We just put our 16 year old lab to sleep last year due to degenerative myelopathy. Everyone thought I was nuts when I started to notice that the hound was having trouble a couple of months ago. He looked absolutely fine to the average eye, but I could see that his hind legs were just making the edge of the sofa or his rear would buckle down ever so slightly when he landed. I thought it was his hips and legs, that's how the degenerative myelopathy started with the lab. He stands ever so slightly like a German Shepherd too. I didn't think I had another dog with degenerative myelopathy, what are the odds, right?
My husband kept saying, "He's fine." When were at a different vet for the skin infection, the vet just brushed past my saying that his back legs are getting weaker. Nobody saw this but me. Then it got worse after playing with the neighbor's dog, and it became noticeable to everyone.
I made sure to track down the vet I liked most. He confirmed my fear. The hound has a bad back. His hips and legs are good though, full range of motion an nice strong muscles. He's on the SAME medicine the lab was on, Glyco-Flex and Deramaxx, minus the neurological medication. He won't need neurological medicine until she shows neurological symptoms. I assume it's like the curling of the labs back feet. I saw a slight buckling in of one back leg a few times last night.
My lab went through six years of degenerative myelopathy before he died at age 16. My hound is 11. His blood work isn't as good as the Labrador's. Vets were always amazed at my old lab's blood work. I'm worried that the hound won't be able to tolerate the medicine. But just three days on the medicine and I can see in his face that he is finally comfortable, finally himself, finally can relax, finally at peace. Isn't the medication worth the risk? Isn't quality of life more important than the risk of dying from the medicine? I made that decision with the lab. He lived 6 years. Looking into the face of the hound, it's an easy decision to make but not an easy decision to live with, if that makes sense.
So the vet says he shouldn't jump up/down from the sofa, shouldn't go up/down stairs. I put a sofa cushion on the floor, creating an easier way to get onto the sofa. All of the stairs and ramps made for dogs are for little dogs, not a big hound. What's he do? He still takes running leaps at the sofa. He still goes up the stairs to take naps under our bed during the day. When I go to pick him up, he runs to do everything himself. (When he was feeling bad, he would stand there and wait for me to pick him up.) What's a person to do when the dog doesn't understand I'm protecting his quality of life? He has a mind of his own and dances on his hind legs at mealtime.
While I was at the counter paying the vet bill, he kept standing up on his hind legs to look at what we were doing. I asked her how I am I going to stop him from doing this? She said I can't---other than putting him in a box where he can't move and that's no life to live. She said to just not encourage him to do things he shouldn't do. That means things like he can't visit the neighbor's dog anymore.
I'm struggling with all of this because it's all just happening too soon.
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