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Re: My Dog & vets
JBG #398622 11/17/13 08:50 PM
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Sorry to hear of you loss I know all too well that feeling. It makes my stomach woosie thinking about that time of loss and your loss. When my dad put our family dog down he wrote a letter to him to help with the grief. I followed his lead and found it to be very therapeutic to do the same.

Richard


DOG is GOD spelled backwards.
What others think of me is none of my business.
M80 V3 MY GLOSS Cherry
Re: My Dog & vets
JBG #398623 11/17/13 09:03 PM
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Sorry about your lost, I know in a near future I will have to face a similar fate for my little silky terrier dog.

Re: My Dog & vets
JBG #398634 11/18/13 12:32 PM
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I remember going through what you have and having to make the tough choice in the end to do what was right for our dear friend.

A good long term relationship with your vet is priceless. We are very lucky to have ones (plural since they are a couple) whom we trust and who demonstrate a true compassion for the animals in thier care.

Hopefully yours discussed with you some measures that you can take to potentially help with your pet's condition. For us, a daily dose of glucosamine really seemed to slow down the progress of the arthritis and gave us a few more more happy years.

I wish you and your families all the best.


With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.
Re: My Dog & vets
JBG #398640 11/18/13 02:54 PM
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Just like regular doctors, there are good vets and poor ones. Our 15 yr old adopted tabby was wasting away to skin and bones a couple of yrs ago as he couldn't keep anything down. Basically he was extremely dehydrated, bony, sunken eyes etc. The vets did a lot of "work" on him with little success with the exception of re-hydrating his little body and figured it was mostly his age which was his problem...after spending a couple of thousand at the vet, we found out there was a quiet recall(e coli?) from a pet store on the premium all natural food we were giving him. Tried several other different types of food until we found one he could keep down...we're not sure how much damage that bad food did to his insides a couple of years ago as he's had a couple of minor relapses along the way since, but we always consider the food as being one of the main reasons for his problems. We always feed him the best natural cat food we can find and have settled on one with very, very minimal ingredients which seems to be working. So I'll say, always consider the possibility of a problem with the pet's food if they aren't feeling well and don't always believe everything a doctor/vet may tell you, they can be wrong.


Half of communication is listening. You can't listen with your mouth.
Re: My Dog & vets
Adrian #398644 11/18/13 04:34 PM
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Originally Posted By: Adrian
Just like regular doctors, there are good vets and poor ones.

Amen, bruder!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLXnQX18ttU


Bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica.
Re: My Dog & vets
JBG #398645 11/18/13 05:31 PM
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Over the past 30 years when 'dry' cat food was invented, the pet food industry 'damaged' millions of cats with the contents of these dry foods - namely grains or more correctly carbs. Two of my cats - brother & sister - were both damaged this way in the 1990s.

Cats are carnivores, not herbivores. We've been slowly killing them over their lives with excessive carbs common to this convenient food. About 15 years ago, I researched this on the net & found that after years of consuming these high carb foods, felines develop the same ailments that humans do later in life - addiction to carbs, obesity, diabetes, & eventually thyroid problems (weight loss & always hungry).

Therefore, I changed their food way back then to high protein with little or no carbs - Friskies Salmon Pate & Orijen (made on Alberta) high protein dry food is what we use. All 4 of them thrive on it.

My felines are in such beautiful shape that my vet always asks what I feed them. Seems to work for us...

TAM

Re: My Dog & vet
exlabdriver #398646 11/18/13 07:56 PM
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I can't remember feeling this sad reading every post in a thread. Each one zapped another exposed nerve. Though sad, I am moved to read so much love and compassion for your "other kids." Peter, so sorry that Sunny's passing is so in-the-moment for you and your family. When you told me you had a dog, then showed me her picture on the boat house dock, I thought, "Gee, maybe he isn't an asshole after all."

Bandit is my 7th fur child. My Dad took care of "it's time" for the first two. I did the next four, alone, who were all brought into the household within a three year period. They lived from 9 years to 17.5 years.

Bandit will be 14 in January, though we have known him his whole life, he has been "ours" for just about 4 years. I have had the same vet (except for 5 years in AZ and TX) for his entire practicing career. He's now 64. Whenever he encountered something that should require a specialist, off he'd send us to the big teaching ho$pital. He never had that "I can do it all" that I have seen in some vets (and doctors).

Even though he has taken care of all 7 dogs, he pulled me aside last week (minor skin issue visit) to remind me that, even though he's in great health, he IS 14 and "they don't live forever."

Gawd, it sounded like "the old lady with the ancient cat" speech. "Hi, Les," it's me, Bob, remember?"

He doesn't remember, because I have never asked him to euthanize any of them. One was found dead when I returned home from work late.... on a Friday, Halloween, in El Paso f'n Texas. The other three exhibited their worst suffering from their fatal conditions after business hours, so each was taken to Boston's 100+ vet, 24 hour, teaching hospital (affiliated with Tufts Univ.), so they wouldn't have to suffer the whole night. In today's $, the last year of life for each cost about $3-4k. (Bandit was 12 when he got $4k cornea replacement!)

It's so difficult on every emotional level, and it never gets any easier. I don't recommend having a pack where they're all very close in age, 'cause the Ten Little Indians thing is brutal, esp. when the first "princess" hangs on to be the final Indian, 17+ years later.

BTW, Bandit has never had dog food, not for the first 10 years of his life when he lived next door with his late DogDad, nor in this house. It costs about $3.00 a day, not counting some treats that have to cost a lot, 'cause they don't come from that animal/baby killin' place, Chiner.

No living thing has evolved to live on processed food, exclusively, (or ever, really), so you can just throw out those bags of DikDik chow or canned food for Monotremes.

My empathy is with all of you who care for and live with another species. Sure there are tough times, but having a single stand-in for the entire animal world living in your home as part of the family is nothing short of astounding, every day!

I never intended to spend this much time, but it's all so close to me. I'll leave you with something uplifting and , umm funny?

When my 15-year old Bull Terrier, Enzo, had to go for that last hospital visit at 1:00 a.m. (he could no longer stand w/o falling over due to a brain tumor), I was assigned to an intern/resident (I don't know how it works to earn a D.V.M.), which, at that hour is nothing unusual.

He was about 25, kind, empathetic and warm. He told me that I was doing the right thing and he had lived to a very old dog age. As he began to explain the two-injection system, I told him I'd done this before. He nodded.

I laid Enzo down and cuddled with him, leaning over. Immediately after the vet administered the 2nd injection, I grabbed his arm and exclaimed, "I changed my mind!" I hadn't planned it, or been lying in wait, it just came out in some sort of in (inappropriate) jest.

The kid went "new lab coat" white. I told him I was kidding. He admitted that this was only his "2nd time" and he lived in fear that someone, someday, might actually do that to him.

"See now that it has already happened to you, with no consequences at all, even a second after the fact, you need not fear it ever again. You will tell this story for the rest of your career, and the telling of it will begin as soon as I leave here, won't it?"

We shook hands, I thanked him, he smiled, sort of, I handed him the cremation paperwork, and I left.


Always call the place you live a house. When you're old, everyone else will call it a home.
Re: My Dog & vet
JBG #398647 11/18/13 08:48 PM
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Bob, I continue to amazed at your ability to both display and invoke so many different emotions in one post. wink


Bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica.
Re: My Dog & vet
JBG #398651 11/18/13 10:37 PM
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That poor kid is probably still trying to perfect "would you like fries with that?" thanks to you.

That post is a treasure, Bob. Thank you.


bibere usque ad hilaritatem
Re: My Dog & vet
tomtuttle #398653 11/19/13 01:31 AM
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Interesting read, told by the dog, Enzo...


Scott

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