when is it time

[kia027]

to say goodbye to your pet

Kissy's hind legs are atrophying and with that comes the pooping in the house and difficulty standing for awhile as well as getting up & down. Vet says give her Tramadol for the pain. Kissy sniffs out her food and wont take it. Kissy is not giving us any signs that it is time to go but she does move slowly and is taking her time moving about.

Is it time? or near time?

[diabolical_Tanya]

Re: when is it time

hard as it is, I feel that if his quality of life is seriously affected it is time

[Nanook]

Re: when is it time

My vet says when it no longer brings a smile to your face to watch them, then you know it's time.



That said...you can try to give the tramadol a different way. There is a tasty syringe on the market loaded with a gooey goodie. You can stick a pill in the end and squirt a little in her mouth.

Or, do like I do... I just open mouth and shove a pill as far back as I can get it, and I'm pretty good at getting it way down in the throat! Then you need to keep the mouth closed and make sure you see them swallow so you know it went down.

I'm sorry to hear she is doing so poorly.

It's hard on them too, when they know they are soiling the house and can't help it.

[Peasie]

Re: when is it time

What Tanya said.

[SistahD]

Re: when is it time

The worst thing I ever had to do was to have Dumplin put down a few years ago, but at the time it was the only solution so I don't envy your decision. As Tanya says, if her health has declined so badly that the quality of her life is lost, then the time to prepare is here.

(((Kissy&Kia)))

[kia027]

Re: when is it time

Well it is hard to tell because when I look into her eyes she does seem happy and not giving me the 'put me out of my misery' look.

But.. i can see she has difficulty going from a standing to laying down position, the incontinence (she is embarassed as you say Nanook) and the let down when she tries to jump into the back of the SUV and cant make it anymore without help (what we do is let her get in from the back seat, push down one side to give her access to the trunk area and she walks through).

Nanook, She will not let us put a pill into her mouth. She snaps when you do something she does not like. Plus the tramadol makes her vomit so I can understand her aversion. What we are doing is, giving her Rimadyl (doubled her dose per her vet) and just observing how she does on it. She does do much better on the tramadol though.

A friend of ours suggested doggie chiropractic as dogs respond quickly. He did it and his dog lived till he was 20!!

[Bink - the Only]

Re: when is it time

kia, i am so sorry. that is such a difficult time.

the best advice i can give is that you WILL know when it is time.

it is truly something innate between you and your beloved friend.

[Nanook]

Re: when is it time

Kia, do look for a vet who practices chiropractic. I got two years out of my Doberman Lexi that way. I carried Lexi in the door of my regular and wonderful vet on a Sunday. On Wednesday he called me and said he still couldn't stand and I needed to put him down and asked me if i wanted to come for it, or just have him do it...

I told him not to do anything and that I was on my way to get him and flew up there like a bat out of hell...

Then I called a veterinarian that practices chiropractic kind of a long ways from here but at that point I would have driven for days......bink might remember all of this as I was frantic that I was gonna lose my Lexi, and there was no warning, he just laid down one day and couldn't get back up. Cripes, it happened right in the middle of our Blues festival. He woke up that way on Sunday morning!

Anyway,I called the chiropractic vet & and they fit me right in. We had to carry Lexi to my car (a 100 lb Doberman), and when we arrived at the next place we carried him in there...

She figured she could get him back up but that it might take a few visits and she worked on him and we carried him back to my car and I brought him home that way, unable to stand up and it was now day 4.

I think more than most people would have put Lexi down. My vet who I trusted and who is a wonderful vet told me I had no choice but I wouldn't listen.

I'm so glad I didn't, because the next morning Lexi was standing! Not only standing but walking and almost as good as new. One more trip to the veterinarian who practices chiropractic and I got two more years with Lexi.


So......

reality bites.

Kissy's pee problem could be related to it being painful to walk/move. Or, it could be a bladder or kidney problem. Actually, it could be a bladder or kidney problem that is causing her a problem to move around too.

Ok, so then it comes down to finances, hence my reality bites comment. The chiropractic is not all that expensive and I was lucky that the vet I found is into practicing more holistic methods as well as the chiropractic and is also a licensed vet. If you could find someone like her you could very well be surprised at the outcome.

I was sent home with 3 different vitamins. I know one was CoQ10 and shark cartilage was another. None was expensive and my boy ticked along like a timex for two more years.

Testing for the other causes might run you a few dollars though but maybe those testes aren't that expensive. I'd probably use the same vet to do that testing and what needs doing from the beginning, as you would probably save a few dollars that way with less office calls and such and they can probably get to the root of the problem faster.

Now the hard part is finding the someone. There aren't a lot of vets that practice chiropractic in my area and hopefully you have one or more that you can get to. You don't want to just grab the first one you run across either, you'd want to ask around or research it some.

[kia027]

Re: when is it time

wow!! Thanks Nanook I will definitely look into one

Because we have a lot of horse farms here (racetracks are in the area, I suspect we have a few animal chiros who can also work on dogs).. Since my husband knows the guy who had it done for his dog, I will ask him to get the number of the chiropractor he used.

btw Kissy's problem is not pee but poo \o/

updated to add: whaddaya know.. an animal chiro is 2 blocks away..

[Nanook]

Re: when is it time

2 blocks away! very cool! I think that it is a problem with pooping accidents is better than a pee problem which could be bladder or kidney or such. Good luck! I suppose a diaper is out of the question? I use diapers sometimes on my older dogs. Hopefully it's not runny poop so it's easier to clean up!

[Nanook]

Re: when is it time

yooohoooo Kia come tell! I saw you in health forum say Kissy went to the chiropractor! Any news?

[kia027]

Re: when is it time

she had her 1st treatment.. a poker thingy to stimulate the nerves and a massage thingy to work on the back leg muscles..

she had to wear a muzzle so she would not nip during the treatment but the chiro & I think she will be fine for next time.

while there she left a care package but the vet chiro says this is not unusual.

she is supposed to rest for the next 3 days but she seems more invigorated

[WitchyOoman]

Re: when is it time


Years and years ago, Midnight was diagnosed by several vets (including at U of P!) with a doggie version of Lupus, and we were told to 'put him down now, before his <span style="text-decoration: underline">real</span> misery begins'.

He was around 5 years old, at that time.

Not satisfied, I took him to a well-known holistic chiropractor way own in south Jersey (a couple of hours' drive). This holistic doc and his partners teated people, but at night, after all human patients were gone and before their steam cleaning service came to clean - they'd treat pets in one back room especially for animals.

These docs were N.A.E.T. (Nambrudripad's Allergy Elimination Technique) practitioners. What they do, in my personal opinion, is no more and no less than 'witch doctor craft' - but I will also admit that it worked for ME..... so I wanted to try Midnight on it, first, before considering uethanizing him for his 'untreatable auto-immune disease'.

Remember, now - Midnight was about 5 years old, back then. He's 16 1/2 years old, now.

I was told that Midnight would continue to suffer while his bodydestroyed itself systematically, and that he'd never live past another year or two at most.

My friend, also my holistic chiropractor, ageed to try to treat Midnight, after office hours.

Midnight had 3 or 4 N.A.E.T. treatments, which (to the dog, and to human observers) appeaed to consist solely of the dog sitting in my lap while the doc used his hand pressure on my arm - as the surrogate body - to tell the doc what was wrong bodily with the dog. Of course, during my own treatments, my own arm response told him what was wrong with my own body.

So far as the dog was concerned, he took a long car ride (which he loves!) to a friend's office (whom he loves!) to sit in his most beloved person's lap (that's me) and be petted slowly, while the friend and I chatted quietly and spoke kind words to the dog. then, the dog and I drove another long car ride (which he adores!) back home with me. Midnight got to do this 'fun thing' with me a few times... and then, he was better and no longer sick, and we stopped going there.

Now, he's over 16 years old, and he's never had a lick of ailment since then... and he must not have Lupus any mor, nor an other auto-immune illness, coz he's still going quite strong, and he's in less pain than I am! Vets say that my dog, Midnight, is &quot;as healthy as a 6- or 7-year old dog&quot;.

PS - I no longer go to any of those vets who were all dead wrong. My current vet is willing to send out to a holistic vet who travels across NJ when it seems prudent to try out holistic veterinary medicine.


Kia, is Kissey a dog?

I'd try to find a holistic chiro or doc who treats using N.A.E.T., if your chiro doesn't seem to be able to help Kissy. N.A.E.T. is totally non-invasive, non-threatening, and 100% harmless.

[kia027]

Re: when is it time

yes Witchy Kissy is a dog.

btw the vet told me to give her Turmeric to help with the inflammation near the base of her spine. I will see if she lets me sneak it into her food as she is still very suspicious of tramadol laced treats

[Nanook]

Re: when is it time

Kissy sounds too smart for her own good when it comes to meds! Glad it seemed to have helped Kia.

Witchy, that's one helluva story!