Pet Talk - My dog/cat is my best friend!

Karen_S

Latest Jasmine stunt. Kitty-tossing. One of our cats has become her best friend and doesn't mind being picked up and thrown. Rather disturbing to be sitting in your living room and seeing your cat flying past the window. I suppose if he didn't like it, he would let her know.

ateixeira

Anyone seen this - my dog is 15 years old, and his belly is swollen big time. He's slowed down a bit and doesn't seem to be his normal self.

We have a vet appt tomorrow morning but just wondering what it might be. I'm thinking maybe he has a bladder stone or some sort of stomach ailment?

Poor guy. He's been healthy all his life. :sick:

Mr_Shiftright

Could be a tumor. That happens to older dogs. Not all these tumors are malignant by any means.

ateixeira

If so it's internal, because his fur looks normal.

I know he hasn't gained weight because I can feel his ribs.

We may do an X-ray tomorrow to see what it is.

Karen_S

Poor Hadji! I've heard bloat can be an issue with bigger breeds (German Shepards, Great Danes, etc.), but Hadji doesn't fit that criteria. Could be a multitude of things including stress, eating habits, or heredity. Has he been drinking lots and lots of water? Hope he's better soon!

ateixeira

Yeah, he's 10 lbs on a good day. So very small.

Stress? Nah, he has the easiest life of any creature in the world. :shades:

Eating? I feel like he actually eats less. He was 12 lbs, now down to about 10.

Water? Yeah, I think so...I'll have to point that out to the vet. He does always seem thirsty. I hope his kidneys aren't failling him.

pat

I hope he's fine - please let us know what you find out at the vet.

(FWIW, the very serious condition colloquially referenced as "bloat" does only affect large (very large, Great Danes, horses, etc.) animals and it will kill them within an hour or so without immediate treatment. It's a twisting of the stomach and/or intestinal organs. There's not enough room inside small animals for that to happen, so fortunately, that's not something to be concerned with here.)

Good luck tomorrow.

ateixeira

Poor guy, just spent 3 days at the vet. :sick:

No silver bullet here, i.e. no one thing. He's just an old dog. He's got a heart murmer, pancreatis, anemia, and low thyroid. Arthritis also. Fluid was accumulated around his organs putting pressure on everything, so that was the bloating.

They tested his blood, urine, feces, then gave him a round of x-rays. We could not see much because of all the fluid.

So we had them drain the fluid, get this - 600 cc worth! Unbelievable!

They took a 2nd round of x-rays but again there's still some fluid and they can't tell much from them. No cancer or tumors, or kidney/bladder stones, at least, it seems.

After the pressure was gone, he was slowly going back to his old self, and got his appetite back. He had trouble keeping it down, but at least he seems to be better.

The vet said it's a matter of time, though. The fluid will come back in a matter of weeks, not months. They can treat the blood with ACE inhibitors but it will give him hypertension and the treatment is expensive.

Basically our strategy is to get him to eat and give him lots of love, plus some massage to help his circulation. I just want to make sure he's comfortable for as long as possible.

Hopefully the vet is wrong and he bounces back, but I sort of doubt it. We've had him for 14.5 years so it will be an adjustment for all of us, both kids have always had him around.

Mr_Shiftright

We have a vet in Santa Cruz who will come to your house in the final hours and help the animal. As difficult as it is to think about, I strongly recommend that you help the dog when there is no longer any decent life for him. I have seen some of these "natural" deaths and they weren't as pretty as in the movies. The vet my friend used was so caring and compassionate, it was really wonderful to experience. This was a very old cat.

ateixeira

Yeah, I'm definitely not going to let him suffer for a long period. For our other dog we found a vet that tranquilized her first, then put her to sleep, it was eerily peaceful actually since she was so tense.

Mr_Shiftright

good I'm glad you see it that way, too.

Karen_S

So sorry about Hadji.

With our old Lab, the vet did the two shot method also. After the first shot, I had several minutes alone with her before the second one was administered. Even though I was not ready for her to go, she was and it was very peaceful.

ateixeira

Yeah, with Ashley she was so incredibly tense, her muscles seized up. When they put her to sleep her body relaxed completely, so we know it was a neurological problem, not a physical one, in her case.

She'd had a stroke and was paralyzed, plus she couldn't eat. We put her down rather than letting her starve slowly.

Her end came quickly, not so for Hadji, his is more gradual. I'm not sure if that's better or worse.

p0926

Juice- Sorry to hear about Hadji. I know what you're going thru. I've had two dogs that I had to put down. I think you'll know when the quality of life isn't there anymore and it's time to let go.

Coincidentally, we had one of our dogs die almost exactly a year ago. She was a large dog and lived to be 14 so we knew it was just a matter of time. Fortunately for us we didn't have to make the most difficult decision, she went quietly in her sleep.

Now our other dog is approaching that same age and is definitely showing signs of old age (it's certainly painful to watch them grow old). We rescued another dog and hopefully that 90 lb ball of energy will keep our old dog feeling young a while longer.

-Frank

ateixeira

she went quietly in her sleep

That would be best, but I do fear that one of my kids wakes up and finds the dog first. I definitely do not want that.

I've actually been waking up early each day to make sure I'm the first one to see him.

Mr_Shiftright

I'm curious. Why wouldn't you want the kids to find the dog? I mean, I wouldn't encourage it, but is it so bad for a kid to learn about, or see, death? (presuming it is not hideously gruesome of course).

Think about kids on farms. They see this all the time.

ateixeira

I dunno, I just don't want my 6 (or 9) year old coming down and finding a cold, stiff corpse when I'm not around to at least comfort them.

Honestly I think it would freak them out, big time.

I watched the whole 6 Feet Under series, you'd think I'd be more comfortable with the subject. Guess not.

PF_Flyer

Our Springer died suddenly at the age of 10 when my girls were 6 and 2 years old. Was running him on training dummies the evening before and he was fine, next morning he was gone. My wife and I found him in his kennel in the morning.
The 6 year old and I took care of the burial up on the mountain.

Very emotional, yes. But a life lesson of sorts for the girls.

p0926

I'm with Juice on this one. I think it would be pretty traumatic for a young child to be the first to discover a dead family pet. By all means, let them see the body and even better, help bury it. But be the one to find it... I'm thinking not.

-Frank

Mr_Shiftright

Well it might be momentarily upsetting but I doubt that a kid couldn't handle it if he had to, especially if he knew the pet was very sick and that dying was a possibility.

ateixeira

She knows, I'm preparing them both for that.

On a better note, draining all that fluid has perked him up a bit. He's still lethargic, even off balance when he walks, but his appetite is back and he's showing his old self in some ways.

I hope the fluid doesn't come back soon. Fingers crossed.

pat

I am glad to hear that you are seeing signs of his old self. I hope it continues.

ateixeira

The vet is giving us 2 prescriptions. Hopefully those will help as well.

p0926

I hope the fluid doesn't come back soon. Fingers crossed.

I'll keep my fingers crossed too but meanwhile, you should cherish each day with Hadji because at 15, he is definitely in his twilight years.

-Frank

ateixeira

Yeah, we're lucky he's been so healthy for such a long time.

Looks like he is starting to swell up again, though.

We got those 2 prescriptions and they're supposed to help with his circulation, so hopefully that stops or at least delays the process.

stever

I lost an older cat a month ago about the same age - sounds like some of the conditions were similar to Hadjis. I couldn't even post about it then....

But there are 15 years of good memories.

Karen_S

Sorry to hear about your loss.

ateixeira

Me too.

Hadji has up and down days. Yesterday was down. 2 days ago he was doing really well. It's hard to predict.

The heart meds arrive today and I'll try to feed him something to give him some energy.

pat

I'm sorry Steve. Those 15 years of memories are very precious and will last you the rest of your life. I'm still grieving for my sweet dog who died at 15 a little over a year ago, but I wouldn't trade the pain for anything. I will always have him with me, as you will have your kitty.

stever

Beemer's litter mate sister is still around and that helps, plus the 3 year old is getting more sociable (his mom was a woodpile cat). When you don't have "real" kids, the pets really fill a void around the homestead.

bat1161

Steve,

I can totally empathize with you in regard to pets being part of the family. As someone who never had kids, our pets have been the family for us for the 20 years we are married. I get together with friends from High School and they show pictures of their kids; I pull out pictures of my cats . Matter of fact, they are the "screensaver" on my Garmin, so we always have a picture of them no matter where we go.

Juice- here's hoping things go smoothly for Hadji and that he doesn't suffer.

Mark

ateixeira

Hadji has been improving, I'm a bit surprised.

We have him on 2 medications for his heart, both are supposed to improve his circulation.

At first he could not even keep the pills down. I tried peanut butter, but he would regurgitate them within minutes.

I then tried a different trick - crushing them to powder, and then mixing them with the meat sauce from some canned dog food. That's working.

So 2 good things happened - with small servings at first, he was able to keep the food down. That plus now he's getting his meds.

Even the swelling around his belly seems to have reduced. I'm kind of shocked, actually.

I guess the fact that he's actually able to eat and keep things down, plus the meds, is working well. Knock on wood.

Atta boy. :shades:

bat1161

Juice,

Glad to hear Hadji is doing better. Having an appetite is always a good sign with our pets.

Mark

ateixeira

He even made it up the stairs this weekend. That really surprised me.

He's still lethargic, but at least he's happier.

lillybrigs

Me and my husband lost our pet cat MAMA this year.
The last 2 weeks were very painful for all of us.
I'm so happy to here that hadji has some appetite.
Cherish every moment you have with him. I found that our pets show so much gratitude for the love we give them that it actualy brings up there energy and they start to feel better as soon as they sence that we are around.
All my prayers are with you.

ateixeira

Well, he went while sleeping, rather peacefully. I'm surprisingly calm about it - perhaps because I saw it coming. I cried like a baby when we lost Ashley.

I still have to tell the kids. I imagine it will be hard on our 9 year old daughter.

Any how, thanks for all the kind words and advice over the past couple of months.

Karen_S

I'm glad it was peaceful. My sympathies to you and your family.

pat

Hugs to you and your family, juice. I know how hard this is.

p0926

Juice- You and your family have my sincere condolences. Thankfully you had warning that his days were numbered so it gave you time to mentally prepare for this day. And waking up to find he passed during the night is a lot better than any alternative. You can also comfort yourselves with the knowledge that he had a good life and a loving family which is all any dog could hope for.

I fear that I will be dealing with the same situation in the not too distant future. My black lab Flash is about 13 now and is really starting to show his age... heart murmur is getting steadily worse, his hearing and eyesight are going and you can tell the joints are starting to hurt. In the meantime, I try every day to make sure he knows how much he is loved.

-Frank

ateixeira

Yeah, hang in there, Frank.

I'm trying to remember him as a puppy, those were happy days! When we adopted him he had so much energy - he could jump over a 4 foot fence and escape our yard if something was interesting enough. I trained him to jump through a hula-hoop, a pretty neat trick.

I told my 6 year old son and first thing he said was "Can we get a pet Lizard?".

My daughter took it pretty hard. She cried and almost regurgitated. It was pretty bad. We comforted her, but she was sad that she did not get to say good bye.

She had a neat idea - to get a balloon and put a note on it for him. I got one of those mylar (sp?) balloons with "We'll Miss You" on it, and then each child wrote a small note and we tied it to the string. We let it go and watched it float away to the heavens.

It was sad but I think it gave them closure. Sure enough, the balloon floated way up in to the sky until it disappeared in the clouds.

The dogs had been blessed, ironically the same day our daughter was baptized. We told her about that.

I think that was an important step for her. For all of us.

Even though she was sad I thought she demonstrated a maturity well beyond her 9 years.

p0926

The baloon was a great idea.

A dog's years sure do seem to fly by. Just the other day we had a visitor who met Flash and commented that he didn't look much like a Flash. However when Flash was younger, he LOVED to run and truely lived up to his name.

-Frank

michaellno

So sorry to hear about your dog's passing.

I recently had to put down the first dog I've ever owned. It was tough to do, but necessary.

Not that his passing leaves us pet-less. We still have one dog (Lily - a mini dachshund) and three cats.

And ... a new puppy is on order from a breeder. Another mini doxie ... pictures can be found at this website:

Picutres of our new puppy .. he is male #1

ateixeira

Yep, we're pet-less also. House feels sort of empty.

That's OK, I sort of want to mourn his loss. I'll get another pet later in life, not right away.

p0926

We lost a dog last year that my wife had had for 14 years. She took it pretty hard and I thought for sure that she wouldn't want another one for a long while but 6 weeks later, we adopted a 90 lb 2-yo chocolate lab (it was my wife's idea).

Dogs can really cramp your lifestyle but they are full of so much love and joy that it's worth it. I think that having a young a vibrant dog in the house helped a lot in enabling my wife get over the loss of her dog.

We always had at least one dog growing up so dogs were definitely an important part of my childhood and provided many fond memories.

-Frank

ateixeira

I know what you mean. It's just that we travel - a LOT. We always worry about where to keep the dog when we take road trips, and that's often, almost every other week.

stever

"To make the world safer for pets, Lindsey Wolko had to design an indestructible dog.

Two years and hundreds of thousands of dollars later, her nonprofit Center for Pet Safety in Reston, Va., has a set of crash-test dog dummies that were battered, throttled and sent flying to test several car safety restraints."

That's ruff: Crash tests use dummy dogs (hamptonroads.com)