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I'm 31 and we got him from the German Shepherd Rescue maybe 7 years ago when he was 2 or 3. We have had lots of dogs through the years and he was one of the sweetest and gentlest. My parents noticed he started acting strange a few weeks ago.
I came home to visit my family a few days ago. I started to see him not acting like his normal self.My dad took him to the vet 2o r 3 days ago and he lost weight within a couple of months. Urine test and blood work done and all came out normal except it showed he was a bit low in protein. Vet gave pain killers since he started to show some arthritis symptoms. It seemed to help but this morning when we walked him and our other dogs, he started to walk very slowly. I thought he was going to die during the walk. I could see his body getting stiff. I gave him the pain killer when we got home and he seemed fine. My parents still wanted to take him to the vet since he started acting strange again during the walk. They took him to the vet to get more costly tests done. It appeared that there was fluid around his heart and what looked like a tumor. The vet recommended a specialist for cardiology for dogs nearby. My parents are there now with Rudy but it doesn't look good given his age. I'm hoping to see him walk through the door this evening but I really doubt he will make it back.
I selfishly wish I wasn't visiting my parents right now to see this.
This is one of the last photos that I've taken of Rudy. He has always been an active, happy, shy, and sweet dog.
While I cannot imagine not having a dog, I always ask myself why we keep adopting some since we have to prepare again for them to die. Visiting my family will be so different now. Assuming Rudy is put down today, we have Sophie left who really just sleeps and isn't particularly active. Nice dog but not really as sweet and sensitive as Rudy.I still have my dog Petey the Border Collie Aussie mix who I got at the pound 2.5 years ago.
Rudy licked Petey's head yesterday on the way to his last evening walk. I went to Rudy this morning to have him lick my cheek and he did.
So I'm not sure if this is still technically Rainbow Bridge (it will be soon I think....). The day turned very strange.
The dog cardiologist wasn't in naturally but 2 standard vets were at the 2nd clinic. They viewed Rudy's x rays. They said they saw no tumor on his heart or extra fluid, and that the vet we saw earlier over reacted. They said he did have bad arthritis and an enlarged heart though and that he wasn't in immediate danger. He has an appointment in 2 weeks and was given arthritis medication and some more pain killers.
We've always done 3 somewhat long walks a day with the dogs and he was the most active. Last time we skipped one and did a short one and he was fine. This morning we did a slightly longer one and you could see the arthritis kicking in and he seemed to be in pain so my dad and him went home while I walked the other dogs. At this moment I think we can just modify everything so he has limited pain.
We had an arthritic larger breed dog that responded well to meloxicam for about 5 years from first appearance of arthritic symptoms. Eventually her body let her down but she had a lot of good years in between. There is a lot that can be done. Shorten those walks and rather than one long walk, break it into several short ones through the day. Make sure that Rudy's bed is extra supportive. We went to memory foam over a denser foam core bed, not cheap. Eventually Pepper slept on our couch. If you are near a water therapy center that can be really good non-weight bearing exercise to keep his muscles strong without further stressing the joints. We gave Pepper glucosamine in addition to meloxicam twice a day. For Pepper that was a safe regimen. I also put Pepper at the end of the bed and gave her whole body massages which seemed to help too.
German Shepherds are prone to joint issues especially hip dysplasia. If there isn't more wrong with Rudy, his pain can be managed for a few years. Eventually you will need to say goodbye. It is a grave injustice that our companion dogs don't live longer.
Like AK Cathy, I recommend Glucosamine for Rudy. Hopefully you and your parents can manage his pain and he'll be with you for a longer time than you expected. What a handsome dog he is!
Although it's heartbreaking to lose them, we keep getting dogs because they are the best thing in this world for a friend and companion.
He has been eating but barely. He takes his medicine on and off because he won't even put it in his mouth. We've done cream cheese, meatballs, peanut butter, those treats where you can hide them in there etc.
We have started doing maybe 1/2- 1 block walks with him 3x a day instead of the longer ones we have always done. He sees to be okay on those.
He just looks so sad and timid in the house. He seems like he is in so much pain but he won't take the pain killer.
We were able to get an appointment with a canine cardiologist tomorrow.
I've looked online for all the ways to help a dog with an enlarged heart. It seems like it's really just a low sodium, bland diet of lean meat and vegetables (he won't eat vegetables, we've already tried pureeing them), and limited activity,along with medication. Surgery doesn't appear to be a good option. People said that their dogs lived anywhere from a few extra months since being diagnosed with it (these are the older dogs around Rudy's age) to 3 years.
It's hard to say if the pain he is in is from arthritis or the heart or maybe both. Not taking his pills has been a hardship. When he has taken them, he gets almost his true self back for a few hours.
We are just trying to make him as comfortable as possible but the future seems a bit grim. He normally would always want to stay in a room with one of us humans, but now aside from sleeping at night, he goes to room where no one is there. I feel like I'm seeing him die.
I'm sorry to hear it. Sounds like Rudy is sicker than just arthritis at this point. Once dogs go off feed, that's a good sign that something very serious is happening. I hope you get answers and Rudy gets the help he needs.
Okay after $2000 was spent this week and after 3 different opinions (including a cardiologist) it was determined that Rudy has a "slightly" enlarged heart but that it wasn't anything serious and common with the aging process, but that he does have bad arthritis. We are a bit upset with our general vet. He insisted that Rudy has significant fluid around an enlarged heart and that he needs to see a cardiologist ASAP. Once everyone looked at that vet's findings they said they saw no tumors around the heart,no fluid, and that while his heart was enlarged it wasn't anything to panic about. Not sure how our vet couldn't really see that. Probably cya.
It's just weird that after all this it is just arthritis. We had a GSD that was HUGE who had arthritis and his wasn't as bad as Rudy's (always thought that the heavier you are, the worse it is).
Now vet thinks we should run another test to see if Rudy has Addison's.
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