Official Austin Chat Thread (elementary school, club, dog)

[Need4Camaro]

Thursday and Friday her breathing got progressively worse again and she became extremely lethargic. I've been having to syringe feed her both food and her meds. She was mostly disagreeable to all of that but fortunately would not attack me. On Saturday I took her back into the vet but they told me they could only tap her so many times before she would become unresponsive to it. They heavily recommended euthanisia. I was reluctant at first and I bit the bullet and paid to have her back in my possession, I guess hoping for some miracle. I took the rest of that Saturday off (was supposed to be working job #2) and just spent the day with her. I didn't even give her her meds. Just wanted her to have peace.

I woke up Sunday morning hoping she would still be alive, and there she was in my face sitting upright right beside my head looking down at me wondering when I was going to get up like she normally does when waiting for me to wake up. She spent that morning almost normal. She ate and drank a considerable amount of water on her own. When I gave her her supplements though it just resulted in her coughing out a ton a phlegm and mucous. She did get calm but her heavy breathing soon returned and she hid in my bathtub for the remainder of the day. I came home Sunday night / Monday morning to find her abdomen pumping and pumping while she was breathing. she hasn't done any open mouth breathing but by the way she looks when she's sitting down or laying down, her fur all unkempt and the amount of effort exerted on her body when she tries to breath, she's probably in excruciating misery. Today she would not eat on her own. I began to give her her meds, but I withdrew. I only gave her the ones to reduce her pain so she could have peace.

I was told she was most likely just hanging on for me. I guess its time to let her go.

Tomorrow I'm going to put her down.

[atxcio]

Really sorry N4C, sounds very similar to the passing of our cat about a month ago. We scheduled euthanasia at home for the next day but took him into ER that night when he was clearly only feeling pain.

Sad time. You’ll be in my thoughts.

[ScoPro]

Sorry to hear the bad news about Sandy. My condolences. It is always tough to go through the loss of our little 4 legged family members.
I still get tears in my eyes thinking about mine from generations ago.

[Need4Camaro]

I held off on it. I decided to try one more thing as I was remembering all the mucous that was coming out her mouth when I was trying to feed her. I googled a bit and found that excessive mucous buildup can also cause cats to lose their appetite so I looked up a safe dosage for mucinex in cats, and syringe fed her that dilluted in water and she immediately coughed up a ton of phlegm. Her breathing improved a bit when she was done. I syringe fed her her meds/supplements and her food that night and this morning she ate on her own, although a bit sluggish.. I’m in process of clearing out more mucous and then her supplements / meds. She’s still kinda fighting, I don’t want to put her out until I know she’s completely done.

[riaelise]

N4C, my thoughts are with you. It's this part of pet ownership that's really hard. I'm not quick to put down my pets, but always remember it's for THEM not for you. I mean this in the gentlest way. Oftentimes you want to hold on just a little longer, but if she's tired and in pain, you always have to do what's best for her.

As I mentioned upthread, we have a senior dog, 11 years old. He's still healthy, hard of hearing but healthy, but I know that one day that I'm going to be without him and that day is now closer than I'd like. The thing about dogs I've owned is that the decline is often sudden and you're thrust into making big decisions. Our golden took a suddden turn for the worse and when he stopped eating/drinking, we had to make that tough decision....all within a few weeks. The old boy was thirteen, passed away a couple of months after I had my second child. Took me six years to get over the loss of him and you'd think I'd learn my lesson and not adopt older dogs, but lo and behold we adopted another 7 year old large dog (Sam the GR was 6 when we adopted him).

[Need4Camaro]

I went to a different vet to get her drained again, I’m in process of getting one more opinion from them and waiting for their lab results. I guess I’m really trying to avoid putting her down if I know she can have a full recovery. She wasn’t exactly great yesterday. She for some reason is filling up with a crap ton of mucous. I am using mucinex and syringing water into her to cough up all the phlegm. It seems to help her breathing a bit. There’s times she wants to be energetic but she runs out of breath very quickly and easily. I’m using CBD/THC oil and Buprinex to keep her calm so she doesn’t over exert herself for the time being.

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by ScoPro

Sorry to hear the bad news about Sandy. My condolences. It is always tough to go through the loss of our little 4 legged family members.
I still get tears in my eyes thinking about mine from generations ago.

Same here. Still breaks my heart to this day, ten years later.

[Need4Camaro]

Well. The new vet gave me a call. It is cancer, it’s also Carcinoma. 0% chance of survival. At the most chemo will only extend her life a few months at best. It’s just time to let her go in peace. I love you Sandy.

I’m putting her down tonight at 7:30pm so she won’t have to suffer any longer.

[Trainwreck20]

Think how much better her life was with you than before. I hate having to do it, but it is much, much better than letting nature 'run its course'.

When I was very young, our old animals 'ran away', or that was the story my siblings told me....

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Well. The new vet gave me a call. It is cancer, it’s also Carcinoma. 0% chance of survival. At the most chemo will only extend her life a few months at best. It’s just time to let her go in peace. I love you Sandy.

I’m putting her down tonight at 7:30pm so she won’t have to suffer any longer.

I'm sorry....

Our rabbit may have testicular cancer....

Sigh...