If you have lost a pet or have an older dog

[thebulldog]

We have a 10 year old English bulldog. She is a rescue so we don't know anything about her background but vet says she is pretty much all bulldog.

10 is OLD for a bulldog yet vet says she is in good health and knock on wood nothing is wrong with her. She has had hernia surgeries and some skin issues in the past but overall she seems ok. She has been on glucosamine and a omega oil pills for joints and skin for years. She sleeps 95% of the day as she always has.

My question is what to watch for as far of signs of decline. I am thinking not eating (she scarfs her food) or problems going up the stairs as key signs. She has never been an active dog so there won't be any "slowing down" per se.

Two close friends just lost their pets one was very old and put to sleep....one was very suddenly ill and die that day. My heart breaks over this.

I always joke that pups is immortal and will be with us forever but i am mentally preparing myself for problems.

What should i look for or what surprised you as a sign something was wrong?

I am sorry to bring up such a tough topic.


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[oscarnerdjulief]

We lost our dog, a 15.75 year old basset hound, over a year ago. People would say "we never saw a basset that color before" because she was gray where she used to be brown.
Our vet said that she was the oldest basset he ever treated.

She was going along great until she started exhibiting the following symptoms:

1) drinking more water
2) accidents in the house, especially illogical ones where I had just had her out
3) not eating all of her food, or we had to really prompt her to eat
4) overall listlessness, just seemed more tired. In hindsight, pictures of her really showed more of a decline than we even noticed at the time.

Our dog had pancreatitis, we think possibly pancreatic cancer at the end. She stopped eating and drinking, then went away to hide. She wanted to be away from us to die, so she'd crowd into corners in rooms where we were not usually.

-don't know if that was helpful

[Deleted]

First, I feel that you will know it when you see it. No need to borrow worry while your dog sounds to be doing just fine.

Right before my childhood dog got diagnosed with spleen cancer at age 12, she had days where she wouldn't eat at all, seemed very weak, and didn't want to play or go out for walks. The rough days were actually few and far between at first, then became more common over a period of 3 months. Anyway, it was clear that she wasn't feeling well because she wasn't acting like her usual self.

[cmeon]

Just "listen"- if she ends up needing your help, you'll know, you really will. When a dog no longer enjoys their most favorite things in the world (attention, food, sleep, all the good stuff), that's my personal marker. I'll do ridiculous things to get an old dog to eat if they still have the rest of the fight in them, I'll clean up accidents and carry dogs up and down steps to get outside, I'll be extra gentle when they have aches- but, when everything is wrong and living is more pain than joy (which is a very unnatural way for a dog to live), it's time.

Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that things won't go south quickly- you can be ever watchful, but, sometimes that's the way they go. Hope for a better good-bye, but, yeah, it's going to hurt either way. Stupid short lifespans!

[thebulldog]

Thanks all. I think my friends losing their dogs lately just hit me all at once this week and i flipped out.
Sorry for the rambly post.

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[mrs.jacinthe]

Dot has degenerative myelitis, wherein she is slowly losing control of her body. It's like ALS for dogs. It's hard, because she's not checking out mentally, but physically there's very little left. She walks like a drunk, can't control her bowels, struggles to stand up after laying down for a while ... but she's still eating and drinking like a champ.

We are watching for loss of interest in eating and I presume that, or when she can't get up on her own at all, will signal us that it's time. It's so hard watching that slow degeneration, though.

[G22]

We are possibly going through this right now with one of our kitties. He had surgery in May for bladder stones and never fully returned to normal. We had him checked out in June and the vet found nothing concerning. This week I got him checked out again because I just know something isn't right. The new vet found a significant heart murmur (that wasn't there prior) and thinks he either has cancer or heart disease. We are awaiting the bloodwork results to see which it is, but my heart is absolutely broken hearing this. He's only 8-9 years old, a rescue so we're not 100% sure of his age.

Some of this things we've noticed are:

-our normally very friendly, lovable kitty is now reclusive and hisses a lot. He rarely leaves the room where his litter box is.

- he sleeps all day in the same spot, rarely moving

-acts like he is in pain when he does move and will cry if I move him wrong.

-overall personality change

-still eating and drinking ok. Hasn't lost weight, but definitely had some atrophy in his back legs from never wanting to leave his room.

We don't know what next week and the bloodwork will bring. But I'm so sad we are even having to think about saying goodbye to him already. I'm just enjoying every day we have him for now and loving on him a lot.

[redheadbaker]

I was 24 when my childhood dog died. He was 17 (OLD for a German shepherd mix), and we knew he had a heart murmur, but seemingly overnight, he wouldn't get up, wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink water. The emergency vet said it was heart failure.

I'm not 100% sure how old my Australian shepherd is. My friend gave her to me in 2009 (long story), and she was about 4 years old then. I worry about her a lot. A couple of times a week, she'll refuse to eat her food unless I sprinkle cheese on it, then a couple of days later, she's devouring it as soon as I put it down.

My plan is to watch for signs that she's no longer enjoying life. She still plays with toys, still plays with our other dog, still loves to go for walks.

[elletr13]

My family just lost our 12.5 year old lab. We pretty much figured he wouldn't make it through the year. His arthritis was worsening as time went by, so his quality of life was probably going to start sliding. Still, aside from trouble moving, he still seemed to be enjoying life, just needing help--he loved swimming in the pool, he just tired out earlier and sometimes needed help getting out. He liked to fish with my dad, he just wouldn't walk to the pond--he'd ride in the golf cart with my dad. He loved rides, just needed help getting in the car. Luckily, he still had control of his bladder/bowel, had a hearty appetitie (especially for sausage & cheese biscuits, ah) and drank water. He didn't move much unless he had to or really wanted to, but I told my dad, at 12.5, all he needs to do is pick his napping spot for the day, which he did.

He passed suddenly. After talking to the vet, we believed it was a seizure. My dad was trying to get him to the ER vet, but it was just too far away (damn my hometown for not having an ER vet and forcing people to make the 45 MINUTE DRIVE to the closest one). Looking back, we think he'd had a few smaller ones over the last few months--nothing severe, my parents just interpeted it as exhaustion/his hips acting up. He had trouble catching his breath and would lie down for a long time, but it always seemed to pass. This one was severe enough they went to the vet.

My dad didn't want to have to make the decision to put him down, so I guess that is the silver lining here. I talked to a friend that lost her 9 year old dog last year--she always said she couldn't/wouldn't do that, but she said she looked in his eyes at the ER vet (it was bloat--they went through everything possible to try and save him) and he looked at her, she just knew.

[kelley182]

Jul 10, 2015 17:51:35 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

Dot has degenerative myelitis, wherein she is slowly losing control of her body. It's like ALS for dogs. It's hard, because she's not checking out mentally, but physically there's very little left. She walks like a drunk, can't control her bowels, struggles to stand up after laying down for a while ... but she's still eating and drinking like a champ.

We are watching for loss of interest in eating and I presume that, or when she can't get up on her own at all, will signal us that it's time. It's so hard watching that slow degeneration, though.

Our boy had this and was getting treatment that helped when he developed aspiration pneumonia.  He didn't even make it a week and passed on his own.  He was actually still trying to eat the first time he choked and went unconscious.  So sometimes they are still eating and drinking.

I don't feel like you can really prepare yourself.  You just have to remember that all of the happiness they bring you throughout their life is so worth the pain you deal with after they're gone.  I wouldn't have traded all the years with my boy for anything.

[labbie]

There's no way to be certain, but one thing I would suggest is annual bloodwork. This can help tell what might be going on and possibly catch something early.
Our 12yo yellow lab was showing no signs of aging other than maybe sleeping a bit more. Her annual bloodwork showed a spike in one of the counts that can indicate a spleen issue. Long story short it was not her spleen, but other tests showed a lung tumor
The good news here though is that we were able to learn about it well before it has caused her any major issues- we decided not to operate, but working with a specialist we started her on prednisone and she continues to be symptom free, even though further x-rays show slight growth in the tumor. At this point it's about quality of life for her, and we are so happy we've been able to give her that. She's happy, and I just know that when she is not, she will let us know.
This all sucks- pets just do not live long enough.

[thebulldog]

Fwiw....pups turned 12 in January and is still with us as fine as can be. She has accidents every so often but nothing alarming, especially for an senior dog.
Fingers crossed she has good times left.

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[mich1]

To start with, don't assume your dog is 10 years old. Unless you got the animal as a puppy, you should consider the age as a good guess. We recently discovered that the 12 year old mutt that we rescued was probably closer to 15 years old, according to the eye vet. He lost one eye (presumably due to the cat claw) but as it turns out, he has an eye condition that plaques form on his cornea, flake off and cause ulcers. He recently went though a painful, expensive surgery to try to retain his remaining eye.

He is getting older, and you can see it happening. His interest in going out for a walk is minimal, and he usually needs to get dragged out. He sleeps a lot more than he used to. He still loves eating, is a treat hound and will be under my feet while I'm cooking, hoping something will drop to the floor.

He is incontinent occasionally. We will just let him out to pee, and he will pee on the floor. He can't handle anything more than a couple hours without taking him outside as his bladder just doesn't hold it well anymore.

The mutt, who used to have the gut of Hercules, now has gotten a lot more sensitive. This is a dog that ate $100 in handmade chocolate truffles and didn't hiccup, he also ate a whole can of pork grease in his younger days. A plate with some beef juice and fat sent him into a bout of pancreatitis, where we thought we were going to lose him. Needless to say, he no longer gets human food (much to his dismay).

IOW, our dog has now turned into a lovable problem child who gets us up at 2 am....and 4 am.....and 6 am......and when we are up, he goes back to sleep!