[quote PermanentlyDizzy]@UnexpectedItemInShaggingArea, we are in a similar position to you with our 16 year old Lurcher. To be honest, two days before Christmas dh and I felt it was likely to be between Christmas and New Year, but he has totally rallied since then and seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself at the moment.
We see our vet monthly and keep a good day/bad day weekly diary on a magnetic whiteboard on the fridge, so we can monitor any decline objectively. (Easy to do using red/amber/green whiteboard pens to score each day and noting anything new or unusual.)
My boy is also unsteady on his back legs, caused by spinal issues, but he isn’t in any pain with them and it doesn’t phase him at all when he wobbles or they refuse to work properly. He’s always been a really laid back dog and I think that helps as nothing phases him really. We have quite a large step out of our back door to the garden and he still manages that ok.
We’ve had a couple of occasions when he’s pooed indoors and not noticed (spinal issues means he doesn’t necessarily feel it happening) so it doesn’t distress him when it happens. He’s gone quite deaf and has cataracts which seem to affect his peripheral vision the most. He doesn’t like to be left alone, but there are 5 of us and 4 of are home most of the time, so that isn’t a problem. Dh has been sleeping downstairs with him for the past year, as we didn’t want him getting distressed at night after our other dog died. He does sleep a lot. He’s up at 5.45/6.00 am to toilet, then has breakfast, goes out again and goes back to sleep until lunchtime. He then has a few hours of being awake, pottering about seeing if he can caj food off anyone and reminding us when it’s time for his snuffle mat or dh’s afternoon apple and peanut butter break. Despite being wobbly, he insists on standing to watch us cook the evening meal and regularly inspecting his bowl in case any food miraculously appears in there. He can only manage 10 minute sniffy-walks every other day now, but he does love going and gets a lot out of them. He loves to spend ages sniffing every inch of our large garden, we have field mice and he likes to track their trails, as well as telling off the pigeons and squirrels. We don’t let him out there alone anymore, but there’s always at least one of us available when he needs to go out. He did start to get a bit anxious at the end of last year, which tallied with the cataracts starting to be a problem, but we put him on Zylkene supplements on the vet’s advice and that seemed to settle him right back down again.
We have had a few times now when we felt he was taking a turn for the worse, but then rallied and our vet said that is often a problem with geriatric dogs, which is why it’s important to carefully monitor him day to day for any signs of a downward slide. From their perspective, at the moment he still has a good quality of life and seems happy and engaged in the world around him. (He is very cheeky and lively at vet visits and knows where they keep the treats!)
They also advised us to write a list of ‘red-line’ events that would mean it was time to let him go, other wise you end up in the cycle of ‘he had a bad day yesterday and the day before, but seems better today’ and start to lose objectivity.
Red-events are essentially things that indicate he is no longer enjoying life, just existing or has had a significant change in health/pain levels. Basically anything that realistically means he no longer has a decent quality of life. The starting point is thinking about their life a few years ago and the things they loved to do and working out how many they are still interested in and able to do. She said eating his meals is a red herring, as food is instinctively motivating and appetite usually the very last thing to go. So while he’s actively interested in us preparing our own meals and nagging for his snuffle mat or dh’s snack time he’s engaged and interested, but if he was just wanting his meals, that’s not an indicator of quality of life. For us, him not wanting to get up and supervise the evening meal prep, not doing his geriatric version of his dash down the garden after his evening meal and mouse patrol, not being bothered about the mice/squirrels/pigeons, not getting excited when we get his lead out and not being engaged with us or wanting fusses are all red-lines.
We know his pain is being well managed, as it’s something we monitor carefully with the vet and he has had his meds tweaked regularly until we got the balance right. Unfortunately he has focal seizures, which could potentially develop into full seizures and we are mindful that we don’t want that to happen
We know we are on very borrowed time and I do lose sleep over whether we will make the right call at the right time, but ultimately all you can do is listen to your gut and have your boy’s best interests at heart. Ultimately, as others have said, it’s the final act of kindness we can do for them.[/quote]
Beautiful honest post that made me cry x