Neurological issues....persevere or pts?

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Tizzy01

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My friend has had her rescue bitch for a few years now. She was very nervy to begin with and they have worked through several problems with her.
About 6 months ago she started to go downhill. She would only settle if she slept in the spare room with the door shut as she considered it to be 'her' space. The other dog and cat would sleep downstairs. All was fine for a while until she started to poo and urinate on the bed-very odd??? She has now started to refuse to come inside after being let out for a wee in the evening. If my friend calls her name and trys to approach her she will spin, cower and urinate. Clearly terrified. She sleeps on a pile of stones in the garden. If they do manage to get her in she just barks and barks to be let out.
Her vet has put her on epilepsy tablets which seemed to work for 1 day but she is now just as bad. She has to go back in 2 weeks for a scan although she was told that it is almost impossible to check for brain tumours in dogs. When she was spayed about 2 years ago they found a benign lump that was removed.
Does anyone have any experience of this at all. The vet is baffled and my friend is thinking it might be time to pts as she seems so unhappy.
Awful situation when the dog is only 6.
 
What an awful situation. I'm not sure what I would do although I did have a puppy some years ago who behaved in a similar fashion.. she used to just go round and round in small circles and showed no signs of recognition of anything. I made the decision to pts. Very hard but I felt her quality of life was very poor.
Sad,sad time.
 
Yes its very sad. I think she came from a pretty crappy background and was obviously handled very roughly. It just seems so odd that she would settle in well and then suddenly get so much worse again. I did wonder if perhaps when she was spayed they didn't quite remove everything. She hoards food, mothers and fusses other animals etc. If that is the case could it be a hormonal issue. The vet didn't really give my friends an answer as to whether the bloods they took checked for this-although it was the same vet who did the spay.........?
 
I suppose if I had this dog and was under the vet I would possibly wait to see if anything is found, or I would also perhaps get a second opinion.
maybe that is the way forward?
 
It could be a sort of dementia which I think dogs can suffer from. I'd go for a second opinion too but then the kindest thing does seem to be having her pts as she's obviously not a happy girl.
 
No thats what my friend thinks, its not fair to keep her when she is so obviously unhappy. Its hard for her though as she can be fine in the house, cuddles upto her etc. I think she will wait until the 2 weeks are up and then if no improvement she will have to let her go.
Never heard of canine dementia, I might google it and see if I can find anything on it!
 
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Yes its very sad. I think she came from a pretty crappy background and was obviously handled very roughly. It just seems so odd that she would settle in well and then suddenly get so much worse again. I did wonder if perhaps when she was spayed they didn't quite remove everything. She hoards food, mothers and fusses other animals etc. If that is the case could it be a hormonal issue. The vet didn't really give my friends an answer as to whether the bloods they took checked for this-although it was the same vet who did the spay.........?

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Doesn't seem the least odd to me, if they get a new disease or if an old disease that have been gone, have now came back again, there can be either sudden changes or changes that you don't notice, because they're so small that you might get used to them, not see them due to home-blindness.

If your friend feels the vet doesn't give him/her answers they can understand, if it is possible (not something I can decide), try another vet. I had to euthanize a dog that was only a little more than 2 years old over fifteen years ago and it still happens that I wonder if there was nothing more I could have done. "Fortunately" my dogs problems was of such nature, that we had time to take her to two different vet clinics, we also visited a dog psychologist (recommended to us after having a lengthy phone conversation with Anders Hallgren, Europe's first dog psychologist) but none of them, could say exactly what caused all my dogs problems. As said, it still happens that I wonder and think it through and when I do, it is comforting to know that we did what we could and was possible, then and there.

In the end, what made me take the decision was that I felt that her overall amount of happiness was beginning to decline.

With much sympathy for your friends situation {{{Hugs}}}.
 
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