I am not really coherent right now, this morning my 14 year old OES (bad heart, arthritis) was rather wobbly and unable to control his peeing. by the afternoon he started to "convulse" and unable to get up, his eyes also started twitching. We took him to the vet, our regular vet is off so another vet saw him, his thought he was having an ear infection and the imbalance is causing his "threashing" he gave him phonobarb and valium. this reduced the "arcing" of his back somwhat though his neck is still streched towards the back. But the time he got home, our reg vet called and contrary to the vet who diagnosed him said that he is probably having a stroke and unless he is "markedly improved" within 24hrs we should put him to sleep. A few hours ago, he started yelping, we gave him some honey and porridge which seemed to calm him down, he seems to be awake but his eyes are everywhere and the neck still archs. Neither of the was able to tell me and my wife if he is in pain right now. Our hearts are sooooo torn right now esp. he had just recovered from an operation a month ago and the vet said he's still got a few months left in him. My wife and I were to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary tomorrow, we originally planned to taking a small trip with our dog Tung Tung -- right now, this is becoming worst annivsary ever.... If he is still hungry and willing to eating does it mean that he is not intending to go, if so, are we taking the easy way out by considering putting him to sleep? thanks in advance |
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Hi Roy,
I don't have the answer for you, wish I did. I just wanted to tell you I know what you're going through. My Shaggy had exactly what you described at the end of July and I had also come to the conclusion that it was her time. However, she suprised me and a week later seemed to have recovered from her seizures. She's about the same age as your dog and appears to have the same problems with old age. By the time I brought her in the vet's office she seemed way better and the vet advised that it was not her time yet. I think with all pet owners we must go through that difficult decision as to "when to let go". Ron from this forum has a wonderful and heart breaking post regarding his dog Jake. This past week Shaggy once again has had one or two of those seizures..it's very frightening isn't it? Their eyes are darting in every direction and they are disoriented. Ironcially I work with disabled children and have experienced many seizures in my little friends. It struck me that it was the very same thing. Those that have seizures sometimes lose their bodily function,eyes darting and they appear very disoriented and confused after the seizure. My advice is to comfort and continuously pet the dog during it however frightening it seems to you..keep calm and speak softly and reasurring to your dog throughout. The seizure itself however scary it is to watch is not enought to say maybe it's time...I think the closeness you feel and the love you share with your dog ...his eyes will tell you. That's my advice, wait until he is not seizuring , you and your wife spend time with him...he'll let you know. I wish you the best of luck and my heart goes out to you. |
Dear Marianne,
Thank you for your kind words, it's been 12 hours since Tung Tung got back from the vet, although the threashing has subsided, his eyes are still darting about and his responses still seem to be subconscious efforts (only to sounds but not words). We are still giving him low doses of valium and phenobarb every three hours. The improvements are marginal at best, we give him small amounts of water and honey as the vet mentiond that he might choke. How long did the eye "thing" last with Shaggy? It's been nonstop for Tung since 3pm on Sunday, it now 6.30AM Monday over here. It's the yelping that hurts us the most, despite the vets reassurance that the yelps are not conscious actions. Elby and I are now napping in rotation every 2 hours... He's been with us for 14 years, he just got better from his operation and we were to take him out for the first post op walk today, but there was a storm out. We promised him tomorrow...promises, promises... sorry roy |
Joan and I have agonzied about how to respond to your moving story.
We would have to say that the best advice that we received was this: "If you decide that it is time, then that is not the wrong decision." In other words, if, with all of the emotion and intellect and love you can muster, you decide that the time is now, then you are right. I must say that I still wonder if we did the right thing at the right time. Intellectually we did the right thing. We wondered if we did this because he was just too much to take care of ourselves; we wondered about this, we wondered about that. Instead of thinking that euthanasia is the easy way out, another way to look at your situation might be this: Making the decision to end your dog's life is the MOST DIFFICULT thing to do... that hanging on when the time is right for letting go might simply be procrastination and is the "easy way" as your dog suffers. The point is that nobody else can tell YOU when the time is right. Just know that your decisions, whatever they may be, and whenever they may be, ARE the right ones. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. |
Dear all,
It's been 24 hours now, neither my wife and I have more than 3 hours' sleep as Tung has been yelping/barking almost nonstop since the last I posted. We had already decided to put him to sleep yesterday night but one of the vets in the practice mentioned that Tung might be suffering from Vestibular Disease ( http://www.canine-epilepsy.com/vestibular.html |