My Old Dog advice

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ClaireH78

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I am thinking its time to let my dog go.

He is approx 17 years old (a good innings) we have had him since a young dog (6 months old approx), he was abandoned and we found him, we found his previous owners who said they let him go (in a school playground) as they knew someone kind would take him in!? We did and he has been with us ever since.

He is having more and more difficultly getting about and struggles to get up once he has been lying down. He won't stay downstairs and constantly barks if I do leave him downstairs (at night time) so he struggles up the stairs and often falls down the bottom 5 on his way back down them. He also sleeps for what I would say is 23 hours of the day now.

He is almost blind and deaf and has old man lumps and bumps all over him. He is also getting grumpy and snappy, I think this is because he can't see people or hear them and it makes him nervous.

What makes it hard is he does gets excited about his walks still, although so excited he falls over he pulls me out the front door but then its a very slow walk and he doesn't manage to get very far.

As I write this its making me realise it really is probably time to say goodbye to him. I have a vets appointment booked on Saturday (his jabs are due).

I think i just wanted some reassurance that if I do decide to PTS that its the right decision in other peoples eyes and I am not being selfish by doing so.
 
Not at all, in fact the selfish thing to do would be to keep him as he is. We had this with our old Westie. She managed for years being deaf, but as she got older her sight went as well. She was only happy when she was near me and got vey distressed otherwise. I made the decision to have her PTS and felt as if I was copping out. It is only now, as time has gone by that I realised it was the best thing for my dog. It just seemed more difficult as she didn't seem ill in any other way.
 
Heartbreaking, as so many of us know.

Have you tried him on Vivitonin, someone in our office has a dog that is basically a walking disaster - if he can get it he will and suddenly over night he bacame an old dog, they have put him on Vivitonin and he has had a new lease of life.

Whatever you do will be for the best, you will know when the time has come and make the best choice for him XXX
 
In my family, there has always been a spoken rule that the minute the dog doesn't want to go for a walk is the day that it is time......

Whenever you do it, it won't be nice at all and everyone has different thoughts on when it is time for their own dogs to go. Whatever you decide will be the best for your dog though; 17 years is a long life which has likely been happy and a good life. No-one but you and your family can make the decision and I doubt anyone will consider you selfish - you are purely thinking of your dog's quality of life.
 
Only you know when the quality of life is not there for your old boy.

Get 2 stair gates though-one for the top of the stairs and one for the bottom so you can supervise the stair climbing and descending.

I did that with my old boy a few years ago and it worked a treat. I did have water bowls etc up stairs too so there wasn't a problem.

If he is still enjoying life albeit he does have a long snooze (not a bad thing) then that in itself says he is still active.
 
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