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Wii Spawn Camper
Nov 25, 2005



Crossposting from the vet thread. Hopefully this is the right thread, the other dog thread didn’t seem right since this isn’t a puppy/new owner situation. Will happily remove this if it breaks a rule.

Hi goons, my dad’s dog is doing pretty bad and is currently in the ER. I’m about to leave for the 5 hour drive down there to help out. Her name is Gurty.

13+, mutt with possible Boxer, saved from death row on her last day at the pound 12+ years ago.
Almost deaf, bad eyesight.
She started walking in circles in the living room, she will walk for 30-60 minutes and eventually lay down, but next to her bed instead of on it.
She also runs into corners and goes behind things like furniture, she kind of wedges herself in there and the gets stuck and just stands there. She knocks stuff over doing this too.

Video one:
https://youtube.com/shorts/6pSd9ECECNE?si=4WJDZlol3Mn90vta (idk why the gently caress this is a short)
Video two:
https://youtu.be/yGZROpj3HSA?si=DyQBxmeU0j2vRXQz

I guess it got worse and my dad took her to the vet ER earlier this week.
Vet said organs are good, bloodwork is good.
Has spine and bone problems, arthritis, but not super bad. Was still mobile until last night.
She was eating and drinking water but she won’t eat her treats anymore.
Vet kept her for a day and gave her an IV for dehydration, but she was doing better so she got to come home, with prescribed pain meds.
She seems to be having trouble controlling the right side of her body, the vet thinks it could be neurological.
She didn’t really improve after that.

Last night she laid down and was panting pretty hard and kind of shaking. Her back left paw was sort of twitching. She wasn’t able to get back up, my dad to help her. Eventually I went to sleep and I guess she deteriorated because I woke up at 4am with a bunch of missed calls, he had to take her back to the ER.

They think there’s something going on in her brain, possibly a tumor, maybe dementia, but we need an MRI to be sure. But even with the MRI, it’s unlikely they could treat her because she’s too weak to be anesthetized or go through chemo. The other option is the big sleep.

My dad has stage 4 cancer and this dog is his only companion and has been with him through some real hard times. He doesn’t want to let go. I’m driving down there now to help. He’ll listen to me when I tell him what to do next, so this is entirely on me at this point. I don’t want to tell him the wrong thing, but I’m leaning towards ending her suffering. She just looks done to me. But I wanted to get some goon opinions before I do anything.

FYI - I won’t be able to check for replies until later today since I’ll be driving.

Report from the ER visit:


Screenshot from FaceTime last night:


Better times:



Thanks for reading.

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Wii Spawn Camper
Nov 25, 2005



ILL Machina posted:

drat I'm sorry to hear that... it sounds like your head and heart are in the right place though. Recovering from surgery at that age might be tough, and potentially hard on the budget. An MRI seems like a good idea, but I wonder what could be found that would be treatable. The vet would know best, really, what some outcomes might look like. From your description, my first thought was neurology, but I'm glad the docs were so thorough with their initial testing.

I hope your dad is doing ok.

Thank you. Once we saw her, it was obvious that we couldn’t put her through any more. She passed peacefully, she couldn’t really see us and didn’t really respond at first but we put our hands up to her nose and she would take deep breaths and then finally relaxed. She did the Big Sigh that pets do when they’re super content. Then they gave her the injections, and now her pain is gone forever. It was the right choice. Thanks for the reply, it makes it easier to have made the choice.

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