[Christine]

A quick thank you to everyone that sent me words of encouragement and support during my struggles with my little one. I just wanted to share with you that we helped our little Tia to cross over yesterday. She never displayed any pain symptoms until the last couple of days when she finally refused all food and water and it became clear to me that she was ready to leave. I am in awe of her resilience and cant get over how stoic and determined she was to stay alive regardless of her physical condition… right up to the moment before she went all she wanted to do was walk.

Sending much love to all of you who are still supporting your companions through their issues.

Thanks Lena for having this forum, it was a god send to me!

[Christine]

Thanks Katy! As difficult as our situation is right now it has given me so much food for thought. Over the past 25 years I have had to help 3 of our friends to the other side at the ages 14, 16 and 17 years. The one thing that remains with me all the time is “did I do the right thing”. Was it for my convenience or was it really because they were “no longer getting quality of life”…

I have just finished reading a great book (and its sequel actually) which talks about why dogs play such an important part of our lives and what they are here to teach us…the book is a story about dogs and angels…and not what you would expect by the title. It has really made me sit up and think seriously about the lives we share with these beautiful creatures. If anyone is interested I’ll post the details.

Tia is having a good day today.

[Christine]

First off want to say to Pam that I am to sorry to hear about Hutch – so caught up in my own problems I completely overlooked that you had to let your friend go! My heart goes out to you.

Tia has deteriorated today somewhat…starting to drool (new thing) …paces in circles all the time now and constantly gets stuck in a corner now matter how small and then cries until someone comes to release her from that position – I had thought about putting her in another room at the other end of the house at night so we can get some sleep but the problem is she is so frail that when she slips over she cant get up so I cant go far or she gets frantic if she has fallen over…. I begin to wonder at the quality of life left to these poor souls with dementia, can we assume they are content with the way their life is?

[Christine]

Thanks for the replies and support Marisa and Pam.

I have a question about melatonin – Lena suggested 3-4mg per 50lb dog – the bottle I got from the store is human grade and the recommended dosage is 1mg per night… did I misunderstand the dosage? We gave her 1mg last night and she slept 6 hours but don’t know if that was because of the melatonin or the low dose morphine she’s on.

Also does anyone know why during their pacing they always make a bee line for the corners and dark spaces…?

[Christine]

I’m so pleased to have come across this forum – such great information and a comfort to know there are others out there having the same challenges as we are.

We have a 15year Dachshund who has dementia and also has something else going on inside of her that the vet thinks is adding to her general state of ill-health. We have made the decision because of her age not to do any invasive tests or procedures believing that in the long run the treatment will be the same.

Our challenge is trying to figure out what we need to do to make her last days/weeks/months here as comfortable and as enjoyable as possible. Up to now she has been a typical Dachshund eating everything in sight and never refusing food but now her sense of smell seems to have left her and even the tastiest of cooked chicken takes a while for her to detect and eat but not with the usual gusto. She displays all the DM symptoms described by others and while she has never been a touchy/feeling dog she has even further distanced herself from us.

Being of the belief that all animals are sentient beings, as we are albeit of a different species, we really, really want to try and let her cross over on her own terms – we just don’t know where to draw the line in the sand.

Sorry for the long post but thanks for listening.

[Author]

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