Thread: Very difficult decision with pet.

I have hesitated to offer my thoughts lest I was seen as insensitive but I hope you will not interpret my comments that way.

I have had pets in the past and have had them die from being hit by cars and being bitten by a snake and just quietly passing away from old age with no obvious signs of problems.

I have also had to make the decision to have a pet put down when it was fairly obvious that her condition could only go downhill from there. That was about a decade ago and it upset me much more than I am prepared to admit in public.

I wonder whether you have considered, as I did at the time, that life might not be comfortable for the pet for the few years remaining. In my case, I was concerned that I might be condemning my pet to a year of two of discomfort or pain. I didn't believe that I would be doing the pet any favours by doing that.

While I don't imagine you want to think of this option, is it possible that the decision that is in the best interests of your pet is to allow it to avoid the trauma of surgery and the possibility of a future filled with discomfort that she cannot communicate to you?

All very thoughtful comments, but to answer the question about suffering, her current behaviour is unchanged from previous years, although I have noticed that she is breathing faster than normal but not to what you would consider respiratory distress.

All her blood tests showed her organs are working normally, good for a 12.5 year old dog.

However, the extent of the mass at present is to the point that it will start to affect other organs and this will cause her to deteriorate to the point of suffering in the near to medium term. At that time I'd have her euthanised.

If surgery is successful her life expectancy would probably be not much longer than 2 years.

Surgery may kill her.

She is currently cuddled into my armpit.

Originally Posted by vnx205

I have hesitated to offer my thoughts lest I was seen as insensitive but I hope you will not interpret my comments that way.

I have had pets in the past and have had them die from being hit by cars and being bitten by a snake and just quietly passing away from old age with no obvious signs of problems.

I have also had to make the decision to have a pet put down when it was fairly obvious that her condition could only go downhill from there. That was about a decade ago and it upset me much more than I am prepared to admit in public.

I wonder whether you have considered, as I did at the time, that life might not be comfortable for the pet for the few years remaining. In my case, I was concerned that I might be condemning my pet to a year of two of discomfort or pain. I didn't believe that I would be doing the pet any favours by doing that.

While I don't imagine you want to think of this option, is it possible that the decision that is in the best interests of your pet is to allow it to avoid the trauma of surgery and the possibility of a future filled with discomfort that she cannot communicate to you?

I typed a similar reply about 3 times but every time I read it I thought it seemed a cruel response.


It may be better to remember her for who she was in her better years than to watch her fade and suffer in the not to distant future.


We have a 18 yr old blue heeler and our last trip to the vet was met with the vet saying it was something we would need to consider if her health deteriorated much more.


I don't wish your decision on anyone , either way its going to be hard.


best of luck with it which ever way you go.


Cheers Ean

I decided not to approve surgery.

While it may have improved her remaining life, there was a chance she wouldn't survive the operation and there may have been ongoing complications, and that would have been suffering that I had caused.

I'm going to let nature take it's course and give her lots of affection.

After all life expectancy for a Pug is 12 to 15 years so she's already had a good life span.

Diana

Best of Luck with it Diana, I hope she enjoy's a very spoilt and pain free rest of her day's.


Cheers Ean

Diana, there is no right decision with this. We decided to have Bo's leg off due to bone cancer at 12 years old and he was a big dog, when I say "we" , I mean Toni. He lasted another 7 and a half months before the cancer got him. It was a gamble, he recovered from the amputaion quite quickly but I didn't want to put him through it. We did the same with out first greyhound, Elly. Same thing, bone cancer, back leg off, she only lasted 4 and half months and she had a full course of chemo. Bo only had one dose.
I hope she enjoys the rest of her days and is comfortable as long as possible

Sent from my SM-P605 using AULRO mobile app

Tough decision Diana.. understandable also..

Amazing how Humane we can be when its not Humans....

The only thing I can offer Diana if you haven't already is I don't think that opting not to have surgery is a bad thing especially considering her age.

I would how ever if your vet has not already done it have her oxygen saturation levels checked.

Thats something they probably wont tell you from a blood test is how much the pressure on her diaphragm is impacting the intake of oxygen.
Just because she is not showing signs of respiratory distress doesn't mean that she is getting all the oxygen she should be.

If it is impacting then that would be a consideration for another discussion about surgery
But I would be doing so after having a specialist ultrasound if you haven't had one already.

Eddie had an 8cm x 4cm tumour on his spleen unknown until he had a small bleed, which was only found by accident as I had a bloat scare and I rushed him to emergency vet and had them do a just in case xray after he acted normal when we got there

Dogs are very stoic when it comes to hiding pain.

A specialist can often tell you far more and give you far better info to fully inform you when taking surgery in to consideration.

Just my thoughts of course.

I lost eddie at 8yrs old he got through surgery successfully for the removal of the tumour they told me that it was a 50/50 chance as to whether it was benign or malignant. Unfortunately for him it was Malignant and I lost him 4 weeks later. (Although I was given 3-6months)

Do I regret putting him through the surgery which cost me nearly 5grand?!

Not for a second because for those 4 weeks he was like a normal happy dog without a care in the world in fact happier than he was before, it made me wonder how long he had been silently suffering.

Although his ending was fairly sudden (internal bleeding)

I was comforted by the fact that for those 4 weeks i gave him the opportunity to live a life pain and discomfort free even if it was a short time

Sometimes its easy to fall in to a trap of whats normal with your pet when deterioration has occurred minimally over a period of time. Because those little behaviours they now do that we put down to them "getting old" can often be in a response to discomfort for something underlying.

I too have fallen in to this trap. With Ormolou my other boxer.

For ages she had a funny gate behind when walking (only walking) i had her checked by a vet more than once for it as it bothered me as it would come and go it was put down to the spondalosis she has in her back.

Recently she blew her cruciate she turns 11 in Feb i did the TTA surgery which she is currently recovering from and low and behold that dodgy gate has now disappeared...

How bad do I feel that she has had a dodgy cruciate which has gone undiagnosed for nearly a year.

As I said not having surgery is probably the right thing to do as long as you have all the information you could possibly have

AND

You prepare yourself and make sure that you make the call before she begins to suffer.

And please look for the subtle signs of things not going well

Please don't judge it by the "she is bright in the eyes and still eating" comment you often here.
Because when your beloved pet is not bright in the eyes or not eating you have already left it too long because at that point they are already suffering.

You know your family member best so just make sure you always put them before your oen emotions of how you might feel with them not being around

Good luck Diana hope you have more wonderful times together.

She is a good age

But like many they just don't live long enough!!!