Is it time?

[AustinBoston]

I am good at giving advice and spouting highly biased opinions, but this time I need to hear your optinions.

Our pooch, a German Canardly weighing 40 lbs., is now about 7 or 8 years old.   We got her at 6 months old from a shelter.  She is starting to have some real problems.

She's never had the best eyesight.  She was totally blinded by a reaction of some sort in the first month we had her...$1,000 and one month later she got most of her sight back.  So much for an inexpensive shelter dog.  That seems to be the only thing that isn't going.

About 5 years ago, she injured her "knee," tearing a ligament.  The vet said it would eventually become arthritic, and it clearly now is.  We have been careful to keep her on glucosamine/chondroitin, but it's catching up with her anyway, not just in her knee, but other joints as well.  We live in a split-level house, so there's no way in or out without stairs.  She used to gallop up and down.  Now she looks at us, then at the stairs, as if to ask, "Is there some other way?"  When she does finally come up or down, she carefully takes them one... step... at... a... time.

About two years ago, she started breathing as though she had something in her throat.  This time, the vet said "Her airway is not obstructed, and it's not a tumor.  Her lungs are clear.  She will normally only be like this if she's excited."  This is a situation that has gotten gradually worse, and there is no treatment.  She often has a lot of trouble breathing while lying down, so she does not sleep well because of it.  There are times she wanders the house for hours at night.  The condition is quite noisy, and we believe there are times she holds her breath so that she doesn't make the noise.

She has spells (sometimes weeks at a time) when she does not want to eat.  This is a dog that normally eats so fast you don't know if she ate it or inhaled it.  The worst time (recently) she ate three meals in six days.  She normally gets fed twice a day, so in six days she ate less than she would normally have in a day and a half.

Today, when we put her out on the lead, it was 15

[PLJ]

It sounds to me Austin that it is a much loved pet and this decision must be tearing you guys up. From the details you have provided then it sounds like it is time to put the dog to sleep. Take the pain away from all of you and keep the happy memories of a dog inhaling it's food, bouding around the home, enjoying the outdoors regarless of the cold. Don't be left with memories of suffering. Often in love we must make the tough choices.

Our dog (A Chesapeake) also tore it's ACL last summer playing fetch with the kids. It's definately slowed him down a lot and you can sometimes see him struggle to get up from lying down. He still tries to play fetch with the kids but we have to limit the playtime and you can see for several days after he is limping heavily. He still eats well and also seems to be ok going up and down our split level stairs. He is 6 now, so we figure in 3 or 4 years tops we'll have your decision to make. I'm not looking forward to it. But hes a good dog and we want to do right by him.

[brainpause]

AB and family,

I do not envy your position at all at this time. However, I have had a similar situation, though with a much younger dog.

Vincent was also a Humane Assn. dog, and he was a wonderful dog, once we both figured out one another's routines. I loved that dog, and he loved me very much. I was single, new in town, so he was my main (really, only) friend.

Long story short, I came home from work one morning, and he was limping. 3 days later, he was paralyzed (hind legs) from a ruptured disk in his back. He was not in pain anymore, and was somewhat happy. But he couldn't get around very well.

This dog was only 3 years old. It was an awfully hard decision, but I came to the conclusion that he wasn't going to get better, nor did I have the money to give him the best care possible. I stayed up much of the night and loved on him, crying much of the night, knowing what my decision would be in the morning.

I drove to the vet's office, and they did their thing. I am sitting here typing with tears streaming, but to this day, I know I did the right thing. Moments after I left the vet's office, I knew that I had done the right thing. Even when I got back to my lonely basement apartment, I knew I did the right thing.

AB, it sounds like it might be time for this tough decision to be made. A Minnesota winter is going to be hard on her. I hope you come to an "easy" solution or decision.

Larry

[wavery]

AB

I know that your family must be in a lot of pain. It's never a pleasant choice to have to "Pull the Plug" on a family member (which she is).

Part of being a good pet owner (of any kind) is knowing when to let go. Knowing that it is time to let the pet die with some dignity.

Also and maybe more importantly, there comes a time when the anguish over the pet's condition and the stress that it is putting on everyone involved needs to cease. Unfortunately, my friend, none of us can tell when that time is right. That's a decision that YOU have to make on your own (being head of the family). There may well be others that disagree with what you decide but what you decide must be done with the good of the entire family (including the pet) in mind. I would suggest trying to void yourself of emotion (easy for me to say) and make a decision based of logic, love and fact. Sometimes, the best way to love your pet is to let it go. We'll pray that you make the best decision for all involved.

[Mpsabatt]

Remember the movie , All Dogs Go To Heaven,? Send her on her way and take comfort in the fact that you cared enough to send her to a better place.

    Spent the winter and spring of 1964/65 in North Saint Paul.It never got above zeroF the entire month of Feb.Then came the Bizzard in March and the floods and oh yes the Tornadoes.I thought I had ended up going in the oposite direction to Heaven .There was a problem with what time of day it was because NSP was on one time and Mpls was on the other time. The definition of a Minnisotan was,He had two feet of snow in his drive way,His basement was flooded,and HE didn't know what time it was.
   
   Art and Barb.
   Yosemite NP is our back yard
   1980 Palomino Colt
   2004 Chrysler Pacifica
   1995 Jeep Sport

[NadMat]

Hi Austin,
   That is a tough choice to have to make, and not easy even when it is right. For me, with my Aussie Bandit, the choice was when he obviously no longer enjoyed anything, and I probably put it off to long because I didn't want to let go.

But when he no longer enjoyed the prospect of a ride in the truck, it was obvious to me that I was keeping him around for me, and at 16(human) yrs, he had a good run.

It is something you will have to decide for yourself, I went in with him to the vets and stood by and held and petted him while he went to sleep one last time...
And although it was the correct thing it has me all teary writing this even now.

My prayers go out to you and yours in this difficult decision.
matt

[ForestCreature]

It's never easy letting a pet go. It sounds to me you already made the decision and are looking to not feel guilty about it. Is this the first pet you have had to put down?

If the dog is suffering than it is the right thing to do.

One of the hardest things I think I had to do was put my 24yr old cat down.
Then our 13 yr old dog the very next week. (she was a large dog, so 13 was a nice long life)

Our dog is 15 and getting arthritic, we give him Glucosamine/Chondroitin. It's helped. We also built him a ramp to use to get up and down the steps in back, funny thing is he stopped looking to get picked up and carried up and goes up the steps ,but will not use the ramp alone yet.

[AustinBoston]

It sounds to me you already made the decision and are looking to not feel guilty about it.

I will admit to feeling guilty about it, but I was not when I posted.  The past few days, the dog seems to be doing much better, but then, the weather has been much warmer.

She's been running around in circles when excited, and "proving how ferocious she is," a game we have played for a long time.

I think she's got a few more months, but I still doubt we'll make her go through another winter.

Rescue is my third dog.  

Pal, the smartest, most gentile (except towards squirrels & rabbits, which she would catch, kill and eat) German Canardly you could ever want.  She could open the screen door from both the inside and the outside to let herself in & out.  Pal's time came when she could no longer control her bladder.  But that dog was so smart she would put Lassie to shame.  I can remember her watching us while we ate dinner.  She knew our names, and, if one of our names was used, she would look to that person for a response, as though she was following the conversation.  Technically, she belonged to my older brother, and I believe we were both about 12 when the time came.

Roungie (that name was a long story) belonged to a travelling man.  He brought her home from India, but ended up with a job where he could not keep her.  Roungie was never going to live up to Pal's reputation, but he cut his own place in the family.  Roungie pretended to be a watchdog.  but when a group of drunks came "running" down the road, hollering, from the local gin mill, all the neighbor's dogs got involved.  One St. Bernanrd actually grabbed one of them by the leg, but where was Roungie?  I found him in the corner of the back porch, peeing on the floor in fear.  He was a good dog, but not very useful.  We thought his time came when he was diagnosed with heartworm.  The vet insisted on treating it, a treatment that nearly killed him (that is the way the treatment works - poison the heartworm with a drug that nearly poison's the dog).  We decided that if the treatment did not work the first time, we'd put him down.  But it did.  He never was 100% after that (but nearly so).  When Roungie's time did come, it was because my mother was moving, and she could not keep the dog.  He was half blind, and she felt it would be unfair to the dog to try to make him adapt to a new home and a new family when he would probably only have a few years left anyway.

But based on the way Rescue was acting this weekend, it's not quite time yet.

Austin

[ForestCreature]

But based on the way Rescue was acting this weekend, it's not quite time yet.
 
 Austin

You'll know when the time is right,  I know that doesn't make it any easier.

Have you talked to the vet and tried Metacam for the arthritis. The glucosamine only goes so far.. my mother has a 100 lb 12 yr old Bouvier, he
started having trouble getting up from a laying down position, went on Metacam and gets around pretty good now for an old guy.

[CampDirt]

I know this sounds weird, but I was about to take my 7 yr old black cat to the vet for that last moment of life.  He had stomach cancer and was getting worse.  This was about a month after my dad passed away of colon cancer.  I cried all night, couldn't sleep, but knew it was time.  The next day he became very playful, not hurting as much, with bright eyes and tail stuck straight up in the air.  I played with him all that day forgetting the vet.  We played and loved each other for another week, he was such a kitten again.  Then one night he crawled up on the foot of my bed where he usually slept, something he hadn't been able to do for a month.  There, in his favorite sleeping position, he expired.  

I think he knew it was time to go, but just wanted some more time to say goodbye.  I have put down two more cats since then, both cats basically begging me to put them out of their misery.  They knew it was time, they just had to convince me (which they did a pretty good job of doing).  Both were very old.  All that's left is my dad's 17 yr old female kitten who keeps on going like an energizer bunny, and my 9 yr old 16 pound grey tabby male (who's terrified of the female) that I rescued from a winter storm.

Maybe Rescue just wants time to say goodbye.  He'll let you know when it's time to go.  Love him and cherish the time as much as you can until he goes.  And yes, putting them down is the most humane thing to do.  Wish I could have put my dad down the way I did my cats - he wouldn't have suffered as much.  But such as life.  Now Dad's taking care of my beautiful black cat in heaven!

[crazymommaof4boys]

Austin, I agree with most of the posts every has written here, but  I espec agree with the post previous to mine...Your friend will let you know, either with a look, an action, etc that he is ready to go....and that he is ready to be freed from his pains...enjoy him now while he has the energy and friskiness that you haven't seen in such a long time...  My sister is facing this dilemma with her 11yr old golden retriever who has tumors popping up everywhere, has the "runs" all the time and is no starting to go off her food...his time is coming but she isn't ready to take the next step yet.

 
For those of you with canine pals who have torn their cruciate ligaments (ACL, CCL, or MCL)... there is a procedure to help them called a  TPLO .... it helps cut back on the arthritis in the knee and it restores the movement in it as well as balance.  THe surgery costs about $2500-3000 here... My Choc Lab needs to have it done but at the moment it costs more than I can afford...the way the orthopedic surgeon who looked at my dog explained it is thinking of a thick twined rope....the dog is running enthusiastically and makes a quick turn and you see a few of those strands of rope "pop" off and break...the dog limps for a few days to a week, the knee swells some and as it heals arthritis sets in...he does this repeatedly over and over until either half the rope is broken now or he can no longer bear weight or the arthritis has really sunken in....its a progressive disease...  Just something I wanted to share since this is a very common injury, espec. in retrievers....