How do you know when it's time?

[weardogbride]

Our 12 yo corgie mix is not doing well at all. He has diabetes and we give him 15ml of insulin twice a day. He has had multiple glucose curves and I'm still not sure it's well managed. We've been giving insulin shots 2x a day for the past year. He has gone blind and I think now is losing his hearing. He doesn't eat well and has lost tons of weight. Recently, he has become incontinent and pees all over the house. We lock him in a tile area at night but there is always cleaning the next AM. I really can't take the accidents anymore. It's disgusting and we have a 3yo and another on the way. We also have an 11 yo Great Dane that requires tons of care as well. I think it's time to say good bye as his quality of life is not good but I know we could also do more tests, meds, etc. On the other hand, the cost of it all is becoming pretty high (each glucose curve is around $250, insulin is $100 per month plus we've been to veterinary ophthalmologists about his eyes, etc etc) and he is starting to not tolerate the insulin shots well so I hate to poke and prod him more. It's so hard though, DS adores him

UPDATE: we finally made the decision today. Ozzy left us this morning after being a part of our family for 12 years. He was the best dog; loved chasing balls, chewing furniture, and eating anything in sight. He never snapped or growled, not even after going blind and having insulin shots twice a day. DS called him his best friend and after seeing Frozen, would often wake him up with "Ozzy!!! you want to build a snowman!!??!" The end was very peaceful. He just went to sleep and that was it. Very thankful for that. RIP Ozzy, you will be missed.

[riverpestie]

So sorry. :::HUGS:::

[dexteroni]

I'm so sorry. We went through this last year with Dexter and we struggled with that question as well. Pardon me for C&Ping part of my answer from this old post (linking it in case any of the other replies are helpful), but the tips in it were helpful to us and it applies to your situation too.

We went around and around with these exact questions when Dexter's health was in decline. It's such a hard situation to be in, and I'm so sorry you're going through it now. You don't want to do anything too early, but you definitely don't want to wait until it's too late and they're suffering miserably. One of the best, if most blunt, pieces of advice I read was "it's better to do it a week too early than one day too late."

We had the "how do you know" conversation with the vet multiple times, and for a while his answer was "I won't do it before I think he's ready, and I just don't think he's there yet." Then one day he said, unprompted, "I'm not telling you you *should* do anything, but if you asked me 'the question' today, I wouldn't say it was too early." One assessment tool he suggested was to think about an average 24-hour period - how many waking hours does he spend actually enjoying life? Not dealing with a health problem, not sleeping, not just subsisting, but actually enjoying? That last one was a big wake-up call for us, because many days the answer was really zero.

It sounds like you know the time is coming soon, but it's ok if you can't make the decision quite yet. Take a few days, give him lots of snuggles and treats, and revisit it when you can bear to. It will never be easy, but once we had thought it through enough and assessed the situation enough, it went from "absolutely unthinkable" to "hard but necessary."

It sounds like you have a lot of other things factoring into your decision, but ultimately I think you know that you have to do what's best for your old friend. I feel for your 3-year-old and I wish I had some advice on how to help him through it. (((((hugs)))) Hang in there and I know you'll all get through it as a family.

[weardogbride]

Jan 9, 2014 22:18:53 GMT -5 dexteroni said:

I'm so sorry. We went through this last year with Dexter and we struggled with that question as well. Pardon me for C&Ping part of my answer from this old post (linking it in case any of the other replies are helpful), but the tips in it were helpful to us and it applies to your situation too.

We went around and around with these exact questions when Dexter's health was in decline. It's such a hard situation to be in, and I'm so sorry you're going through it now. You don't want to do anything too early, but you definitely don't want to wait until it's too late and they're suffering miserably. One of the best, if most blunt, pieces of advice I read was "it's better to do it a week too early than one day too late."

We had the "how do you know" conversation with the vet multiple times, and for a while his answer was "I won't do it before I think he's ready, and I just don't think he's there yet." Then one day he said, unprompted, "I'm not telling you you *should* do anything, but if you asked me 'the question' today, I wouldn't say it was too early." One assessment tool he suggested was to think about an average 24-hour period - how many waking hours does he spend actually enjoying life? Not dealing with a health problem, not sleeping, not just subsisting, but actually enjoying? That last one was a big wake-up call for us, because many days the answer was really zero.

It sounds like you know the time is coming soon, but it's ok if you can't make the decision quite yet. Take a few days, give him lots of snuggles and treats, and revisit it when you can bear to. It will never be easy, but once we had thought it through enough and assessed the situation enough, it went from "absolutely unthinkable" to "hard but necessary."

It sounds like you have a lot of other things factoring into your decision, but ultimately I think you know that you have to do what's best for your old friend. I feel for your 3-year-old and I wish I had some advice on how to help him through it. (((((hugs)))) Hang in there and I know you'll all get through it as a family.

Thanks for this. That's really good advice. I had decided Saturday was the day but I changed his food this week (made the change for our 12 yo Dane) and he is eating the entire bowl which I haven't seen him do in a while. And of course, he's made it all week with only one accident. So now I'm not sure again! He doesn't do much at all during the day. So I would say he doesn't really enjoy anything anymore, except for maybe eating, which was always his first love. Lol. Ugh, I wish someone else could make the decision.