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I had a situation with a beloved dog and Congestive Heart Failure and my mistake was that I didn’t euthanize soon enough. I blame the vet for some of it but I should have known better. She had all the meds and honestly, I still waited too long. One of the biggest regrets of my life.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. You did the best you could.
Thank you. It sounds like you did more for your dog than I did, I'm sure your dog appreciated that. I think the vet is partially to blame but ultimately I'm just a client and I have to take initiative and responsibility for my dog's well being, and I feel like I failed at that.
The vet even said a dog's health can deteriorate very quickly and I didn't do what I could as soon as his situation became worse.
I hope people can read this post and understand just how fragile a dog's life is and to take initiative in doing what they can for the dog as soon as they are showing distress.
Thank you. It sounds like you did more for your dog than I did, I'm sure your dog appreciated that. I think the vet is partially to blame but ultimately I'm just a client and I have to take initiative and responsibility for my dog's well being, and I feel like I failed at that.
The vet even said a dog's health can deteriorate very quickly and I didn't do what I could as soon as his situation became worse.
I hope people can read this post and understand just how fragile a dog's life is and to take initiative in doing what they can for the dog as soon as they are showing distress.
If I am following your story correctly, I suspect that the oral diuretic wouldn't have helped Grindle too much if he was that far along. If the injected diuretic only worked for two days, he was probably past the point of the oral medications working. Even a few months earlier probably wouldn't have changed the course of the disease. It's fast-moving.
It's very hard with dogs that are this sick. I do think some vets could do a better job of laying out the data, the possible treatments and the probable outcomes.
You feel like you under-treated. From what you are writing, I really don't think you did.
You adopted Grindle at the age of 9. Do you know how hard it is to find people willing to take on a 9 year old dog? You gave him four great years of love.
You were WITH Grindle until the very end. You never abandoned him, you never gave up. He was with his people until the end. That's all dogs want.
I hope that when the pain recedes for you a bit, you can see the story of Grindle as the great love story that it is.
If I am following your story correctly, I suspect that the oral diuretic wouldn't have helped Grindle too much if he was that far along. If the injected diuretic only worked for two days, he was probably past the point of the oral medications working. Even a few months earlier probably wouldn't have changed the course of the disease. It's fast-moving.
It's very hard with dogs that are this sick. I do think some vets could do a better job of laying out the data, the possible treatments and the probable outcomes.
You feel like you under-treated. From what you are writing, I really don't think you did.
You adopted Grindle at the age of 9. Do you know how hard it is to find people willing to take on a 9 year old dog? You gave him four great years of love.
You were WITH Grindle until the very end. You never abandoned him, you never gave up. He was with his people until the end. That's all dogs want.
I hope that when the pain recedes for you a bit, you can see the story of Grindle as the great love story that it is.
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.
My vet actually followed up with me when they opened on Monday (Thursday was his ultrasound, Sunday morning is when he passed), I don't think they expected his fluid accumulation to come back as quickly as it did, so the condition is probably worse than they thought as well.
I just regret having him go through all that suffering before his passing, but over the past few days I've gradually come to terms with the fact that it was his time to go.
Dang, I just lost my whole post. Bless you for adopting a senior dog. I love the seniors. Our oldest dog was adopted @ 10yrs old. We were blessed with him for 7yrs. He passed in my husbands arms. He was a blessing. When someone had him for 10yrs & gave him to rescue cause she said Ricky snapped at her 2yr old kid cause he was playing in Ricky’s bowl while he was eating was a bunch of hoo ha. I tested him all the time. The most laid back minpin I have ever seen. The woman was pregnant again & just didn’t want to deal with a dog. Our gain.
Grindle knows you loved him. I know it is hard. Hugs
I did a lot of research over the past week and I am almost positive that the furosemide pills would have saved grindle and might have given him at least a few more months if I hadn't rejected it. I have no more tears to cry and have nothing but guilt and regret. I'm so sorry grindle.
It's hard to know what to do when an animal gets sick. And when it dies, we always wonder if there was more we could have done, or done something differently. From your post, it sounds as though you were very proactive in getting help for Grindle, and spent quite a bit of money on his care. Please forgive yourself, and acknowledge you gave that animal love right until the end. So very sorry for your loss.
But please don't let yourselves feel guilty about this. You rescued a dog that was already in the sunset of his life and gave hi a rich four years.
The thing about the vet is, that you and your wife are probably both right. More vet visits may have led to a better diagnosis but your dog wouldn't have lived much longer. That sounds harsh but he was 13...
And to answer the question about spending money vs outcome, it sounds so cold and harsh but we really need to look at the cost/benefit for it. IE, a friend had a 14 year old dog, took to the vet, the diagnosis was probably cancer, vet wanted to run all sorts of tests, they said, "If it is cancer, what are we going to do? And what will the outcome be?" They said "We can treat with chemo and extend the life by a few months." It would have cost thousands and the quality of life would have been questionable for those months.
My sister ended up spending all sorts of money of a very loved 13 year old Golden retriever. Vet diagnosis was bone cancer. Had various other expensive tests run but to what end? Chemo of a very elderly Golden would be almost cruel and probably no different outcome because mostly likely spread anyway. In the end they decided to treat with pain meds and lots of being spoiled and a calm at home euthanasia when he lost ability to walk.
Sometimes the kindest thing to do is to let them go instead of painful and uncomfortable treatment that only prolongs their pain and suffering.
It's so hard to know just what would have saved your pet. You can't blame yourself and being concerned about the money is something I struggle with when thinking about what lengths I can afford to go to if a situation like this would arise. Thank you for sharing your story about Grindle. He was very lucky to have such loving and caring parents!
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