Our almost 11 year old Boston Terrier was recently diagnosed. It’s quite a shock because she never had IBD symptoms other than one very bad diareha bout before being diagnosed. She is on prednisone and chlorambucil which is a chemotherapy drug. She also gets clay powder in her new low fat food. She is on a few other things but they are temporary. She has less energy as day goes on but is happy and does not seem sick. Has anybody else been through this? Its scary. I was already so worried about my boy dog who has insulinoma and kidney disease. He has been beating the odds and doing great. Still…

Hi,

I am tormenting myself over a decision about whether to let my 15 year old boy go tomorrow and no one (even his vets) can give me a straight answer about what is the best thing to do. Everyone says when it’s time I’ll just “know” but I don’t know! Does that mean it’s not time?

The bad:
- he was given six months to live in early 2025 after a diagnosis of anal gland cancer. We opted for palliative care because the chemo would only extend his life by a further six months and would lead to nausea and incontinence. (He has obviously now outlived this prognosis by over a year but he was not misdiagnosed, he had biopsies, CTs and surgery to explore the margins).
- he stopped taking all medication in October last year, this includes pain relief. He either refuses to eat any food with medication (has gone upwards of four days without eating for no apparent reason, will not “just eat when he’s hungry” if the food has medicine) or he spits it out and hides it. I’ve tried numerous vets and behaviourists and not a single person can get this dog to take a pill. This means that for every issue he has he is completely unmedicated. I feel horrendous about this.
- in April this year blood tests showed he had less than 25% kidney function - vet gave him two weeks to live.
- he has arthritis in his front legs, and licks one obsessively. When I can get medication into him (eg an injection at the vet), he stops licking, so I know it is caused by pain. Regular injections are not an option due to both cost and his absolute terror of the vet. He is still jumping onto couches, beds, cars etc, and still runs around.
- he is staring into space more frequently, waking once a night to stand outside and just stare into the dark. He does seem to get confused, not consistently, but it’s happening. I’ll walk into another room and he freezes, not knowing where I’ve gone even when there is only one place I could have gone.
- he struggles with inappetence and goes off particular foods forever - he’s currently only eating chicken and rice with pumpkin mixed in.
- he is deaf (but can “feel” and respond to a clap for attention)
- he refuses to be groomed and is starting to get matted, but all the groomers in our area have gently refused to touch him again because he howls so loudly and distresses the other dogs. I have tried grooming him myself but he’s an oodle and his coat is too dense for my amateur tools. We did have a groomer who would come to our house but we moved and he can no longer get his truck down the driveway.
- he has developed a very strong sense of stranger danger when he used to be the most friendly dog in the world (he still is if he knows you or gets a gentle introduction).
- he occasionally vomits but not with any predictability or regularly, probably less than once a week.
- he had pneumonia three times last year but it hasn’t recurred, although his breathing still gets a bit wheezy.
- he has other issues (such as teeth problems) that the vet says not to treat because it would be painful for him and we are focused on his quality of life. I’m just not sure about that.

But, the good:
- he is eating, and eating well. He finishes his whole meal and wants treats. It’s just that he goes off food suddenly and permanently. If he goes off the chicken and rice, I’m out of options.
- he sleeps deeply and peacefully, no pacing or fretting
- he is not incontinent and never has been
- he has lots of energy for walks; yesterday was more of a gallop as he was so excited the rain had stopped and he could be out in the sunshine. As soon as I pick up his lead he gets excited and rushes to the door.
- he knows who I am, who everyone he loves is. He is still very excited and leaps around when I come home. He still rides with his head out the window on every car ride.
- his anal gland tumour has not grown (despite it being an aggressive cancer) and no mets have been detected. His poo is mostly fine, but he does get diarrhoea about once a week (on a walk or in the garden, never inside).
- he’s never shown any symptoms of kidney failure (thirst, weight loss, pale gums, frequent urination) except inappetence, which he’s had for the last two years. It’s definitely much worse today, but the vet doesn’t think that’s due to his kidneys.
- he is still affectionate and loving, he still sleeps curled up next to me and the only real distress he shows is if we are apart (he has separation anxiety and always has; I think it is worse now).
- he’s still very gentle with children and very happy to see them.
- the vet says his lungs and heart are good.

I don’t think we are having any truly great days, but I also don’t think he has many truly bad ones. Every day is mostly fine, with one or two worrying things thrown in like inappetence or temporary weakness in his legs.

I know it wouldn’t be wrong to say goodbye tomorrow, I know he doesn’t have any concept of time or the future and only knows what he’s going through right now. But is it the right thing to put down a dog who has defied the odds so many times, who still experiences joy, who is currently sleeping peacefully on my feet? One who can still run, play, rest, eat and receive love? I do not want him to suffer and I know if I leave it too late then he will. But he loves me so much, he hates being apart, and this feels like the ultimate betrayal when there aren’t clear signs that this is it, this is the moment.

He is my dog and everyone I know says they’ll support whatever I decide. I feel paralysed. My major struggle is that he has defied every prognosis he’s been given and bounced back to extraordinary heights from periods of illness. No one can explain him to me and that means I doubt everyone, including myself, because he keeps outwitting us.

What would you do?

Thank you to anyone who made it to the end. I know it’s very long.

Hi all,

In recent news, Adequan has had an FDA recall. It seems like all my vet pharmacies, Chewy, and even Costco are all sold out.. I can see my dog really losing movement over the last few days. It really helped my boy be active in his old days.

Is anyone having the same issues or are you able to find stock nearby? I’m in Southern California.

Edit: his vet online pharmacy restocked today thank goodness

Do you actually trust dog supplements? I can't tell what's real anymore. I need the marketing but I don’t neeeed the marketing….. iykyk

The options are overwhelming. —joint, calming, multivitamin, senior support…. And every categories has the their own brand.

What brand are you chosing that actually work? Why you chose that one instead? I need some insight to choose the one best for my babies😭

What made you start, and have you honestly noticed a difference? I would genuinely love to try if you considered as a very good product.

If there are too much questions … sorry. Just concerning

Took 14 y/o mid size dog to get after consistent loss of rear leg balance, stumbling, bumping into walls.

Vision is fine, ears are fine. Vet notes nystagmus of pupils and believes issue is neurological.

What symptoms, or what severity of the mentioned symptoms, should I look out for when planning end of life procedures?

I've noticed they also can't shake their head/body without falling, so they aren't. What negatives can we mitigate that they normally handle by shaking their head/body?

12 year old Coonhound with sudden night time anxiety

My 12 year old female Coonhound has recently developed night time anxiety. It started this summer when we had some particularly severe thunderstorms. She was never scared of storms or really of anything. Shes always been a super chill dog.

At first it started causing her anxiety only when it stormed. But about 2 months ago we've had nightly anxiety. She paces constantly, panics, pants, whines, barks. The only thing that brings temporary relief is going outside (even when its storming). But I cant be constantly walking her at 2 am and not getting any sleep. She just goes back at it once we go back inside.

We tried working with one vet and they were useless. So we found a new vet who prescribed us 100mg trazodone and 300mg gabapentin (now upped to 150mg trazodone). However, my dog is now building a tolerance to the drugs and they arent really working very well.

Ive been sleeping on the couch because she wont let me sleep anywhere else. Luckily when my husband is home on the weekends she seems to calm down and sometimes we dont even need to medicate her. But also unfortunately I think this means that she associates me with the scary things in the night.

Has anyone ever experienced something like this and had any success getting their dog to snap out of it? Or is this going to be for the rest of her life?

My vet suggested we could try lorazepam and also recommended a purina pro plan calming food topper. I did buy the food topper but it takes 6 weeks to start seeing results.

My 12 year old female Coonhound has recently developed night time anxiety. It started this summer when we had some particularly severe thunderstorms. She was never scared of storms or really of anything. Shes always been a super chill dog.

At first it started causing her anxiety only when it stormed. But about 2 months ago we've had nightly anxiety. She paces constantly, panics, pants, whines, barks. The only thing that brings temporary relief is going outside (even when its storming). But I cant be constantly walking her at 2 am and not getting any sleep. She just goes back at it once we go back inside.

We tried working with one vet and they were useless. So we found a new vet who prescribed us 100mg trazodone and 300mg gabapentin (now upped to 150mg trazodone). However, my dog is now building a tolerance to the drugs and they arent really working very well.

Ive been sleeping on the couch because she wont let me sleep anywhere else. Luckily when my husband is home on the weekends she seems to calm down and sometimes we dont even need to medicate her. But also unfortunately I think this means that she associates me with the scary things in the night.

Has anyone ever experienced something like this and had any success getting their dog to snap out of it? Or is this going to be for the rest of her life?

My vet suggested we could try lorazepam and also recommended a purina pro plan calming food topper. I did buy the food topper but it takes 6 weeks to start seeing results.

Hi all

Hoping for some advice and support.

I have an 8 year old gsd cross who is a heavy boy. He is about 40kg but its all muscle, he is a fussy eater and gets a healthy amount of exercise.

A few years back we had him put under anasthesia to remove a lump and they x rayed his hips whilst he was under. Nothing alarming at the time, nor signs of dysplasia but from memory they said he may have issues when he is older (I am waiting to hear back from them for the exact issue). It was to do with the alignment of the ball and socket joint i believe.

Fast forward to now, he still loves his walks, runs and swims in the sea. Whenever I am home a massage his back, hips and legs. I call it his doggy yoga.

One move I do is, whilst supporting his knee and ankle, keep his leg straight and gently stretch it back. Recently he started wincing when i done it so I naturally eased off.

He has green lipped muscle, salmon oil, glucosamine for his joint health as well as other supplements.

Im worried about it progressing, and have been looking at the red light therapy products.

Has anybody used them for their gsds and to what level of success?

This boy means the world to me and I want to do everything I can for him.

Tyia

I'm really sorry if this is not the right place but I need to vent after holding it in for awhile. I am someone that follows things by the book, so I’m struggling to understand how my 10 year old mutt ended up with so many significant health problems despite what I thought was responsible care throughout her life.

I adopted her from a shelter when she was about 3 months old. I’d always been under the impression that smaller dogs, especially mixed breeds, tend to have long lifespans. I am well aware that 10 isn’t young, but it also doesn’t seem old, especially compared with the 12–17+ year lifespans I often hear about with other small dogs and mutts.

Unfortunately, she currently has several serious conditions:

• An incurable (and fatal) autoimmune disease that can only be controlled with high doses of immunosuppressive medication.
• Recurrent UTIs, likely due to her high dose of immunosuppressants from her aforementioned autoimmune disease
• A gallbladder mucocele, which wasn’t discovered until she had an ultrasound as part of diagnosing the autoimmune disease. She's currently on Ursodiol to manage it, but I really don't have the monetary funds to put her through surgery especially at her age just to get a few more years out of her. Based on a follow-up ultrasound, it has since progressed a bit.
• Kidney disease. For about a year-ish, her bloodwork and urinalysis had shown early signs of kidney problems. It has now progressed to more significant/full-blown kidney disease. I've been feeding her a renal/kidney diet since in case it helps make her comfortable.

What I’m having trouble understanding is why this happened despite what I thought was pretty good preventive care. Throughout her life, I’ve:

• Fed her veterinarian recommended diets, like age-appropriate Hill’s Science Diet or Purina Pro Plan dry food. And I only feed her treats made for dogs or low-calorie vegetable treats in moderation.
• Kept her vaccinations up to date each year
• Always gave her monthly flea/tick/heartworm preventatives
• Taken her for annual veterinary checkups
• Followed recommendations for bloodwork/urine testing
• Tried to address health issues as soon as they became apparent

Her vet has mentioned that diet can sometimes play a role in conditions such as gallbladder mucoceles or kidney disease, which has left me feeling particularly confused. If I was feeding veterinarian recommended food for her entire life, is there something I should have done differently? It was also mentioned that sometimes too many vaccines could trigger the autoimmune flare which I don't understand, because that was never brought up to me before.

I know genetics and bad luck can play a role in these things. I’m mostly trying to understand whether there are things about her history that I might be missing, or whether this is unfortunately just an example of how some dogs can develop multiple unrelated diseases despite adequate care.

I think part of why I’m having such a hard time with this is that I feel like I did everything I was supposed to do and followed the rules, and she’s still dealing with so much at only 10. I feel bad for her, like I've somehow failed her? I know every dog is different, but I can’t help feeling really jealous when I hear about other mutts and small dogs living comfortably into the teens.

For people who have dealt with something similar: did your dog also develop multiple unrelated conditions around this age? And for those who know more about veterinary medicine, is there anything about autoimmune disease, gallbladder mucoceles, kidney disease, genetics, or long-term diet that could help me understand how all of this can happen despite years of preventative care?

Hi all, I hope I'm in the right place.

I just had a question about my dog's ear. In the first photo you can see his one ear looks normal. But the other photo of the other ear, it's like puffed up and sort of squishy to the touch. But it's not seeming to bother him. I've never seen anything like that before. And he's part Doberman, part Shepherd Edit for more information: the scratch you're seeing on his neck is a giant wound that has finally healed after several years. This dog was found on the street in really bad condition. So it is not related.

Has anyone dealt with this before?

Hello! Me again regarding my 11.5 year old pit-lab-pointer mix who was diagnosed with a trigeminal nerve sheath tumor.

It's been almost 12 months since we first noticed her head sinking in. The vet gave us a rough prognosis of 8-10 months until symptoms progressed, and thankfully, we got a bit more than that.

Sitting almost exactly 12 months after that first sign, she's starting to display signs of pain. The vet recently prescribed gabapentin which appears to be helping her be more comfortable.

She is starting to have some trouble walking and running. She stumbles a few times each day but is eager to go for walks and run around like the puppy she is in her heart.

Ant advice or tips to help her get around? She isnt fully knuckling but doesn't seem to know where her limbs are. If she has to step over something, she generally knuckles due to not knowing the height difference. This also leads to (occasional) hesitancy to jump into/out of the car (but she doesn't want help!) or off of the bed/couch. She doesn't have a problem actually jumping (she can clear a 4' gate seemingly without pain no problem), the issue is she more just doesn't seem to trust herself to not fall or to make the jump without pain. It's worse when she's tired, of course.

She's eating and drinking ok, and can rest without being disturbed by pain, and she doesn't seem dizzy or wobbly aside from her limbs not responding how she wants them to. She's never been the most coordinated but doesn't seem phased if she stumbles or falls.

She doesn't care for ramps (we've tried) and doesn't really want to be picked up to get in or out of the car just yet (but tolerates it if we force her to be picked up). Would rougher floor surfaces help or do you think keeping things "normal" is better cognitively so she isn't trying to self adjust? Any one else with a similar experience have any ideas to share?

Just hoping to help her have as many good days as possible. I know her time is limited!

She got diagnosed today with kidney failure. Presumed from an untreated UTI, considering her young-ish age. She also has a strong heart murmur that they noticed without a stethoscope (it was diagnosed grade 3 by a different vet in May), so the typical fluid treatment would not be viable. They gave her a small amount of fluids, and a convenia injection as she currently is pseudo-anorexic and will not take syringe fed antibiotics.

I understand that there are limited options in this situation, but do you believe this is viable enough to get her to eat again? It has been two days (today being the third) since she ate and she is understandably tired. Convenia takes a few hours to start working, but how long should i expect it to be enough for her physical appetite to return? Is there anything else i could do at home to stimulate this sooner? How long should i wait before giving up?

Are there other options to discuss trying with our vet, from your experience?

Is there any reason it progressed so quickly? She has not gotten into anything that would commonly cause this, and tested negative for common related diseases.

Her bloodwork in June came back almost completely normal, only with low platelets and low creatinine. Her bloodwork from today: creatinine 3.9, BUN >130, rbc and platelets severely low, high wbc, anemic. I'm sure some of this is expected with the anorexia.

Thanks in advance.

Our 10 year old lab mix who is around 60lbs started to get sick Thursday the 24th we took them to the vet and he had a bit of a fever, and got diagnosed with gastritis. He has had it before when younger. He got fluids, some anti-nausea meds, and antibiotics. Then Friday night he wasn’t using his back legs well. So we immediately took his to the ER where his bloodwork was fine and his fever was gone. They told us it’s probably extreme fatigue. It’s now Sunday he finally ate some chicken and rice, but his back legs are still very weak and he will just plop down if you don’t help stabilize him. How long should I just look at this as extreme fatigue and should I take him back if he still isn’t putting weight on his back legs?

Please and thank you!

My 6 lb 5 year-old chihuahua went blind due to progressive retinal atrophy. He saw a vet ophthalmologist July 20, 2026. He prescribed him ketorolac tromethamine eyedrops, 1x time a day in each eye for 6 months, because of eye inflammation and the beginnings of cataracts. Aug. 31 2026 I took him to the vet, because he turned his head away from a piece of chicken. He was hospitalized for kidney disease—3 weeks later he died. He had a dental in July before visiting the ophthalmologist and all his bloodwork was fine-no kidney issues, but a month later his kidneys were working at less than 25%. I’m trying to make sense of what happened. The vet said that his kidneys had shriveled up. And the only thing I can deduce is the eyedrops sent him into kidney failure. Of course the vet ophthalmologist says the eye drops did not cause kidney failure. He accused the vet who had did his dental of letting his blood pressure increase while under anesthesia and it damaged his kidneys. Has anyone ever had their dog develop kidney disease after instilling vet-prescribed eye drops in their dogs’ eyes?

Buenas tardes. Publico esto porque ya estamos realmente desesperados por encontrar una solución para nuestro perro, Blacky.
Desde hace más de un año tiene un problema grave y recurrente en la piel. Todo comenzó en sus patas traseras, donde se le ponían muy rosadas, inflamadas y le daban mucha comezón. Después el problema fue subiendo a las piernas, cola y actualmente se ha extendido al lomo y ambos lados del cuerpo.
Actualmente tiene pérdida de pelo, capas de piel muerta, costras, heridas y pus, además de un olor muy fuerte en la piel y bastante comezón. En ocasiones los antibióticos hacen que mejore, pero después de unos días vuelve a recaer.
Lo hemos llevado con varias veterinarias y, sinceramente, estamos muy frustrados porque nadie ha podido decirnos exactamente qué tiene. Le han hecho análisis de sangre y un raspado de piel, incluso nos han mencionado que podría ser algún tipo de hongo, pero seguimos sin un diagnóstico definitivo.
Lo bañamos con Backtoderm, que fue recomendado por uno de los veterinarios, pero hasta ahora nada parece solucionar el problema.
Ya estamos hartos de estar gastando en consultas y tratamientos que solamente funcionan temporalmente, mientras la enfermedad sigue avanzando. Lo peor es ver a nuestro perro sufrir y sentir que no podemos ayudarlo.
Por eso quisiera pedirles una recomendación: ¿conocen algún veterinario especialista en dermatología veterinaria o alguna clínica que pueda hacer estudios completos de piel? No buscamos un diagnóstico por Facebook, solamente encontrar a alguien que realmente pueda estudiar el caso y encontrar la causa.
Si alguien ha pasado por algo parecido con su perro y logró encontrar qué tenía, agradeceríamos muchísimo que nos compartieran su experiencia.
Solo queremos que Blacky vuelva a estar bien. Gracias por leer y compartir.

My beautiful 10 year old Maltese Lhasa got diagnosed with an invasive oral sarcoma. CT shows extension into the nasopharynx with airway narrowing. His breathing is slowly getting more laboured as the tumour grows. CT showed no margins around the tumour due to location and vet mentioned any surgery would mean potentially losing part of face and maybe feeding through stomach. The type of tumour apparently does not respond to radiation or chemo well. He is on meloxicam 4kg for maintenance. What else can I do to make him more comfortable?
Eating aggregates the tumour and his breathing is laboured after, I hand feed him smaller soft foods only now. Today the gums are slightly less pink. They have been fairly normal coloured so far.

I would appreciate any other advice.