I cannot believe I am asking this on an online forum, but I am hoping maybe I can get a little bit more perspective on what is best for my dog and not be clouded by my sadness.
My dog Dobler will be twelve next week and has been diabetic for slightly over two years. We have had a good amount of insulin adjustments, but he has been steady and in really great health for quite some time now, up until two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, he started occasionally vomiting his food over a period of a few days, becoming a little bit more picky. He went two days and was fine, then vomited again so we took him in to vet. They ran bloodwork which was okay, determined he had a UTI and bacterial infection, put him on a few different antibiotics. He was okay over the weekend until that Sunday night. We have a sitter come and feed him/give him his insulin shot if we are out so he stays regulated. We came home about two hours later, and he seemed okay until he basically crumbled in our basement and couldn't move. He had thrown up his food shortly after he received his shot and went into diabetic shock. He started having a seizure, we brought him to emergency vet while smearing corn syrup on his gums, etc. Another seizure in car, when we got to vet he was comatose.
We thought we were saying our goodbyes that night and told vet we did not want him to suffer, but he pulled through and by the next day we were able to bring him home. The only problem was he did not want to eat. We tried some of the canned food that the vets had given him (he is on special diabetic dry food), he ate that for one meal but then would only eat chicken breast. That lasted a few days, and he stopped eating all together for 36 hours.
We of course brought him back to the vet. Our concern is the insulin regulation if he cannot eat. They did an abdominal x-ray, could not find anything conclusive but the organs were slightly shifted so they suspect that there could be a mass there. We will not do anything more invasive or treatment wise for him, so we decided not to go ahead with an ultrasound to see if there was anything more inconclusive.
So basically, for the past week, we have just been feeding him whatever he will eat. Lots of ground beef. He actually gobbled up some ground beef and our leftover pasta the other day! He is on an appetite inducer for a week, which we just finished yesterday.
The vet has been okay with us just feeding him to get him to eat, he had lost almost ten pounds and still needs his insulin. We have tried incorporating canned food, his dry, other dry, etc. with not much success. He seemed to be doing okay though, so she said to wait until he finished the appetite pills and then we would re-evaluate.
Well, he threw up on Wednesday night, but definitely still continued to eat his food. The past three mornings he threw up again, and will not eat much of anything. I guess I just do not know when is the time to let him go. I don't want him to suffer, but for now he is still walking around, snuggling, etc. He is definitely laying around a lot more but that is also a side effect of the medicine (which he is done with). I would go ahead and pay anything, but I want him to have a good quality of life. But if there is still some life left in him, I don't want to let him go yet, know what I mean? We made an appt for tomorrow to bring him in, and decided to celebrate his birthday early today. He ate a few pieces of bacon and we took him to the woods with our other dog and kids this morning and he ran and played like a puppy. You wouldn't have known anything was wrong with him.
But then I have to remember that he has been vomiting since Wednesday again and hardly eating for weeks. I don't want to prolong his life selfishly, but I also don't want to potentially keep him alive and have him start seizing, everything failing, and have him truly suffering.
My husband is wonderful and is supportive of doing whatever we can for him so long as his quality of life is good or it will actually make a difference. After $2000 the past few weeks, he didn't want to shell out another $500 for the ultrasound if it wouldn't affect our treatment of him.
Man. . . .My mind is just everywhere right now. I thought we were saying goodbye to him twice the past few weeks already and thought I was ready, and I have been so thankful for this extra time with him, but I just don't know what to do.
My dog Dobler will be twelve next week and has been diabetic for slightly over two years. We have had a good amount of insulin adjustments, but he has been steady and in really great health for quite some time now, up until two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, he started occasionally vomiting his food over a period of a few days, becoming a little bit more picky. He went two days and was fine, then vomited again so we took him in to vet. They ran bloodwork which was okay, determined he had a UTI and bacterial infection, put him on a few different antibiotics. He was okay over the weekend until that Sunday night. We have a sitter come and feed him/give him his insulin shot if we are out so he stays regulated. We came home about two hours later, and he seemed okay until he basically crumbled in our basement and couldn't move. He had thrown up his food shortly after he received his shot and went into diabetic shock. He started having a seizure, we brought him to emergency vet while smearing corn syrup on his gums, etc. Another seizure in car, when we got to vet he was comatose.
We thought we were saying our goodbyes that night and told vet we did not want him to suffer, but he pulled through and by the next day we were able to bring him home. The only problem was he did not want to eat. We tried some of the canned food that the vets had given him (he is on special diabetic dry food), he ate that for one meal but then would only eat chicken breast. That lasted a few days, and he stopped eating all together for 36 hours.
We of course brought him back to the vet. Our concern is the insulin regulation if he cannot eat. They did an abdominal x-ray, could not find anything conclusive but the organs were slightly shifted so they suspect that there could be a mass there. We will not do anything more invasive or treatment wise for him, so we decided not to go ahead with an ultrasound to see if there was anything more inconclusive.
So basically, for the past week, we have just been feeding him whatever he will eat. Lots of ground beef. He actually gobbled up some ground beef and our leftover pasta the other day! He is on an appetite inducer for a week, which we just finished yesterday.
The vet has been okay with us just feeding him to get him to eat, he had lost almost ten pounds and still needs his insulin. We have tried incorporating canned food, his dry, other dry, etc. with not much success. He seemed to be doing okay though, so she said to wait until he finished the appetite pills and then we would re-evaluate.
Well, he threw up on Wednesday night, but definitely still continued to eat his food. The past three mornings he threw up again, and will not eat much of anything. I guess I just do not know when is the time to let him go. I don't want him to suffer, but for now he is still walking around, snuggling, etc. He is definitely laying around a lot more but that is also a side effect of the medicine (which he is done with). I would go ahead and pay anything, but I want him to have a good quality of life. But if there is still some life left in him, I don't want to let him go yet, know what I mean? We made an appt for tomorrow to bring him in, and decided to celebrate his birthday early today. He ate a few pieces of bacon and we took him to the woods with our other dog and kids this morning and he ran and played like a puppy. You wouldn't have known anything was wrong with him.
But then I have to remember that he has been vomiting since Wednesday again and hardly eating for weeks. I don't want to prolong his life selfishly, but I also don't want to potentially keep him alive and have him start seizing, everything failing, and have him truly suffering.
My husband is wonderful and is supportive of doing whatever we can for him so long as his quality of life is good or it will actually make a difference. After $2000 the past few weeks, he didn't want to shell out another $500 for the ultrasound if it wouldn't affect our treatment of him.
Man. . . .My mind is just everywhere right now. I thought we were saying goodbye to him twice the past few weeks already and thought I was ready, and I have been so thankful for this extra time with him, but I just don't know what to do.
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