Old Dog Vestibular Disease (terrier, clean, vet, cleaning)

[TheotherMarie]

Eleven days ago, my husband and I went out for lunch. When we came home, we found something had happened to our almost 13-year-old dog. We rushed her to the vet, and she was diagnosed with ODVD.
We spoke with two vets about it. Both said that many dogs recover, but some do not, and if at the one week mark we hadn't seen improvement, we'd need to make a decision.

We're more than a week out now, and her eyes are no longer bouncing, and she's eating again. But that's all the progress she's made.
She still isn't walking without stumbling, or potty-ing without help, can't lie on her side, and won't get up to even get water.
She has arthritis in both knees, and I believe she injured at least one, if not both, during the episode.
The vet gave her pain meds for her knees but they gave her diarrhea and we had to stop. We've tried many pain meds for her over the years. They either don't work, or have bad side effects.

This is a large dog whose biggest pleasure in life has been going for walks at least twice a day.

Since it happened, I've been home with her all day, every day, sleeping next to her, just in case she needs help, and to make sure she drinks.

This morning, we decided that tomorrow we will take her to the vet to help her pass on.
She's just not getting better.

Can anybody reassure me that we're making the right decision for our baby??

[southernnaturelover]

I know what you're going through. Two years ago I came home from work one night and found my Boston Terrier (now 11 y/o) in the middle of the living room floor unable to get up. There was even blood on the floor where she had been hitting her mouth trying to get up. It scared me to death because I thought she had a stroke or something, but when I got her to the emergency vet they told me it was vestibular disease. I know they have her Dilaudid and something else to calm her down, but I don't remember what it was. It took her about 3 weeks to fully recover and walk straight again. Well, a year ago (1 yr after 1st incident) it happened again, but to my surprise that time she recovered in two days.

I read all kinds of stuff on the internet saying that it signals that they're at the end of their life, but that is NOT true! My dog is doing well enough that she's going for her teeth cleaning in two days, and going on vacation with me in 3 weeks. I will admit though, it's always in the back of my mind that it can and probably will happen again, so I always try to be prepared, and I always keep her crated when she's alone so that she can't injure herself.

Obviously I don't know your dog, but if she had a good quality of life before this happened I would give it longer than a week. Molly was still stumbling pretty bad at one week, and if I had put her down at that point I wouldn't have enjoyed the past two years with her.

[zugor]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give it a little more time. My heart dog went through this and it was about 10 days before he really seemed back to almost normal. I had to hand feed him for a week because he could not seem to find the bowl and he was still unsteady on his feet. But then he was just fine and we had a wonderful time.

Sadly I did lose him just a few months later to something totally unrelated but it had been a real wake up call that I might not have him for much longer and I made an extra effort to be with him more of the time.