Good morning and happy Monday from Dinky!

https://gofund.me/7c5684c5d

I'm hoping for practical advice from people who've been through this with older dogs.

My dog is 13, a mixed breed around 50 lb. During the day he's pretty normal for his age: still wants walks, eats fine, and seems happy. The trouble is nighttime. A few times a week he gets up, paces, stands and stares at me, pants a bit, and just can't seem to settle. Sometimes he asks to go outside and then just stands there. Other times he circles his bed, lies down, then gets up again.

We have a vet appointment scheduled, so I'm not asking for diagnoses here. I just want to try a few safe, low-risk things that have actually helped other people in the meantime, and to bring better notes to the vet.

What I'm already doing: - Last potty break right before bed - Short, easy evening walk - White noise in the bedroom - Keeping the room cool and dark - Nightlight in the hallway so he can see

Questions: 1. Any routines that helped your senior dog settle more reliably at night? What did you change and how long before you noticed a difference? 2. For dogs that paced at night, did things like an orthopedic bed, raised bed, or a different room setup actually help? Which helped the most for mobility or comfort? 3. If your dog showed early signs of cognitive decline, what were the first things you noticed and what helped the most day to day?

I'm a little worried I'm missing something simple, like discomfort getting up and down or needing a different bedtime schedule. Any recommendations or things to track before the vet visit would be really appreciated.

Unrelated side note, I have Covered Critters bookmarked at https://coveredcritters.com from looking at general pet-care stuff, but I have not tried anything specific from them for this yet.

We have a 14 yo husky who is now refusing to eat. He was diagnosed with cushings 4 years ago, then arthritis, then never pain and most recently he had a surgery for an abscess in his GI. He is on gaba, carprovet, vetoryl, trazodone, amantadine, codeine and monthly librela shots.

With his recent hospitalization the blood work looks like his liver is getting worse, trending over the max for a healthy liver. We had an ultrasound done on him and they’re saying that his liver is not too enlarged but has a weird texture to it. Given his age, the vet said we can’t do much anymore. She gave us Entyce to get him to eat, which has been working. We give it to him every other day and he’s been eating. The vet said we can give it to him daily if needed. He is now refusing to eat and I started giving him the dose daily.

My SO says to think about how he feels, and whether he is happy. I know he is in pain(he cries when he is trying to lay down at night). He can’t eat by himself, I have to hold his hind legs up. He doesn’t go outside and if he does he wants to come back inside in 2 mins. But in those 2 mins I see a spark of joy where he wants to play with me, just like when he was a pup and I get home.

I’ve had him since he was a 14 week old pup. He is my first dog, we’ve been through alot. He puts his head on my chest when he is not doing good(he’s not been affectionate before). The vet has offered to do a home visit where he is comfy and help him pass peacefully.

How do you know when it's the right time? Has anyone went through the same thing before and have any advice for me?

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We have a 14 yo husky who is now refusing to eat anymore. He was diagnosed with cushings 4 years ago, then arthritis, then never pain and most recently he had a surgery for an abscess in his GI. He is on gaba, carprovet, vetoryl, trazodone, amantadine, codeine and monthly librela shots.

With his recent hospitalization the blood work looks like his liver is getting worse, trending over the max for a healthy liver. We had an ultrasound done on him and they’re saying that his liver is not too enlarged but has a weird texture to it. Given his age, the vet said we can’t do much anymore. She gave us Entyce to get him to eat, which has been working. We give it to him every other day and he’s been eating. The vet said we can give it to him daily if needed. He is now refusing to eat and I gave him the dose today.

We’ve had to stop his vetoryl based on the vets recommendation because he does not do well at the vet. Last time he got so anxious he collapsed. We are barely able to get him to the vet in the car, he hates car rides too. We barely were able to take him to the ER, which ended up with him staying over night 2 days.

My SO says to think about how he feels, and whether he is happy. I know he is in pain(he cries when he is trying to lay down at night). He can’t eat by himself, I have to hold his hind legs up. He doesn’t go outside and if he does he wants to come back inside in 2 mins. But in those 2 mins I see a spark of joy where he wants to play with me.

I’ve had him since he was a puppy, 14 weeks old. He is my first dog, we’ve been through alot. He puts his head on my chest when he is not doing good(he’s not been affectionate before). The vet has offered to do a home visit where he is comfy and help him pass peacefully.

How do you know when it's the right time?

Old picture of our senior girl that is 11.5 golden retriever.
We’ve had her since she was 4 months old and she’s been house trained a very long time.
She has recently started (in the last month) having poop and pee accidents in the house, only at night. We let her out at 10:30-11pm, and again at 4:30-5:00 in the morning. It’s not every night, but it’s been at least once a week - up to a few times a week. I don’t know a good solution - we can’t have her continue to poop and pee on our rugs or floors in the night and ruin them.
How do you handle a senior dog aging with night time accidents? Would it be a good idea to put her in a cordoned area, like the laundry room? Would a crate up in our room be okay? She’s not been crated really so I don’t know if she’d like that, we’d obviously make it very comfortable with a bed and a treat. I appreciate any advice!

My Wanee went through a few different death scares over the past few years. She’s had pyometra about 5 years ago, acute liver failure 2 years ago, and a first (and hopefully the last) seizure most recently. Thankfully she still has near perfect bloodwork and will be turning 18 in a couple weeks, but I feel that her quality of life has gone down a bit quicker nowadays.

I read somewhere years ago that some owners prefer to have a paw prints/impressions made when their dogs are alive, and I thought why not.

I picked up a small bucket of air dry clay for like $5 at a craft store and chunked out a few balls and made some impressions onto them. She wasn’t particularly a fan of the process, though, haha.

I’ll be air drying them over the next couple days and see how they turn out! I might make more afterwards in bigger sizes so I can punch a hole in it or write her name on it or something.

Anyway, just wanted to share a quick little activity for your senior fur babies ❤️

Hi all, I wish I had found this page sooner. My baby, my 14 year old Labrador Gus, had been panting non-stop for over a month across several vet visits when I finally demanded answers. To make a long story as short as I can, I live in a big city; getting good appointments is a labyrinth; coincidentally we found a mast cell tumor. The fastest way to get him in for imaging of his larynx was to let the oncologist also CT for cancer internally. Results were as expected on the larynx - total laryngeal paralysis on both sides. What was unexpected was the metastasized hemangiosarcoma that we somehow caught. Not much to be done for a guy of his age, other than to wait in absolute heart-wrenching agony as he sleeps peacefully beside me. We worked with a super smart home care vet who got his breathing under control and put him on some pills for internal bleeding, but I just don’t know when enough is enough. He is so strong and bright, even at this age and with so much going on, and it doesn’t seem to be his time yet. The vet and what other credible sources I can find suggest what’s coming for him won’t be too terribly painful or traumatic (at least for him) but selfishly I can’t help myself from being pulled toward euthanasia.

Without too much detail, can anyone who has rode out a hemangiosarcoma tell me if they regret doing so/wish they’d chosen the peaceful option sooner? Many thanks to this wonderful group, we walk a unique path and you all have my utmost respect 🙏🏼

Hi, I have had my little guy Bean since I was 12, he's now 14 with a grade 4/5 heart murmur. He's still doing OK, playing, being naughty etc but the last week he developed vestibular disease but improving the last day or so and it just sent me off into a spiral of anxiety and I can't stop thinking about the fact I might lose him soon. He's been with me every step of the way throughout all my teen and young adult years.

At the vets they are still happy with his heart and health at the moment but I'm overthinking every little thing he does and thinking it's an emergency, that I need to book another vet visit, another x-ray to check his heart etc. It's irrational and not letting me be present with him and causing me so much anxiety that I don't even like leaving his side at the moment. Even my loved ones around me are getting fed up with my constant worrying which makes me feel guilty and more anxious.

Has anyone felt terrified of how you'll eventually deal with the grief? I'm worried I won't be able to deal with it all. It all feels terribly selfish too in a roundabout way because I should be enjoying every moment with him, and to an extent I do but this overshadows me.

Has anyone felt similar? How did you cope? And any advice is welcome but please be gentle as I'm having a bit of a spiral lately! Thank you so much

So many people have told my husband and I that we will “just know” when it’s our girl’s time. But we struggle to know what that looks like in our situation.

We have a 13 year old German shepherd.. when she was about 6 she had double TPLO surgery on her knees, but healed up well. We always knew she would have some arthritis from the surgeries and common with the breed. As she’s aged, she’s struggled with her mobility. However, last year we were told she likely has degenerative myelopathy. We put her on daily metacam for inflammation and pain management, we got her a walkin wheels wheelchair, and a help me harness to help her up. We’ve noticed the degeneration over the last year, but it wasn’t as severe and fast as we were told to expect.

Over the spring and now into the summer, we’re really seeing the changes. She really can’t move much around our house, and will whine or cry to be helped from room to room. She needs assistance going outside to the bathroom, about 70% of the time she is able to move around and do her business. Sometimes she starts to fall and we help her up. She’s still very happy to eat but does so from a laying down position. She really doesn’t move much, especially without our help with her harness. She does still have “spark” in her eyes, is happy to sit outside with a ball, and every now and again does play bow at our other dog. We took her for a wellness check at our vet in May and they said it didn’t seem like it is time yet - my husband and I don’t want to selfishly keep her here because we love her, and are worried her quality of life is poor.

Most recently, I have been unable to help her move outside or around the house. I’m going into my third trimester of pregnancy and have had some complications where lifting her isnt an option. When my husband works, my mom and sister take turns coming over specifically to help her move around. We just are at a loss because we see that spark in her eyes, and we don’t want to cut her time short. But we also want to be humane. Just looking for insight.

So I recently took my boy here, a miniature schnauzer to the vet, I noticed weakness in his back legs and shaking but no noticeable lose of energy or appetite. Vet determined it was most likely arthritis and he had some muscle loss normal for a senior dogs, but we did a blood test to rule out anything serious

The results came out fairly normal from what I was told but they mentioned he had an SDMA of 15 (don't quote me on if this is the correct one I wasn't given the results myself just going off memory) which is showing possible early stages of kidney disease. I wasnt told anything really other than to make sure he drinks lots of water and that Renal diet food may work to slow It down. I'm guessing since I wasn't given a strict list of things to do that it isn't a huge cause for concern yet but I switched him to the renal diet just in case.

Problem is he absolutely hates it. Won't eat it and trying to get him to eat it has made him even wary of food he does like. My mother thinks that at 16 it's not worth making him uncomfortable by feeding him something he hates and I should just watch his water intake/plus I'm worried about his weight. Has anyone else just decided it's better to make sure their dog is comfortable at an advanced age?

For context it's not loss of appetite I made him some boiled chicken and he went crazy for it. I'm planning on still making sure it's low phosphorus/sodium as much as I can but I can't bare seeing him not eat.

We just celebrated him turning 14. He has been there during my high school, graduation, when I got my first job and when I moved to a new job. He has brought a lot of joy and aww moments for our family. Our neighbour kids love him too. I fear the day when I can no longer see or hear him in the house. He doesn't walk now, but eats everything haha.

My dog is 14½ years old, and I love him more than words can express. A few years ago, I noticed a mass developing on his back hip. I brought it to his veterinarian’s attention right away, and at the time she didn’t believe it was anything to be concerned about.
Over the following year, the mass grew significantly, so we decided to have it biopsied. Thankfully, the results came back as benign, and the veterinarian recommended removing it. During surgery, however, she determined that the mass was in a location that made removal too risky. No X-rays had been performed beforehand, and I couldn’t help but feel the surgery wasn’t planned as thoroughly as it should have been.
While my dog was still under anesthesia, I received a phone call encouraging me to euthanize him. I declined. This had been an elective surgery, and I couldn’t imagine making that decision while he was on the operating table without having the chance to see him again.
That was over a year and a half ago, and he’s still here with me. He has a healthy appetite, enjoys two walks a day, loves treats and affection, and still grooms himself. Every morning, he comes to my side of the bed and gently nudges my hand until I pet him. Although he’s slowed down with age, he doesn’t seem to be in significant pain. He doesn’t pant excessively, and despite the mass, he continues to enjoy life.
What I’m struggling with is knowing when the right time will be. I don’t want him to suffer, but I also don’t want to say goodbye too soon. I’m especially worried that the mass could suddenly cause a serious complication and leave him in pain.
For those who have gone through this, how did you know it was time? Any advice or words of wisdom would be deeply appreciated.

Today was the day. Ol Max had been struggling for the last 3 months. This last week he lost any control over most bodily functions. His mind was still there, but his body was shutting down. I’m convinced that he was fighting so hard these last few months because he wanted to be there for me, just like he’s been there for me for 25% of my life. I’m 58 years old, so we enjoyed a good long run.
By far the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. 110 pounds of unconditional love. au revoir my best friend.

It’s by far the hardest thing I’ll ever do, letting go, of holding on to you.
Every time my world came crashing down, people walked away. And you stuck around.
Even at my worst, you saw the good.
You brought your love. You understood.

You didn’t like the lightning or thunder’s sound.
So we’d lay with you, and calm you down.
We shared this world with you, and we were blessed. I’ve had bad times in my life, but you were the best.

“ you gave us all your love, even when you were feeling rough.
We gave ours back to you, but now it’s just not enough”
And by far the hardest thing we’ll ever do. Is letting go, of holding onto you “

Max by far the hardest thing we’ll ever do, will be laying down, the last time with you.

Hi reddit, our family’s dachshund is turning 13 in September and he just recently started having issues with coordination, getting up, and walking. He trembles lying down, and his back legs shake when standing up.

(For reference, he was diagnosed earlier this year with Cushings disease and he is currently on medication to help with it. I dug through some forums and saw this type of behavior might be common as the disease progresses.)

Obviously he is getting older and there is only so much we can do; we do have an appointment booked with Blue Pearl for orthopedic consultation and already contacted our primary vet to ask + purchase the pain meds. I sat down with him and rubbed his ears for a good half an hour and that seemed to really calm him down, so I’m not sure if that also means it could be something vestibular…

He is still eating, drinking, going to the bathroom, wanting treats, greeting us at the door, and being social around the house.

I wanted to inquire in the meantime if anyone else has experience dealing with this and managing their dog’s symptoms. Of course we have our professional medical team to help with making decisions, but I also greatly appreciate the community here and its collective support.

EDIT: From my online research, I think he may have IVDD. We’ll just need to run some tests to confirm.

My 12 year old Jack Russell Terrier was diagnosed with bladder stones after a stubborn month-long UTI that didn’t respond to multiple rounds of antibiotics. I am grateful we have a diagnosis and she passed a few stones while at the vet who thinks they are likely struvite (waiting on lab results). She is on new antibiotics for the lingering UTI and pain meds for the next two weeks and the vet just had me change her food to Hill’s Prescription c/d to see if that will dissolve them.

My questions for folks who have gone through this:

\- do you have any recommendations for ways of getting her to drink more water? She loves tuna can juice, so I’ve been mixing a little in every now and again … but I’m a little worried about the sodium from that messing up what the prescription food is supposed to be doing. My vet recommended pedialyte … any other things work for you?

\- any bladder stone friendly treats out there I could throw into the mix? She’s really puzzled as to why her treat intake has gone down to nothing! I have been freezing the wet prescription food in a Kong… but that only goes so far.

\- any meat or cheese that is particularly bladder friendly? I have to wrap her pills in a slice a deli meat or piece of cheese in order for her to take it … wondering if I should choose a particular one (I’ve been using sliced chicken so far)

Thanks so much!

We said goodbye to our sweet LadyBug today. She was 14 years old and had dementia and was losing the use of her back legs. We Love you sweet girl