What would you do?

[Hemirjtm]

I'm in tears writing this so I'll try and make sense!

My 11yr old dog went down hill very rapidly, she was still coming out hacking with us up until last Friday. She is now very lathargic, has lost 2.5kg in 10days, can't walk too far and is obviously not very well.

We took her to the vets urgently on Monday, she had blood tests as to start off with it was thought that she had been poisened. It now looks like she is shutting down The vet didn't want to PTS straight away and has said to phone back Wednesday - we wouldn't leave her at the vets as she stressed just them taking her away from us :'(

Now she really is my best friend and I want to do the best for her. I said to her on Monday whilst at the vets that if she wanted to fight then to give me a sign (OK stupid I know as I'm pretty sure they don't understand!!), but she stood up and licked me which she doesn't normally do. So I said OK to give her treatment.

Today (Tuesday!) she wagged her tail so much when I got home, and this is something that she hasn't done for about a week. But right now my gut is telling me that she would want to fight as she's such a determined dog but my heart is telling me to be kind and let her go. I'm so confused and I don't really know why I'm writing this as noone can really tell me what to do!

I have been really strong as my mum and dad are in bits as she is a huge part of our life! However right now I've just broken down in tears and I'm sitting with her on the sofa not really knowing what to do. I suppose 24hrs isn't that long to know if the medication is working, but I just don't know if I made the right decision

Sorry for such a long post! Thank you for reading
From a very upset and confused dog owner whose dog has been her best friend for over 10 years!

 

[twiggy2]

I would PTS

 

[Moobli]

I would try to be guided by your vet. They cannot come right out and say pts but they can give you an indication as to whether they think it is the right time or not. Have the blood tests showed anything up? In your position, I would want to know what was wrong before making that final decision - however, if that involves lots of invasive tests then it may not be appropriate if she is already quite unwell.

It is such a hard decision to make - my heart goes out to you.

 

[JillA]

Really tough one. I had two dogs poisoned years ago and they were much the same - one died within a few days and the other recovered to a point and then succumbed a couple of months down the line, both were less than 10 years old though. The important question you need to answer honestly is are you delaying for you or for her? I would get a prognosis from the vet and ask for a time scale, then use that as your guide. If there is no improvement in, say, three days, is there likely to be?
If she was hacking out a day or to ago she must have been really healthy, so that is a good thing. I really don't envy you trying to make the decision though

 

[Hemirjtm]

Thank you for your replies.

We went back to vet today and she has said there is alot of improvement. Doesn't think she has been poisoned as she re-did the tests from Monday and they were alot better and no signs of being poisoned at all.

The naughty dog escaped from the house today so to me that is looking a bit up, she was tired afterwards but Monday she wouldn't have had the energy to even jump out of the window let alone actually open it!

The vet was positive today, so we are taking each day as it comes and unless she goes downhill we are going back next Tuesday for another visit. She doesn't think it's time to make the PTS decision just yet.

JillA she is normally a very active, healthy, full of life, very in your face type of dog so it's quite noticable that she's not very well. But she has been wagging her tail alot today and there isn't such a vacant look in her eyes, so we shall see.