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Post by cricket on Apr 11, 2018 21:57:40 GMT
The perpetual dilemma when an elderly hound reaches the point when they start to accumulate health problems that need to be weighed up and balanced with all things considered.Elderly hound with heart murmur,has an irritating but not life threatening problem for her that may at some point progress into the urgent need for an operation.While she is stable the currently not so urgent operation could be done now but the anaesthetic,stress and separation anxiety even for 2 hours would not do her good now or then.Leaving it may mean her heart deteriorates too much for anaesthesia at all...arrghh.
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Post by VanWoman84 on Apr 11, 2018 22:34:41 GMT
We're already there. One of ours had such high blood pressure (before diagnosed) it detached a retina. Ideally, the vet wanted to remove the eye, but she's 15, has Cushings, poor kidney function, pancreatitis, and high blood pressure, and won't probably survive the op.
I know exactly what it's like.
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Post by RN on Apr 11, 2018 22:46:48 GMT
Cats too.... I have a 15 year old boy called Boris... He's got arthritic in is old age, and dementia is creeping in too... Some days he doesn't recognize Yaz, who's only been in his life two years... Some days he doesn't even recognise me.. He's known be much longer...
He's basically healthy but clearly his quality of life is deteriorating...
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Post by NomadCris on Apr 11, 2018 23:09:47 GMT
Ive always believed do what you can for them whilebyou can,theyll get through it if theyre meant to.Theyre quite resilient,not at all like us humans.They usually defy all logical prognosis and expectations.
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Post by fenrisulfr on Apr 13, 2018 7:37:34 GMT
My old girl is at that stage too and I'm currently waiting for my regular vet, a tiny Irish girl who's not much bigger than the dog and is first-rate, to return. Went in last week for a health check, boosters and saw a very young stand-in vet as the regular had to go back to Eire for family reasons and was told the old one had possibly got the start of torsion due to the colour of her gums which have been the same for the last 6yrs and that she should be x-rayed which would mean putting her out. Extra stress for both of us and I suspect there's SFA wrong apart from being old. I won't have her put through unnecessary procedures without good reason.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2018 10:31:30 GMT
My lad Sammie is at that stage. He only goes out for very short toilet walks, and very occasionally will have a roll in something interesting. I took him to the river a few days back, his favourite place, and he hardly wanted to walk the couple of hundred yards to the water. When he got there, he stood in the shallows for a bit, then came out.
It's sad to see. Water has been his favourite pastime all of his life. Officially he has just had his 13th birthday, but I have reason to believe he is older than that. He is nearly blind, nearly deaf, finds walking a struggle even with his pain relief. And he also has mild dementia. In spite of this, I think he is still enjoying life, but I do keep a protective eye on him.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2018 12:14:38 GMT
Previous dogs I have had have been fairly clear cut decisions, trip to the vet, they had had long and good lives, bad news, heart breaking decision, start looking at the rescue places for a replacement, but Bruno, my previous collie cross was impossible, I had had him from a puppy, the only puppy I have ever had, all the others were rescues of various ages , a bitch we looked after for a bit when her owners buggered off was preggers, one puppy for the mother, the rest I humanely put down, but the last one from the litter I no longer had the strength left in me, so I kept him. We were inseparable for 9 glorious years. Now I am crying.
He was only 9, colon and gland issues, super healthy and full of beans apart from that, £500 quid of hormones a month kept things from getting worse, op out of the question because they would have had to take too much of his intestines. I could have probably kept him going another couple of years, 500£ a month which I didn’t have, and he would never get better, just gradually worse and in more pain.
If you look after an animal there sill always be a day when your heart breaks.
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Post by cricket on Apr 13, 2018 18:34:34 GMT
The vets are difficult to weigh up.Her local vet can do the eye op for a quarter of the specialist eye vet but doesnt have the anaethesia specialism re bad heart.I added up in the last 3 months im 450 down at the vets with blood tests,eye exams,lump inspections,one tube eye cream but all thats happened is stress for beastie and no gain.I guess it all was to check out health but the money is a tough call.The old farmers i have known years ago used terramycin spray and udder cream on most things as they had it to hand,then if the dog was still ailing was put in house by fire.If it never got better it was the barn and gun.cut and dried no messing them.Im focused on her comfort to keep her so .Trouble is it all seems to stack up so quickly sometimes.They live for so little time sadly.
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Post by VanWoman84 on Apr 13, 2018 20:50:41 GMT
That's the main downside on dog ownership. They don't live long enough.
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