Old Dog

[naamah_darling]

The dog seems to be helped a little by painkillers. This is good news. The bad news is that he pretty definitively has arthritis, and there's not much to be done to arrest it. I can supplement him with lots of different things, but it's pretty far gone. Trust him not to tell us until he's almost totally broken down

Comments

[bat_cheva]

You know, it never before occurred to me that they're restless because they're trying to run away from the pain. Poor doggy. :(

I'm so sorry about all of it. *hugs*

[the_lizard_rat]

I'm tempted to just tell Sargon "Look, the poor mutt is suffering, and unlike cats, who tell you when their time is up, dogs are too stupid to do so..."

That dog is suffering. Quality of life hasn't gone out the window completely yet but it looks like it's rapidly approaching that point. Might be easier to say goodbye now (cheaper?) or something. I dunno, having never lost a pet or having a pet growing up.

*shrugs*

Lizard Rat out.
Opinionated Cat Person (er, wolf) in Albany NY

[naamah_darling]

My opinion, too, more or less.

He does have quality of life, still. With the meds, he's not miserable, he gets around okay. But if it gets any worse I'll be having The Talk with him. If he were my dog . . . not yet, but soon. And I hate saying that, but damn, I hate seeing him suffer even more.

[flameelf]

Would some kind of heating pad ease his aching?

Also, I seem to remember that when I was on arthritis drugs, they made ME pee all the time, too.

*hugs* Hang in there!

Nechtan :)

rockers

[devifemme]

I think there IS a rock group named "Wheezing Dog" -- or there damned well SHOULD be!

Sorry about your (er, Sargon's) hound. Maybe the arthritis can be relieved by the right pain pill, might need to try various ones.

Hugs, J

[camel_pimp]

It does suck when a pets going, and as some else mentioned it may be better to put him down now. But... having a beloved pet (that was being taken care of someone else most of time, due to me not being home) that old and ill, I was very reluctant to let her go, and I can imagine that Sargon might feel the same way. It may be BETTER in the end but you sure as hell don't want to happen.

You know, I recall someone on Something Awful doing a review of various doggie treats, and I must say I'm sceptic that a doggie treat can actually taste GOOD. Considering what I've heard about dog food in general (over-salty, cuts of meat that you can't even label "circus-grade" things like that, foul smelling, things like that)

[naamah_darling]

Meat-based doggie treats are vile. Yes, I've tried cat and dog treats. A lot of them are sour or really, really bitter.

Milk Bones and such are like really dry biscuits or crackers, so they aren't gross. Just . . . bland. Like hard, unsalted crackers. The kind I munch on doesn't even have meaty byproducts in it. Well, bone meal, but . . . it's not bacon flavored or anything.

[boundfate]

O.k., so petsmart and petco have these carob cookie dog treats that taste exactly like chips ahoy cookies. I generally don't buy expensive treats (especially since I at least taste whatever I'm feeding my dog and I've found as a general rule the more expensive the treat, the more vile it gets) but those carob cookies are like crack. My dog loves them, and I can get a cookie fix without having cookies in the house (which means I eat only one, instead of half a package.)

[naamah_darling]

My mom in law sent a batch of carob/molasses "cookies" to our dog, and I'm afraid only half went into him.

They were really, really GOOD!