Euthanasia for our 14 year old lab - tough decision

[Shan30]

It took me a while to get back on the site what with the whole family in a bit of a mourning/adjustment period including our other pup. She is just becoming herself again.

I have just seen all of your responses and need to thank you all so much for your comments and stories. They were touching.

I am sorry for all of your losses and hope that one day we will all be reunited with our furry friends.

Thank you again.

 

[Concrete101]

I am a grown man in tears reading about what will be my situation in life to soon. Our 14 year old lab is putting me closer to these decisions every day. Knowing what i have learned today may make it easier for me to make the right decisions at the right time

 

[aart]

Thanks to everyone who shared on this thread. My 14 1/2 yo rehomed Aussie, Libby, is close to her end and as everyone knows it is a very difficult decision to 'choose' when that time will be.

I write all the following as a needed vehicle of catharsis to be read by those who understand, and as a legacy for others who might need some insight to others' experience as the preceding posts of this thread have done for me today.

The first dog I had as an adult was a 3yo GSD rehome from a coworker, it took us a few weeks to bond but one day I looked into her eyes and knew she had won my heart...and that one day she would break it. Maggie died of a 'seizure' at 12, she had had several small ones (loss of balance, collapse, blank eyes-unconscious) that lasted maybe a minute and that she seemed to recover from within 5 minutes, then she had one that she didn't come out of. Knowing they were seizures before was hindsight and we never really knew what caused them. I called the vet and she died as we opened the van door to take her in for 'the shots'. I was devastated but glad I hadn't had to watch her slowly degrade or struggle over a decision for weeks or months. She had been active, playful and loving up until the day she dropped dead.

Libby is creaky and leaky, bad hips for 3-4 years now, on and off pain killers, thought she was done for a couple of winters ago. But she seemed to get a better, less pain and more mobile even off the pain meds...and started playing gleefully by herself with a plushie (which she'd never wanted in her whole life, she was strictly a tennis ball retriever and never played with anything else) for the first time ever...following I think the example of my 6 yo rescue Std. Poodle.

But now she's worse again in the hips, has lost weight, became very restless and needy, and all of a sudden was heavily favoring one of her front legs...she seemed to be literally on her last leg. So we tried a pain med sample and she was at least able to rest and move more easily. She's never lost her appetite, tho now needs prion for bladder leakage, still goes up and down the stairs pretty well - hopping like a 'frog dog' (tho I'm petrified that she will tumble down them one of these days), asks for water and to go outside. She still has some fun with her plushie, drops some turds every few days, has some hearing and vision decreases, is rather confused at times but is not 'too' uncomfortable...as far as I can tell, she won't tell me of course.

I feel that the time is here for me to decide whether to medicate her along until she's unbearably uncomfortable or has a disastrous fall...or decide her life is complete and let her go before she's any more uncomfortable. I do not want to wait until 'it's too late' and a decision is forced with alarming immediacy and possible extreme distress for her...and me. I have decided that she will leave us within the next month or so, I will wait for my daughter to come for her summer visit to say goodbye and help me bury her in her huge beloved backyard(15 acres) for the last time. Libby will spend the rest of her day as joyously as possible and I will soak up her spirited energy to bolster my heart against her leaving.

I will update this post when Libby is gone to reflect on what actually happens over the next month or so.