysfunction the dog is perfectly healthy so I don't think it would do any harm to try DAP.

cowzerp

Its crying, wetting itself and forgetting who they are! its only been kept alive because they dont want to put it down-not because its whats best..he's 13 and has heart problem too.

GA361

I had to make the same decision about my own dog a few months ago because her liver was failing.I had to put her down because she would have taken a few days to die-slowly and painfully.
If you put your dog down you may regret it as their is no medical reason to do so.

Lexie

Thanks for all of your replies. I have spoken with my family and vet again and we have decided that the kindest but most difficult thing to do is put him to sleep.


Thanks again........

govinda

My heart goes out to you Lexie, I know its an awful decision to have to make but remember that you did everything you possibly could for him and he couldn't have asked for any more love or care. Take care of yourself.

Lexie

Thanks so much. We are going to bring him for the injection Tuesday night. Im hoping from now until then that he will slip away in his sleep or something, and then I wont have to watch him. Its really sad but its comforting to know that he was given the best life a dog could ask for!

And maybe in a couple of weeks time we may consider giving a new dog (from the pound) a loving home, plus the new dog would be great company for our other pooch, who Im sure is going to miss his life long companion. A new gruesome twosome!!!

Anyways, cant think about that yet. Thanks again......

cowzerp

Lexie, you done the right thing-you gave the dog a good life and a dignified end to life, keep your chin up..

EGAR

My elderly 13yr old boxer is now blind, quite deaf and very stiff. He also falls over sometimes. What is a DAP and what does it do? I am also in 2 minds about euthanizing him as he was my very first puppy.

EGAR wrote: »

My soon to be 17 year old RWx has the same, she used to pace, bark etc. She has no physical ailments apart from being a wee bit stiff from age but other than that she is fine. So I tried a DAP Difuser with her and it has worked wonders. She calmed right down and the quality of her life is much better now.

Only you can make the call.

tbh

Sorry Lexie.

kerrysgold

personally I wouldn't pts unless he was in untreatable pain, but he's your dog so it's your decision, at least he's had a good 13 yrs with you.

Lizard Queen

sorry to hear about your dog. I would not recommend dap as it is for behavioral problems were as your dog has a medical condition . Just because your dog is not in pain does not mean he is not in distress. Being confussed can just be as bad as being in pain. Only you can make decision but i think from a vet nurse point of view putting the dog to sleep would be the kindest thing to do.

lurchin along

One of my own dogs,a very fit and healthy 9 years young,developed a peculiar lump behind his ear last August.Cutting a long story short it turned out to be a very aggressive tumour that was the size of 2baseballs within 6 weeks.He was in no pain or discomfort and still in perfect health.Then the lump started to press on his ear canal and the ear wax started to build up so he shook his head one morning to relieve the itch that created.I phoned the vet straight away and an hour later held him while he was quietly pts.My vet thought I was very brave to do it but I disagree.I'm NOT brave enough to stand by and watch my dearly beloved Sam suffer any pain or discomfort.He was a truly great dog and he deserved better from me than that.I've never for a moment doubted that choice as much as I miss him.It's a million times better than a bad choice I made 30 years when I put off that trip to the vet longer than I should have and the memory of THAT dog's horrible last day haunts me still.

lisajane

Im so sorry about your dog. I cried while i read through the posts. It must be 1 of the most hardest decisions to make. I hope i would never have to face that dilemma myself with my dog.