Brutal year for pets in our family...

[Rockford35]

Dad just called...my brother's beagle of 12 years had a stroke and lost the ability to use her legs. What a b*tch.

This, after one of the yellow dogs got hit by a car. (We call all our Goldens "yellow dogs")

This stroke, on top of her being epileptic and having glandular problems, doesn't make things easier to take. She's huge, about 50lbs when a normal Beagle weighs in at 28ish. I'm really surprised she's made it this far.

What a way to start the day tommorrow, taking the dog to the vet to be put down.

Merry fecking Christmas.

R35

[mont86]

Sorry to hear that R35, We had to put our dog down this summer. Very very sad.

[SiberianDVM]

Sorry, Rock.

I had to bring one of my own dogs in yesterday. She's sick for sure, not eating, and her bloodwork is all out of whack. Still don't know exactly what's wrong.

[DaveE]

Sorry Rock, you know how I feel about dogs.

I was a little worried about our old golden this year because he was having trouble getting up to go out at night. Not that we leave them out, they run the house. Turned out to be just arthritis so we're pretty relieved because the drugs having him running around like a pup.

Bad news around the holidays always seems worse. We're going to funeral today for one of our club members. Figures he was one of my favorites.

[IrishGolfer]

Get this!

My wife's dog resides with her mum and dad. Alledgedly she is 18 or 19 years old! Must be some sort of record. Bonnie sorta looks a bit like Benji. She is stone deaf, slightly lame but still enjoys life, gets regular exercise etc. There's gonna be a lot of tears when she checks out, I see it happening in 2006. My two boys are very close to her.

[Rockford35]

Well, update on the pup...

I went over to Dad's this morning only to be greeted by the Beagle. Now, I'm throuroughly confused.

Dad says she got up with alot of effort this morning, but she's way better than she was the night before. Went outside in the snow, ate some breakfast, drank water. Which, in my extremely limited capacity as a vet, is a good thing in my books.

Anyways, we're going to have a talk over X-mas about things. She's not doing very well, and hasn't been for some time. I really think she's not living the life she should be.

I'll let my brother make the ultimate decision. It's his dog, officially.

Sucks, because she was a good pup. Still is.

R35

[The master]

That's sad RF35, the dog becomes a part of the family, included in everything, always about.

The sad thing is they have to go sometime, and it's a pitty dogs don't live longer.

[SiberianDVM]

If you haven't already done so, may I suggest that you have some tests done (liver, kidney, heart), then put her on a high protein/low carb diet, and maybe some doggie arthritis medicine if her lab tests are OK.

Your vet should know what is needed.

[Rockford35]

Doc,

I appreciate the words and advice. She's been diagnosed as epileptic and suffers from seizures from time to time, plus she has a glandular problem that makes her more than a little overweight.

It may seem cruel and inhumane with these words, that's not how i want this to come out, but really the testing aren't going to improve her way of life much. She was given a bad hand in life and it's finally coming to an end.

I'm thinking after X-mas (should she make it that long), we'll put her down. For her sake more than ours.

That will be a sad day, but for the better.

R35

[Silver]

Sad Rock, sorry to hear it.


Not to minimize your pain regarding your dog or detract from it at all, but I just wanted to comment that I think that it's nice that we're able to do that for pets (put them out of misery) because we love them as much as we do our families. I always find it odd that we are unable to do the same for people when we know that their conditions cannot possibly improve and the rest of their lives will be painful. Sad.