Posted on: August 6th, 2009 by Famous Phil

I’m trying to think of a good way to start this blog but I really can’t think of a good way so I guess I just start with what happened a few nights ago.

Over the past few months, our dog has been showing signs of old age (he is 13, which is quite old).  He shows signs of having difficulty walking and climbing steps.  He also can’t get up on the bed like he used to, etc.  Over the past few months, he has started having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and instead of waking someone up (or coming to see me when I’m up at 1am), he goes out to the other room to urinate on the rug.  It has always been the same spot, so we removed the big carpet so it only affects a small rug made for this and can be cleaned up really easy.  In the past few weeks, we’ve noticed he has been drinking a lot of water but thought noting of it (its hot out).   That is the background.

Monday night was fine as usual, our dog came into my room for a few minutes to say good night to me.  He then went to his usual sleeping spot in the bathroom.  Early in the night around 10pm, he threw up his entire dinner on the bathroom.  He then apparently went on a urinating rampage and went not only in his usual spot in the other room, but on the bathroom floor and another spot in the house as well.  We just cleaned it up in the middle of the night and waited until morning.  In the morning before I got up, my father took him outside to lay him down.  I heard the awful news later that morning when I woke up.  My father said that he was staggering when walking, he smelled awful, and wasn’t really that alert (although a touch alert).  These are the 3 signs normally of a dieing dog from what I’ve read.

Thinking the worst, we decided to let him die at home peacefully and left him lay out in the shade where he went at 6am until 5pm.  He was still alive, so we decided to gate off a room in the house so he could go in his sleep peacefully without making a mess of the entire house again.  Unfortunately, this didn’t happen.  So we are now up to Wednesday.   So we let him sleep all day Wednesday.  He didn’t eat anything, or stay awake for more than 5 minutes so far for a 30 hour span.  He drank very little water for the 5 to 10 minutes he was awake.

Later in the day Wednesday, he got up around 5pm and started hinting towards he wanted to go outside.  We got him outside and that got him really alert, the most he had been the entire span of this ordeal.  He also showed signs of hunger, eating a little bit of ice cream (his favorite treat), and drinking some water.  He also managed to wet the make shift stretcher he was on so we could carry him in and out.  Because of this, we decided he should see the vet.

Earlier today, we took him to the vet.  The vet said that everything is fine with him except for an xray showing something at the base of his brain.  The doctor suspected it is an ear infection which explains why he can’t walk.  We also suspect that he managed to eat some pork from the pork chops we had on Monday night.  We usually prepare his dinner (usually chicken) with ours, so its quite possible the pork got mixed in accidently, and it makes him sick.  The walking as expected is from arthritis in his hip.

Luckily, other than the ear infection, he has a clean bill of health.  The doctor said that he should live a while more and is a healthy dog for his age overall.  This is why I’ve been sort of away and out of it as of late.  I worry a lot for him and I can’t stand to see him or anything suffer.

Tags: death, dog, ear infection, family, pet
Posted in Personal
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