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I’ll try to make this as succinct as possible but I have a lot of thoughts and emotions to convey.
My pug, Ollie, has been dealing with dementia and a collapsing trachea.
The dementia is pretty bad - no longer wants to go on walks, is confused and paces in circles when he’s out of his crate, bumps into things. For the most part he’s still able to go the bathroom outside and still is eating and drinking fine. For thirty minutes every morning he lets me sit beside his bed and pet him. Aside from that he doesn’t engage in any of his normal activities and doesn’t seem to reciprocate any efforts of affection. It’s difficult because for those thirty minutes he seems fully aware and enjoying our time together, then it’s all down hill.
The collapsing trachea started about three years ago. It got pretty bad for a while but we found the right combination of meds and it made him better. He still coughed and struggled to breath when he walked around too much and once or a couple times a night, but overall the medications were working.
Lately they haven’t been as effective so we tried a different combination of meds that made things worse. He was struggling to breath all day for two days straight. When I went to the vet they gave me the quality of life talk, which they have several times before, but the vet was basically telling me it’s time now. I almost made an appointment this week but I just decided to go rouge on the meds and basically took the meds that worked and doubled the dose and doubled how often they were given.
Now my dilemma is that with this new dosage he’s doing okay for the moment and I think he may have anywhere from a week to a couple months of being okay. But there’s still the fear that he could die suddenly and he’s by no means out of the woods, it’s a condition that only worsens. Im struggling because I feel like maybe this window of feeling okay is an opportunity for me to put him down before he goes through any seriously major suffering. But I’m also not sure how long the window will last. When it turns it’s very quick. The panic he had earlier this week when things got bad is not something I want to see him go through again and is certainly not what I want him to feel as he’s being put down.
Other things to consider is that I have a wife and two kids and this has taken a toll on our family activity time. I’m always anxiety ridden and need to be home by 5 pm so he gets his meds and doesn’t start to panic.
In summary my dilemma is: Do I see if he can get a couple more months with us in this state or do I let him down now knowing I prevented any unnecessary suffering.
We used to go on long 3-4 hour walks on weekends. Sometimes we would stumble on neighborhood parties or events like the one above and they’d invite us to join because everyone knew us. Also everyone would yell out “we found Waldo!” at me
He used to sit with my first son for hours at a time.
My pug, Ollie, has been dealing with dementia and a collapsing trachea.
The dementia is pretty bad - no longer wants to go on walks, is confused and paces in circles when he’s out of his crate, bumps into things. For the most part he’s still able to go the bathroom outside and still is eating and drinking fine. For thirty minutes every morning he lets me sit beside his bed and pet him. Aside from that he doesn’t engage in any of his normal activities and doesn’t seem to reciprocate any efforts of affection. It’s difficult because for those thirty minutes he seems fully aware and enjoying our time together, then it’s all down hill.
The collapsing trachea started about three years ago. It got pretty bad for a while but we found the right combination of meds and it made him better. He still coughed and struggled to breath when he walked around too much and once or a couple times a night, but overall the medications were working.
Lately they haven’t been as effective so we tried a different combination of meds that made things worse. He was struggling to breath all day for two days straight. When I went to the vet they gave me the quality of life talk, which they have several times before, but the vet was basically telling me it’s time now. I almost made an appointment this week but I just decided to go rouge on the meds and basically took the meds that worked and doubled the dose and doubled how often they were given.
Now my dilemma is that with this new dosage he’s doing okay for the moment and I think he may have anywhere from a week to a couple months of being okay. But there’s still the fear that he could die suddenly and he’s by no means out of the woods, it’s a condition that only worsens. Im struggling because I feel like maybe this window of feeling okay is an opportunity for me to put him down before he goes through any seriously major suffering. But I’m also not sure how long the window will last. When it turns it’s very quick. The panic he had earlier this week when things got bad is not something I want to see him go through again and is certainly not what I want him to feel as he’s being put down.
Other things to consider is that I have a wife and two kids and this has taken a toll on our family activity time. I’m always anxiety ridden and need to be home by 5 pm so he gets his meds and doesn’t start to panic.
In summary my dilemma is: Do I see if he can get a couple more months with us in this state or do I let him down now knowing I prevented any unnecessary suffering.
We used to go on long 3-4 hour walks on weekends. Sometimes we would stumble on neighborhood parties or events like the one above and they’d invite us to join because everyone knew us. Also everyone would yell out “we found Waldo!” at me
He used to sit with my first son for hours at a time.
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