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LCLCDM

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  • Your relationship to the individual who died
    Pet owner
  • Date of Death
    April 30 2018
  • Name/Location of Hospice if they were involved:
    None

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  • Your gender
    Female
  • Location (city, state)
    Newport Beach, CA

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  1. That makes me feel better. It’s hard because it wasn’t her normal vet or the vet that treated her for the dehydration. She was treated at the hospital. He just saw her after she collapsed. I so appreciate all of the feedback and support from everyone here. I am touched by everyone that’s taken the time to help. Thank you.
  2. I will read it again... thank you. I guess I thought a few more days of IV to hydrate her again and a feeding tube until she started eating again was a solution... I have read this is not an unusual way to treat a dog that isn’t eating or drinking. I have also read there are many reasons a dog stops eating and drinking including gastrointestinal issues, just generally feeling ill, upset stomach, kidney issues, as well as being part of the process of dying etc... I definitely would not have wanted Sugar to be on IV forever...I don’t think that would have even been possible since it likely had to be done at the hospital.
  3. I wonder if the lack of drinking/eating was simply because she didn’t feel good after taking the supplement. She always had a bit of a sensitive stomach
  4. Yes...they all think it is a coincidence... but I think it’s weird she stopped eating and drinking right after. Then I scoured the internet/reviews and a few others said their dogs stopped eating and drinking too... and a few had seizures. Every vet that looks at the ingredients says the supplement didn’t include anything that should have been harmful. i am starting to forgive myself for giving her the supplement because I thought I was helping her and I did look up every ingredient before I gave it to her. What is haunting me now is I think if she would have gotten IVs sooner she would have recovered. Also I fear she collapsed because she was dehydrated again....so now I fear I put down a dog....my dear beloved dog.... that was only dehydrated. There was no way she could get the volume of water she needed from sub q fluids and a syringe. I do think she really needed a feeding tube.
  5. Kayc...I am so sorry to hear about your mom. My mother has dementia too...it’s very hard. In my dogs case I strongly believe she stopped drinking and eating due to the supplement I gave her. The issue happened right after I gave her the supplement. Possibly something else was going on and the supplement exacerbated the issue....and she didn’t get the right care soon enough. I would strongly advise to NEVER give a pet any supplement without approval from your vet. I didn’t know I was causing my dog harm...clearly I was.
  6. MartyT you are a wise person and a beautiful soul. I was thinking about the eating and drinking thing. The vet said she was trying hard to eat and get water...she just couldn’t. She did finally eat some chicken and drank water once when she got home then stopped. That’s another thing that haunts me. She wanted to drink and eat. I think she wanted to live. She wasn’t giving up. Something else was going on....maybe something neurological. She never liked anyone to touch her face...ever since she was a baby. Feeding her with a syringe was not a good option. The feeding tube would have offered more time to figure out what was going on. I think she collapsed because, after being dehydrated, then getting rehydrated, she still wasn’t getting enough water. When she started pacing and bumping into things I don’t know why I didn’t seek help. It would have only taken one call to the hospital. I see what you say about punishing myself but what can I do when I see so many things I did wrong ? I don’t know how to forgive myself...it was her life. I have read there is an opportunity to grow and learn from this but I didn’t want to learn a hard lesson from hurting my Sugar. She didn’t deserve that.
  7. Sorry for so many posts...I also don’t feel great about taking care of me right now because I didn’t take care of her. I think another complicated thing...these were vets I didn’t know because I was out of town. The vet that put my dog down used to be my sisters vet. He seems very caring and ethical... but didn’t have history of my dogs health...and I didn’t have history with him. I probably really wasn’t ready to make that final decision...I think I needed more time
  8. I also struggle because I see people going to great lengths to save dogs with terminal illnesses like cancer. My dog didn’t have a terminal illness. She was dehydrated and wasn’t eating or drinking....which is why I am beating myself up about not taking her back to the hospital and getting a feeding tube. Maybe she wouldn’t have survived...but at least I would have tried.
  9. MaryT....you are so kind. I can’t thank you enough for responding, providing such valuable information and trying to help me through this....it means so much to me. Sugar was my first and only dog. She helped me through some of the toughest times in my life. I feel, in the end, I let her down. I now think in those last hours she was crying out for me to help her. In my mind that means she was asking me to take her to the hospital so she could live....and I failed. I have never put a dog down. I always thought she would die in her sleep. I never thought I would have to make such a quick decision about the life of the being that was most important to me.
  10. She stopped eating right after I gave her that drug so I feel like it was cause and effect. I keep thinking she would have recovered if I got her the right help sooner or got the feeding tube. I am going to therapy this week because I know I can’t live with these regrets forever. Even though she stopped eating and drinking abruptly (after the medication) I do wonder if I just exacerbated something that was already there. I am sure her dementia would have continued to get worse, even with treatment. I don’t know if I would have ever had the courage to put her down for her dementia. She had a incident of Old Dog Vestibular Disease in December. She recovered in a week. She had an MRI at the time and the neurologist said my dog had one of the worst cases of brain atrophy she had ever seen. I don’t really know what that meant for her future or how she would have been if she lived for another year or two.
  11. Thank you so much for your response and for posting this. I have been so worried about her suffering when she was pacing that night and the following day.
  12. Thank you. I’m so worried I will never be able to to get past this.
  13. My 17 year old dog had dementia that had been progressing slowly over a year. Over a years time she stopped going for walks, she stopped playing with toys and stopped barking. In the last few months she was sleeping a lot, pacing a bit during the day, no longer got up to greet me and didn’t seem to recognize her name. She could sleep, eat, drink and go in the backyard. She wagged her tail when I scratched her put butt. He tail was down most of the time. One day I found her under my nightstand…the next day in the closet. Her dementia seemed to be getting worse. Because of this I ended up giving her a supplement called Cholodin….reviews seemed to indicate it helped a lot of dogs but not mine. I gave it to her for 3 days ( so 1 1/2 pills total). She stopped eating and drinking. After 2 1/2 days I called the vets office. The only vet available was someone I found to be really cold. She also didn’t handle my dog nicely one time. So, I ended up going to an emergency vet. The ER vet gave my dog subcutaneous fluid and an appetite stimulate. The next day I was going to see my family and asked the vet if it was safe to take my dog on the plane… he said yes. In retrospect this was a BIG mistake. She should have been given IV that night. When I got to my destination I put food and water out for my dog..but she still didn’t appear to be drinking or eating. That night her nose was stuffed up so I went to the animal hospital and waited for hours. The vet said it was just a dry nose….but the IV fluid might help her anxiety from the supplement. I said ok….it took them a long time to give me an estimate. I told the vet tech I was worried about my dog being in a small space because she was stressed and anxious and asked if my dog could be put in a larger kennel. The girl went around in circles not giving me a straight answer or committing. I asked to speak to the vet again….time went by…no vet. I finally left. I blame myself for leaving that night because I think my dog may have been ok if she got IV at that time. The next day I took her to another place. Again…subcutaneous fluid and appetite stimulate. I did the same the following day and finally put my dog in the hospital. By then it looked like something neurological was developing. She was on day 6 of not eating or drinking…with 3 or 4 treatments of sub Q fluids. I also tried giving her liquid and food with a syringe but she wasn’t getting much. She was in the hospital 5 days, her dehydration was treated....she was eating a little chicken but not drinking. She stopped walking at the hospital but resumed walking at home. She could walk on carpet but not tile floors. She was still being fed with a syringe and treated with sub q fluids at home. Looking back I don’t think she was getting enough fluid or food. She fought the syringe. They suspected she had an ulcer so she was taking medication for that. One day after returning from the hospital she started pacing. I thought it was her dementia or she was anxious due to her stuffed nose. She paced through the night and next day, but was also hiding and bumping into things. I had a vet appointment at 4 (she had been pacing for a day and 1/2). Right before I left she collapsed into what seemed like a coma. The vet was a few blocks away. He said if I wanted to save her I needed to go back to the hospital immediately. He also said he didn’t think her prognosis was good, and that this would now be a viscous circle. I asked him what he would do if it was his dog ? He said he would let her go. He didn’t think her quality of life would be good. My appointment to go there was to get her some anxiety medication as well as discuss the other drugs the hospital gave her so I could get his opinion. I never imagined she would collapse. Putting her down that day was a snap decision which is so unlike me. The vet asked if I was keeping her alive for me or for her….I said I didn’t want to keep her alive for me. I thought about her progressing dementia and agreed to put her down. Now I’m backtracking regretting not taking her to my vet initially ( she could have survived). I regret not leaving her at the hospital the first time, I regret not taking her to the hospital when she was pacing. I regret giving her the supplement that caused the downward spiral. I regret not trying harder to save her before putting her down. I think she wasn’t eating due to gastrointestinal issues and may have needed a feeding tube. None of it makes sense to me and I am stuck in a place of guilt and pain.
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