Elderly dog care

emmaro

He is my first dog, so have never experienced this part of dog ownership before
He should be turning 16 in a few months and has really slowed down over the last year. These past few weeks however have been pretty bad. We are in and out of the vets with him, but they and us are reluctant to do scans etc. at his age.

He is on medication for a heart murmur. He's still drinking a lot of water and fairly interested in food. He doesn't want to go outside anymore(he loved his trips out to the garden up until a few weeks ago) and has started going to the toilet in the house even if we've just had him outside and he didn't go. He is not interested in playing anymore and sways and wobbles when he walks I think his sight is still pretty good, but hearing is terrible. He had a seizure about 4 months ago but none (that I have witnessed) since then, and he's almost never left alone anymore.

He just seems miserable and I don't know what to do.

TG1

Im so sorry, this is the really hard part of dog ownership. They give you so much and then you have to watch them get older and older and frailer and frailer.

We had exactly the same thing with our 15 year old little man a few months ago. We had him since I was a teenager. Its so hard.

You'll know yourself what the best thing for him is. If you are questioning what next then you are probably thinking about the options already. Once they lose interest in the things they love you have to start looking at quality of life. Its so so hard to do though. We used our vet as the gauge. We discussed options, discussed what was fair, what wasnt and when the time came they reassured us that they would have made the same decision.

All the advice I can give you is that you know your dog best, you know what matters to him, what he enjoys and what will be missing that brought him joy as he gets older, so you will know when the bad outweighs the good for him.

In hindsight, as horrible as it is for you to think about now,the knowledge that we stopped our bob from suffering unnecessarily is a comfort for us now. I know that doesnt help you right now but its just something to keep in the back of your mind.

I really really feel for you in this.

123shooter

He knows himself. He may have a lot of painful joint problems but he can't tell you.

He just wants to be warm, comfortable and to know you are with him so fuss him as much as possible.

I am sorry but he may be nearing the end but there is no way to be sure until it starts.

Mine was ill to an allergic illness same every year but worse this time at 15.5, but we nursed her back over a few weeks and she was ok for another say 6 months but nowhere near the same.

She wasnt interested in doing anything but sleeping in her last months, but she still enjoyed her food no end. Nothing would take that away from her. But then one day she wouldnt even eat.

Then she was upset one day as she had messed herself and I spent 2 weeks clearing up after her in the hope she was just having her yearly allergic illness. She went off her legs and it was the end to a fantastic great lady who we had had for 16.5 years. She was as strong as a bull and defiant to the end but in the last 6 months her body had withered but she never gave up fighting. She swayed and wobbled for 6 months and would still be the boss of the others.

Looking back I think those last 2 weeks when she couldn't stand without help and messing herself shouldn't have happened and it would have been kinder.

When you know he is in pain or can't do anything anymore then you have to make that decision. Until then just be there for him as long as he is ok. Don't rush into it, you will understand as it unfolds.

It will hit you like a 40 ton truck, I am really sorry.

ShaShaBear

We lost our lovely collie boy at almost 11 to cancer.
What we found really helped us come to terms with our decision, as advice we got here, was to list Shadow's top ten favourite things to do. He LOVED to perch on the top of the couch and stare out the window. He LOVED to see how many fingers he could relieve the postman of in the mornings. He LOVED coming to bed with us at night and getting under the duvet, where he would stay until morning.
When he started ignoring the letterbox, wouldn't climb onto the couch and refused to come upstairs to bed without being carried, we knew he was suffering. It was heartbreaking - he was my baby. My dad (who passed away) got him for me for my birthday when I was 16 - here I was, engaged and after having my first baby and realising I'd have to say goodbye to my longest friend and the strongest personal link I had with my daddy. It's not easy but if you're thinking you don't know what to do, chances are you really do know and are just struggling to come to terms with it

emmaro

Thanks so much for all the replies. This will be a tough time! We always said he'd live to 20 - he was so energetic and playful until pretty recently. I know myself that he's nearing the end My OH is very against euthanasia and would want nature to do its job, but I couldn't ever watch my dog suffer and be in terrible pain.

aonb

Our 17 year old showed some of the symptoms you describe. He would rally and then deteriorate then rally again. At this age, any veterinary care is going to be with the consideration of the dogs advanced age.

This is the stage, where you have to forget your pain and sadness at the thoughts of loosing your lovely dog, and do what is best for him. If he seems miserable you need to have a very serious think. If his quality of life is such that you think he is in pain/anxious/scared/suffering, you need to have a very serious think. You have loved him for 16 years, the ultimate ask of a pet owner is to forego their sadness and lonliness and think about putting their pet to sleep when their quality of life is such that its not fair on them to let them struggle on.

You are the only one who can make this decision, its a horrible decision but you'll do it when you know its time.

123shooter

emmaro wrote: »

Thanks so much for all the replies. This will be a tough time! We always said he'd live to 20 - he was so energetic and playful until pretty recently. I know myself that he's nearing the end My OH is very against euthanasia and would want nature to do its job, but I couldn't ever watch my dog suffer and be in terrible pain.

Well my dog with all her will would have fought on and on. Even on only one half decent leg she still tried to crawl to the door when she wanted to do her business.

You have to trust the vet and your instincts. I prolonged my girls end by up to 2 weeks. I know now I should have called the vet sooner. It bothers me greatly that I could have caused her some suffering even though I know she wouldn't want to go. I have to live with that and it isn't nice.

Another of ours went last year at 15. She had arthritis bad but was ok and slept a lot. Then she had a fit one morning. Few days later another fit and couldnt stand even though totally alert.

Within the hour she had gone and I know it was the right decision and I wasnt repeating the events from a few years earlier and the vet agreed.

I hope someone would do the same for me when my time comes.

heldel00

My parents have an old husky. She's 13 years old. Was totally seized up. Just lay in the same spot day in day out because it just took too much out of her to move around.
Parents rang the vet that she has been with for years. Gave them the symptoms and they wanted to perform every test under the sun. It was fairly obvious that it was old age/ arthritis. Even getting her to the practice would be torture for the poor thing but no, they wouldn't prescribe anything.

I had my own dog with my vet and mentioned to her about the husky. She immediately gave me a perscription for medicine to ease her joint pain and generally give her comfort in her old age. She said when dogs gets to that age they should be treated like kings and queens. She's a wonderful human being.

I know a lot of people will chastise her for just handing over a prescription without actually seeing the dog but we appreciated it and so did the poor dog.

And FYI the dog sprang back to life and is now escaping from the garden by jumping across walls that she hasn't jumped in years!!!

Gael23

I know what this feels like but quality of life always comes first. I don't want to sound insensitive because I know what this situation is like OP but it sounds to me that his quality of life is failing quite quickly.
I can't really add anything new but I got mine for my 9th Birthday and lost him a week before I graduated from college so I know how hard this is. Mine had many different health problems but still managed to have a remarkablely good quality of life until the last few days.
Someone else mentioned about vets going medications too easily but our vet doing just that gave us some very valuable extra time and made the last chapter of our dogs life a hell of a lot better. Having said that it still felty lie, I had been run over by a bus when the inevitable point where there was nothing more we could do came round. It's hard to describe what that feels like but you and your vet will know when you get there. I remember so clearly that morning when the vet told us there was nothing he could do that I wanted to allow nature take its course but that was only going to prolong things for a very short time.

emmaro

Thanks everyone for the advice and responses. He is pretty good today(still nothing like what he was few months ago though) after around a week of being extremely down and not interested in anything. I know it will probably be phases of bad and not so bad times.

I will bring him back to the vet tomorrow and have a discussion with her.

sillysmiles

TBH if it were me, I'd give him some painkillers/talk to the vet about painkillers to alleviate the aches and pains of old age and then have a frank conversation with you OH about euthansia. IMO there is nothing humane about "letting nature take its course".

Ms Doubtfire1

sillysmiles wrote: »

TBH if it were me, I'd give him some painkillers/talk to the vet about painkillers to alleviate the aches and pains of old age and then have a frank conversation with you OH about euthansia. IMO there is nothing humane about "letting nature take its course".

I fully agree. You are nor prolonging life - you are prolonging death. Make him as comfy as you can but once the tablets don't work anymore it is time. Be strong, and do the right thing for your boy when he asks for your final assistance. My thoughts are with you.

Same thing happened to us and our little Border Terrier. Faded away and lost interest in going for walks (which was a sign it was near the end). We got a pram to take her for walks and she seemed to enjoy that. She was peeing in the house all the time but we just had to have a mop always at hand. She eventually just passed away from old age lying out on the grass one evening.

Whilst ever she was showing no obvious signs of distress or pain we were happy to put up with the inconveniences. If she had have started to yelp when you touched her we would have taken her to the vet to have her put to sleep. Didn't come to that.

If yours shows distress then you have to consider having her put to sleep for her own benefit, otherwise its just enjoy the short time he/she has left with you.

Stephen

Guess_Who

My thoughts are with you during this tough time. I can't offer any further advice other than what you've gotten.

All I can say is that I've recently come out the other side of having a much loved pet PTS. It was under different circumstances but the feelings are the same. The only thing that helped me was knowing that it's the greatest sign of unconditional love that you decide to take away their pain in the knowledge that you accept the pain of loss for yourself.

Be kind to yourself if or when you come to making a decision and know that you have always done the best for your dog

Latatian

I would go to the vet and see what they say, with perhaps an option of trying painkillers first- some dogs can react like that to pain. You might find you get some quality of life back.

If not, there's nothing nice about 'nature taking its course'. Nature in the wild would be something else killing and eating him. 'Nature' in your house is unnatural anyway. Why not let him go while he still has some quality of life? And give him a death that has a higher likelihood of not frightening him or having him in pain.