Dog Worries

[intertext]

My elder dog is beginning to fail, I think. Over the past year he's had a couple of nasty gastric episodes (in fact he had the first, from which he nearly died, almost exactly a year ago just after my mum's funeral). He lost a lot of weight over the summer, and although he's gained some of it back, he's got that bony old dog look. Lately, he's been getting incontinent, both of bladder and bowels, not dreadfully, but some urgency and added frequency. Also his back legs have been getting weaker. I've started him on chiropractic treatment to help strengthen his legs and ease pressure on bladder and nerves, and he had a treatment yesterday. I was out for dinner last night and came home to find the room near the door where they normally go out filled with diarrhea which had obviously become increasingly bloody (sorry for all the nasty details). He looked very poorly, and went straight to bed without demanding his customary bedtime biscuit - probably for the first time in his life. He had a couple more episodes of diarrhea in the night and at one point fell over and couldn't get up. This morning he didn't want to get out of bed.

I honestly thought it was the end, but when I took him to the vet he had rallied quite a bit and they said his vitals were good. He's had a whole raft of blood tests for kidney and liver functions because of the incontinence, and those are normal. The vet couldn't feel any mass, and he didn't have a fever. So we're treating the symptoms and will wait and see. However. I suspect, and I think the vet suspects, that he has a tumour that they're not feeling or catching in the tests. I'm not paying $400.00 for a test to tell me that, especially as I wouldn't treat it if we found it (Cholmondeley is 13 going on 14 in a breed where the average age is 14). So, I prepare myself as best I can (how can I). And just love him while I still have him.

Comments

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Thank you. He does seem a little better today, at least the symptoms have settled down somewhat, but he had a very restless night. I was concerned that he might have been in pain... and realize that I'm now facing the point of having to decide when "quality" of life is no longer there. ick. I have felt that with my last dog I waited too long, and don't want to do that again, but on the other hand I don't want to jump the gun, so to speak. It's hard.