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Time for another ‘my dog is awesome’ thread


Patricio Swayze

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5 hours ago, futureman said:

I want to figure out how to make an internal chip for dogs that gives gps information.  as of yet they haven’t figured out battery life but if there was a way to make a battery last for a year I’d pay to have it swapped out every 12 months and I think many other people would too.  if someone stole my dog I think I might go insane.  I would certainly become a murderer if I ever found the person. 

Yeah honestly if I was able to approach the individual who stole my dog which I view on par with kidnapping my kids A wheel chair would be required to take them home 

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Always amuses me to see Fu just chilling on a sofa. Back in the day that thing would’ve been shredded to pieces.

I loved when he would just give Fu and Jaca an entire old Sofa to go to town on, and then we get the aftermath pics.


Those were the days. Pre children when I had a dog sofa budget. Just kidding, we got tired of cleaning up after and throwing them out. I think she went through 3 or 4 of them. Always amazed me that I didn’t have to teach her that she couldn’t eat the family sofa.
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I’m  59. Schotzie lived to be 12.  Beethoven dropped dead on a walk at 8.  He was a fantastic dog but died too soon.  We lost Ruffas and Lola in 2018.  Both to cancer.  Ruffas was 11 and Lola was 10.  Beethoven, Ruffas and Lola were all rescues and were at least a year old when we got them.  I was 26 when we got Schotzie as a puppy.  We’ve had a Giant Schnauzer continuously with very short breaks between except after Ruffas and Lola.   We waited 9 months after Ruffas died.  Losing two in three months to cancer was tough on us. 
 

We got Eli last July at 1 year old.  I hope he’s with us a long time.  It’s a big breed so we know the lifespan isn’t terribly long. 

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Well the time has come for hard decisions.

My almost 14 year old Maltese Coco has been acting older over the last couple of years. The vet had said she had signs of heart disease in the past year or two, and attributed her cough and wheezing to it.

This past weekend she fell down about 15 stairs, stairs that she usually never climbs because they're not carpeted and she slips on them. She had been extra clingy lately which is why she followed me up thy stairs. She got up and walked away like nothing was wrong. But yesterday morning she had a seizure, which she has never had before. Wife took her to the vet and they did xrays, which showed her heart being very enlarged with fluid around it, compressing her trachea, which probably accounts for the chronic coughing. We started her on meds for the heart (ACE inhibitor and diuretic), but today she had 2 more seizures. After the seizure she's a little out of it but otherwise looks normal.

I can't help but think the fall is causing the seizures, possibly from some head trauma. But vet attributes it to heart as well (?? wife was there so I couldn't ask questions). No anti seizure meds were offered. Vet basically said consider putting her down soon, as it's a matter of time given how the heart looks.

The hard thing is that when she isn't having a seizure she looks like her normal old lady dog self. Isn't acting particularly uncomfortable or as if she's in pain. She has lost a lot of weight and isn't eating well or drinking much, which concerns me since she's now on a diuretic. It's just hard for me to come to grips with putting her down. If she keeps having frequent seizures though it will be hard to just let it go.

Luckily only my 5 yo daughter likes her, for whatever reason the older 2 boys never cared for her. I think because she's small and not a really playful dog, and she didn't ever care much for them. She's my adopted dog daughter, my wife had her for about a year and a half before I met her. So before we had kids she was our only child and got way more attention than she has since we had our 3 kids. We've started prepping the 5 yo for what may come, and she doesn't seem too upset when we say Coco is sick and may be going to doggy heaven soon. But I'm not sure she gets that it means she'll be gone forever.

Just venting and looking for advice. Pic attached. c595a2733f6f765c4265b5dceb9ffbd2.jpg

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1 hour ago, Horny04 said:

Well the time has come for hard decisions.

My almost 14 year old Maltese Coco has been acting older over the last couple of years. The vet had said she had signs of heart disease in the past year or two, and attributed her cough and wheezing to it.

This past weekend she fell down about 15 stairs, stairs that she usually never climbs because they're not carpeted and she slips on them. She had been extra clingy lately which is why she followed me up thy stairs. She got up and walked away like nothing was wrong. But yesterday morning she had a seizure, which she has never had before. Wife took her to the vet and they did xrays, which showed her heart being very enlarged with fluid around it, compressing her trachea, which probably accounts for the chronic coughing. We started her on meds for the heart (ACE inhibitor and diuretic), but today she had 2 more seizures. After the seizure she's a little out of it but otherwise looks normal.

I can't help but think the fall is causing the seizures, possibly from some head trauma. But vet attributes it to heart as well (?? wife was there so I couldn't ask questions). No anti seizure meds were offered. Vet basically said consider putting her down soon, as it's a matter of time given how the heart looks.

The hard thing is that when she isn't having a seizure she looks like her normal old lady dog self. Isn't acting particularly uncomfortable or as if she's in pain. She has lost a lot of weight and isn't eating well or drinking much, which concerns me since she's now on a diuretic. It's just hard for me to come to grips with putting her down. If she keeps having frequent seizures though it will be hard to just let it go.

Luckily only my 5 yo daughter likes her, for whatever reason the older 2 boys never cared for her. I think because she's small and not a really playful dog, and she didn't ever care much for them. She's my adopted dog daughter, my wife had her for about a year and a half before I met her. So before we had kids she was our only child and got way more attention than she has since we had our 3 kids. We've started prepping the 5 yo for what may come, and she doesn't seem too upset when we say Coco is sick and may be going to doggy heaven soon. But I'm not sure she gets that it means she'll be gone forever.

Just venting and looking for advice. Pic attached. c595a2733f6f765c4265b5dceb9ffbd2.jpg


Will give you the best advice I can as I just went through something similar. My English Bulldog, Lulu, had a tumor on her heart for at least 18 months and it was generally slow developing. In July, it began to grow and was pushing more fluid into her abdomen and chest. We put her on a heart med and diuretics, like you, and got an initial improvement for about 3 weeks - lots of energy, eating better and very alert. But then she slowed down, we had to hand feed her (and she always loved food more than life itself), and she drank so much water and peed all the time. We had to get her up at least twice during the night to take her out. And my wife and I were more than happy to do it if she still had a quality life.

But as the days wore on, she just continued to get worse and showed some signs of pain. It was hard to tell how bad it was because she still wanted attention, love, playtime and was alert. In the end, we found she was just masking the pain until she couldn’t anymore. Her abdomen filled with fluid and an ultrasound also showed a new growth on her liver. So we put her down that day and put an end to her suffering.

I can’t give you a magic answer here except to watch it all very closely. The seizures would really worry me and I’d hate to see that keep happening, both for Coco and the impact that has on you and your family. In the end, only you will know when the time is right. And just don’t let Coco suffer trying to hang on. I’m sure you know that and I’m sure you won’t.

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