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This is the part of owning a dog that isn't any fun. Wyatt McRiot is getting old. He is going deaf. He is stumbling and sometimes falling when he tries to jump. Yesterday, he jumped up onto the back porch and fell.
He will have the best food, the best care, the best vets, but nothing stops aging.
His mind is still bright. His vision is still good, which helps, because after not too much more hearing loss, I will still be able to signal to him with a flashlight at night. Hand signals during the day, flashlight at night. Right now, he can still hear shouting, but it won't be long before that is gone.
For the big annual fishing trip, my son is borrowing my travel trailer because Wyatt can no longer get in or out of his camper. This two week camping trip is the highlight of Wyatt's life, so his growing weakness is being accommodated for the best as can be done. It would break his heart to be left at home when the camping gear comes out. No long hikes this year. He will lay on the bank and watch the fishing and sit around the campfire and eat scraps of good food off the people's plates that is snuck to him under the table.
I hate this. I hate watching my brilliant energetic dog fading away and there is nothing I can do to stop it. I can only make sure he is comfortable and that he knows that he is loved.
First off, I absolutely LOVE your dogs name! It seems to me you have given him a great quality of life which truly makes you his BEST FRIEND. I know it is heartbreaking to see your dog get old (I too have an old dog who is deaf and has cancer), but it is part of the circle of life. He will enjoy being with you on the camping trip. Even though he is not as active as trips in the past, he will enjoy being with you nonetheless.
My thoughts are with you and Wyatt and I hope you enjoy every last minute of every day with him.
We bought a used motor home in 2007 just so we could travel with our 4 dogs. As they aged they went from being active to enjoying sitting around the campfire with their people. Dogs are happy as long as they are with you. I lost all of those sweet babies in a 2 year span between the ages of 11 and 18. It was incredibly sad.
OWS, I'm so sorry that Wyatt is experiencing this. It's so difficult to go through this with our dogs. I went through it 3 months ago, and it still hurts badly and I miss him so, so much. He started not being able to do stairs, and would splay. I brought out the ramp and he surrendered to using it though he didn't like it.
For the final 2 weeks of his life he was on Tramadol for pain (lymphoma). His breathing became difficult. The late morning of the day he passed away he looked so healthy. But earlier that morning he looked like he was resigned, staring off into the distance, and looked peaked. He no longer wanted to chase squirrels or bark at the dog who roams the neighborhood. The final week he stopped playing frisky with his alpha.
We can rest in the knowledge that we gave our dogs the best life, especially outdoors where they enjoyed themselves tremendously. That gives me peace.
Since he passed I've had several signs from him, and I hope you experienced the same from Wyatt. I think you will.
Oregonwoodsmoke. I am right there with you as Chaos is 12.5 yrs now and it makes me sad to see her showing signs of old age.
Last Monday night she was sleeping , woke with a start and sort of flopped across the room on her butt then did it several more times and had a head swaying movement , not bobbing up and down but side to side like she was swaying her head to music only she could hear, if I reached towards her head she twitched. I got her on her feet and she walked like a drunk as her back legs were not coordinated.
I thought it might be Old dog vestibular disease. I knew it was not a stroke as that would effect one side of her body not both back legs. She did not seem to be in pain and I did not feel it was life and death so could wait until AM to see the vet. I took her outside to pee and put her in her crate so she would not hurt herself stumbling around. During the night I heard her panting very heavily so got up to check on her she was just minimally responsive so I called the ER vet told them she had Ataxia, head swaying and heavy panting and was minimally responsive and and they said Oh that sounds like a marijuana ingestion. I told them I was 99.9% sure it was not unless she picked something up on our walk that I did not see. They said they could see her so at 1:30 in the morning we went to the ER vet.
By the time we got there she was doing a bit better but did let them take her temperature with no resistance and normally she does not let a vet do that. She had a high fever so they took her right in back and started trying to get it down. They ran lots of tests which came back normal. Yes the toxicity screen negative so no marijuana. She did have two liver enzymes that were elevated but she had that on her last senior panel last year so my vet was just watching that. The vet was a bit stumped as in vestibular disease you tend to see head tilt, rapid eye movement which she did not have at all during the whole event, and the fact she was already getting steadier on her feet so she did not think that was the issue. She thinks it was some type of seizure like a focal seizure but even that she is not 100% sure but a seizure could explain the high fever. They loaded her on Keppra and sent us home at 6AM.
She has been fine with no more neurological events. The vet said she heard a grade 4 heart murmur. Years ago she had a grade 2 but it had been very quiet for all these years. I do not know if a seizure can temporally make a murmur worse but right now I am concerned that perhaps it is worse, though her chest X ray was 100% clear and heart normal size and I think one might see some fluid with a grade 4 murmur. She also had some protein in her urine but both a fever and seizure could cause that so now we wait until we see my vet on the 27th. But the fact she is having issues and is old weighs heavy on me. It seems like yesterday she was just a puppy,
As if that is not enough the vet that I love and trust and has take care of all my pets these past 35 yrs is retiring and this month is his last month. That alone makes me want to cry, I am very happy that he will now get to enjoy life but I will miss him so much. The few times I have had to see one of the other vets at the clinic I have not been impressed except for a temp vet that filled in when they were short as he was very good too but who knows where he is these days. Anyway I read your post and it hit home with me big time. Time is one thing we can not stop and sadly aging is part of that cycle.
My deepest sympathy! We had two seniors dogs at once, and they departed a year apart (2.5 and 3.5 years ago). I have been looking for another dog for awhile, but knowing I will face that loss again, has slowed my efforts. Being a senior, myself, I am looking at older dogs, so time will be short, but then again, time spent really doesn't make a difference, as the loss is still great. (One of the dogs was adopted as a pup, and the other as a senior.)
This is a very sad thread, and my heart goes out to those of you who are now facing your beloved dogs' old age. We had a small pack of three, stair-stepped in age, who went through this one at a time. As the subject line of this thread says, I hate it. We now have a 4-year-old and I am actively grateful every day for her good health. I know I am in for heartbreak again, though. I am sending sympathy and wishes for much comfort, to the dogs AND the humans.
This is the part of owning a dog that isn't any fun. Wyatt McRiot is getting old. He is going deaf. He is stumbling and sometimes falling when he tries to jump. Yesterday, he jumped up onto the back porch and fell.
He will have the best food, the best care, the best vets, but nothing stops aging.
His mind is still bright. His vision is still good, which helps, because after not too much more hearing loss, I will still be able to signal to him with a flashlight at night. Hand signals during the day, flashlight at night. Right now, he can still hear shouting, but it won't be long before that is gone.
For the big annual fishing trip, my son is borrowing my travel trailer because Wyatt can no longer get in or out of his camper. This two week camping trip is the highlight of Wyatt's life, so his growing weakness is being accommodated for the best as can be done. It would break his heart to be left at home when the camping gear comes out. No long hikes this year. He will lay on the bank and watch the fishing and sit around the campfire and eat scraps of good food off the people's plates that is snuck to him under the table.
I hate this. I hate watching my brilliant energetic dog fading away and there is nothing I can do to stop it. I can only make sure he is comfortable and that he knows that he is loved.
... I can only make sure he is comfortable and that he knows that he is loved.
You are an excellent dog owner. It is difficult watching our faithful friends get older and more frail.
Wyatt is lucky to have you.
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