how to deal with the last days of a beloved pet...

[konying]

What a strange influence religion has on people

Vets are, to all intents and purposes, scientists. They use facts and science to learn their trade.

They use facts and science to diagnose.

They know when animals are on their last legs and death is inevitable from scientific factual techniques

They love animals, clearly

I'm sure they enjoy curing animals, must be a wonderful feeling to stop an animal in pain and enable it to recover

Yet religion and religious beliefs over here render them from hero to zero when an animal is undoubtedly terminally ill and in pain

I find it rather incomprehensible but I do not / can not condemn them for it.

I do condemn the nonsense of all religions that leads to this hypocrisy - JUST MY OPINION

How about people who put the dog down because dog has a kennel cough and its cheaper to put down than to give antibiotics?

I said it before and will say it again, i am totally against putting animals down because apparently someone thinks its the right thing to do.

Dogs unlike people know when its time to go, and go on their own terms. Best thing in my opnion loving owner can do is provide safe and pain free environment and let them pick their own time for death.

I mentioned one of my oldies passed, i have another one, almost 16 years old. She can not really stand, because her legs do not hold up, not hear or see well.

I would never put her down,because every time i sit down with her on the floor, she comes to life and acts like a puppy for at least few mins

I carry her out to the park, let her sit in the grass, i guide her around the house, i bring water and food to her, i do not let other 5 dogs pick on her.

Sure i spend a lot of time on looking after her, but would not have it any other way and when its time, i am sure she will let me know and go at her own pace.

To be fair I would put any animal down when in the last stages of a terminal illness, in other words when the poor thing is only experiencing pain and suffering with no chance of any recovery

But then again I agree with the same set of rules for myself as well, if I cannot manage it for myself I hope that there is someone there who will help me on my way so to speak, there can be no finer action on the part of a friend or lover who would be willing to do this for me ( I understand that this last sentence is highly debateable)

We had an animal cemetery at our farm that even contained a couple of horses.

The love for an animal is not to be even compared to the love of another human being in my opinion, if it is then there is something not quite legit in the arrangement

I "love" our two Poms but in a totally different way that I love my friends or my relatives, if you dont know the difference than it is you who has a problem and I do not in any way diminish the love that definitely does exist for our furry friends.

Our Rottie Tug who was unable to even rise to go for a pee and had a built in terror of the Smell of a Vet was on his last legs and in great pain, moaning and shaking with pain.

Knowing his fear of the Vets ( The Vet told me that Tug had had more intravenous saline solution than any other dog in his memory) and with heart breaking I together with his best mate my son carried him out into the field in a blanket and shot him in the back of the head.

My love and the love of my son for Tug was not a selfish love but that of a good mate and friend not wanting their friend to suffer any more!

I do not differentiate love.

Once you are terminal, i wonder if you would be speaking the same.

Sort of like soldiers, young boys join the army and are not afraid. Once in the middle of the action, they all over sudden develop PTS

As i said , and will repeat again, if my oldie could not lift her leg to go toilet, i would have her in ER with catheter and pain killers to make sure she is not in distress or in pain.

Once she is ready to go, she will, with me by her side.

Your last sentence is very interesting. You say you did not want your friend to suffer anymore, but did you ever consider what your friend wanted?

[konying]

the problem is that your beloved pet cannot tell you whether he/she is in big pain or not.

Thats partly true Naam.

I am sure you would agree, after having raised them and live together for long time, you know when there is something wrong with them.

They have their own ways of showing distress and discomfort.

[Naam]

the problem is that your beloved pet cannot tell you whether he/she is in big pain or not.

Thats partly true Naam.

I am sure you would agree, after having raised them and live together for long time, you know when there is something wrong with them.

They have their own ways of showing distress and discomfort.

yes Konying i detect the slighest change in behaviour but i cannot judge, except in rare cases, how serious or painful the cause is.

[konying]

the problem is that your beloved pet cannot tell you whether he/she is in big pain or not.

Thats partly true Naam.

I am sure you would agree, after having raised them and live together for long time, you know when there is something wrong with them.

They have their own ways of showing distress and discomfort.

yes Konying i detect the slighest change in behaviour but i cannot judge, except in rare cases, how serious or painful the cause is.

But if there is something wrong, the chances are there is pain, so pain killer are a must..

I watch my oldie every day and can see when she really hurt her legs because of how she moves.

When i know she is really hurt, i limit her movement and give her a pain killer and also increase doze of glucosamine(as i found it helps)

When she is more mobile and more active i maintain the dosage of glucosamine and do not give pain killers.

I know she is on her last legs, and will do all i can so that she goes in peace knowing how much i love her, because she brought me joy and shared my life for 16 years

PS. In doggy years she is old enough to be my grand grand mother

[Naam]

my thoughts are with you and your pet Konying!

[Sophon]

An overdose of Insulin will make them lose consciousness very rapidly & not distress them in anyway.

according to my vet that would lead to a prolonged death and the pet suffering. i can't judge whether his information is correct.

I'm very surprised by what he told you, in fact, astonished.

An overdose of Insulin leads to death in humans & animals, & if he understands anything about physiology, must surely know this.

http://www.petmd.com/pet-medication/insulin

I had to delete some quotes, hope I haven't messed it up too badly.

Yes, a (massive) overdose of insulin leads to death, but from everything I can find on the internet not to a quick and easy death. The insulin will starve the body of energy and lead to anxiety, disorientation, vomiting and seizures. If you search the net, you will find many reports from vets and pet owners about this (even your own link confirms the symptoms).

Unfortunately, we just lost three of our dogs to tick fever parasites (Ehrlichiosis and Anaplasmosis). Two of them died from acute renal failure making them unable to process food and therefore starving their bodies of energy and poisoning them with the waste products produced by their own bodies. The symptoms they experienced were very similar to what is described for an insulin overdose. On their breath you could smell their bodies and tongues slowly rotting from the inside. The last day for our smallest boy (Sweet Boy) consisted of him getting anxious and walking around blindly for a few minutes, you could see that he didn't know where he was or what was going on. That would be followed by him going into seizures, all his muscles would cramp up and he would fall on his head. After his seizures he would be unconscious for maybe 5-10 minutes and then he would wake up and the cycle would start all over again. I would gladly have paid anything to have him put out of his misery, but unfortunately no vet was willing to do so. We will now prepare, so should the same thing happen again to one of our remaining dogs we will have the means to end their suffering. For anyone saying that they would never euthanize their dogs no matter what, I sincerely hope that you never find yourself in the same situation as we did.

Our second dog (Dang) with renal failure seemed to be able to tolerate the effects better. His body slowly withered away from the lack of nutrients, and you could see the confusion in his eyes, but he didn't have seizures until just before he died and he always recognized us. But you could smell that his internal organs had all shut down and died, and he was unable to control his tongue when trying to drink. He still managed to walk (stagger) further down our land when he needed to pee, and he even came to meet us at the gate just hours before he died in our arms. His death was not as bad as for the small boy, but it was also not a good last day or even weeks for him (or us).

For our the third dog (Boyfriend) the parasites attacked the bone marrow instead of the kidneys. When he was first examined, his blood values were low, but not dangerously so. But he had both Erhlichiosis and Anaplasmosis, and despite two months of treatment with anti blood parasite medication, blood support medication and steroids the vet was unable to prevent his body from slowly stopping producing new blood cells. We managed to arrange for a blood transfusion, but that just bought him another week. At the end he wasn't producing any blood cells at all, and he just slowly ran out of energy. As late as the day before he died, he was still eating normally and didn't seem to be feeling too badly, and his death was relatively peaceful and as was the case with Dang, he died while we were sitting with him.

Had we had the choice we would definitely have had Sweet Boy and Dang Euthanized when their kidneys completely stopped working. Slowly being poisoned from within by your own body is not a nice ending to your life. Boyfriend just seemed to slowly get more and more tired, but wasn't showing any signs of distress. So for him I don't think we would have done anything differently.

We have been giving all our dogs Ivermectin monthly, and almost never see any ticks on them. But even if you don't see the ticks, that doesn't mean that your dog hasn't been bitten, and it just takes one bite to transmit the tick diseases. We took Dang in for examination not because he seemed sick, but because he was getting more picky with his food. He never liked dry food much (we feed them wet food in the morning and dry in the evening), but he used to eat it anyway. But he had started not wanting to eat dry food unless we mixed in a little wet food to wet his appetite. He was still eating his normal portions, just being a little more picky. Once he was diagnosed with Ehrlichiosis, we took the rest of our eight dogs in to have them tested. Seven out of the eight tested positive for Ehrlichiosis and two of those also tested positive for Aanaplasmosis. Only one of our eight dogs had managed to avoid the parasites. And despite none of the dogs showing any symptoms (other than Dang's pickyness), it was still too late for us to save three of them. Even after more than two months of treament, at the end their bodies gave up the fight. The five remaining dogs are all doing fine, so we are happy about that, but we miss the three we lost.

Sorry for the long post.

Sophon

Edited July 27, 2015 by Sophon

[Patsycat]

How sad is that... so sad.

[meatboy]

sorry sophon its wasnt your fault,its what i call the silent killer,i was lucky i caught ours in the early stage,but i am with mine 24/7,and saw him wobble as if he was drunk.10 weeks of treatment and 5-6 blood tests.now he's fine,but i am still going to have him tested every 6months.

[antoniuni]

There is at least one vet and, I am told, an animal hospital in Sri Racha (close to Chon Buri) who will end a pet's suffering. Local vet in Surasak will give directions to me when the time comes for my own 4 dogs.

Did you have the address of that vet already?

Thanks very much!

[hugh2121]

There is at least one vet and, I am told, an animal hospital in Sri Racha (close to Chon Buri) who will end a pet's suffering. Local vet in Surasak will give directions to me when the time comes for my own 4 dogs.

Did you have the address of that vet already?

Thanks very much!

Sorry, no I haven't, my dogs are still very young. Pets Friend Animal Hospital will not do it. However, they tell me that Nern Plub Wan hospital in East Pattaya on the soi of same name have foreign vets who will do it. The vet who told me there are hospitals in Sri Racha who will do it is on Soi Assumption at Surasak, right beside Mooban Srinakarin. Not sure but I think the hospital in Sri Racha that will is on Sukhumvit Road very close to Tuk Com.

Hope this is of some help.

[antoniuni]

I started thinking of Helium-gas. In the mean time the vet gave medicines (which is almost impossible to give to the cat) and every day an R-Cetate infuse. I must say she is looking good now and "walks" also again. It seems that she isn't suffering!

[Patsycat]

Even here in Europe they keep animals alive, perhaps not for the karma side of things - more like financial side of things.

I had a cat, she had cancer . the vets kept her alive. Even i could see in her eyes that she had had enough.

What should i have done? Taken her outside and hit her with a hammer?

It cost me alot of money, and in the end she died in my arms. I paid the money, because selfishly i wanted her around for a few more months.

Maybe i should have just let her die - i had the option to put her down. I didn't take it.

She purred and purred until her last breath. 16 years old.