Pippy Pig Pig
New Born Pup
Hi All,
My sweet sheltie Pippy (Pip E Squeak) just turned 8 a few days ago, and unfortunately had lost a scary amount of weight in the couple days prior and well as no poos.
I stayed up all night Thursday doing Critical Care and made it to the vets first thing Friday morning, to see if it was arthritis pain that was causing motility/mobility issues or ? The xrays showed it was bad, but not as bad as the vet expected. We had already put him on dosages of Metacam and Gabapentin for pain management, but the gapa makes him really loopy and so I do minimums of both so it's not too harsh on his system. I had them do laser therapy on the joints, a tummy comfort med, fluids, and when we got back home, he spent the afternoon eating and napping again. I've kept him comfortable and tons of love, feeding, resting in a little beddie with his blankets.
From there he has degraded, and I'm sincerely surprised he is still here. I've been staying with him (he's too weak to stand on his own and does accept food at times, but otherwise has needed Critical Care syringe feeding). He's been lying on his side, twitching, barely responsive, not eating, not at all his usual curious and sparkly self...all the signs of passing I thought.
It's now days later and he seems to be wasting away. I feel awful if I've put him through suffering, and I thought he would have passed at this point. One option is to syringe feed a lot more critical care to see if he improves to the point of being able to recover, but even then I question his quality of life. He had been showing signs of mobility issues, even with CBD, metacam, exercise, etc and so I can't imagine it will ever be good again and he had already been eating much less days prior. The vet had initially said at the appointment that his arthritis and pain issues didn't warrant 'the talk', but it seems to have declined rapidly and I don't know if I'm just prolonging this.
Sorry for the long post, he's my little best friend
Ive been crying a lot but I want to do what's best. Is it worth it to do critical care and pain management, to possibly relive this in a few months - year? Or help him pass? This very well could be organ failure but it's just hard to tell. Thank you so much.
My sweet sheltie Pippy (Pip E Squeak) just turned 8 a few days ago, and unfortunately had lost a scary amount of weight in the couple days prior and well as no poos.
I stayed up all night Thursday doing Critical Care and made it to the vets first thing Friday morning, to see if it was arthritis pain that was causing motility/mobility issues or ? The xrays showed it was bad, but not as bad as the vet expected. We had already put him on dosages of Metacam and Gabapentin for pain management, but the gapa makes him really loopy and so I do minimums of both so it's not too harsh on his system. I had them do laser therapy on the joints, a tummy comfort med, fluids, and when we got back home, he spent the afternoon eating and napping again. I've kept him comfortable and tons of love, feeding, resting in a little beddie with his blankets.
From there he has degraded, and I'm sincerely surprised he is still here. I've been staying with him (he's too weak to stand on his own and does accept food at times, but otherwise has needed Critical Care syringe feeding). He's been lying on his side, twitching, barely responsive, not eating, not at all his usual curious and sparkly self...all the signs of passing I thought.
It's now days later and he seems to be wasting away. I feel awful if I've put him through suffering, and I thought he would have passed at this point. One option is to syringe feed a lot more critical care to see if he improves to the point of being able to recover, but even then I question his quality of life. He had been showing signs of mobility issues, even with CBD, metacam, exercise, etc and so I can't imagine it will ever be good again and he had already been eating much less days prior. The vet had initially said at the appointment that his arthritis and pain issues didn't warrant 'the talk', but it seems to have declined rapidly and I don't know if I'm just prolonging this.
Sorry for the long post, he's my little best friend
Ive been crying a lot but I want to do what's best. Is it worth it to do critical care and pain management, to possibly relive this in a few months - year? Or help him pass? This very well could be organ failure but it's just hard to tell. Thank you so much.
Pippy was on Metacam .25 - .3 twice a day along with CBD on joints and did well with it. My larger concern is that it would take months to get him back to a healthy weight now, which would require a lot of syringe feeding and he started to reject it even at his lowest energy. He had managed to get up a couple times and support himself long enough to have a strawberry top, and otherwise I obliged him with all his favorites while he could still enjoy and savor them while he was laying on his side. This sadly could be other factors like organ failure, so much of this seems like an ultimate quality of life predicament weighed against his current age. If it were up to me, they'd live forever!
