If you've had a dog that died how did it happen?

[Anonymous]

My sweet old Lab just turned 12. There's nothing major wrong with him, but he's certainly showing his age, and I know he's nearing the top of his life expectancy. He is the only dog I've had as an adult and I don't know what to expect. It seems like people tend to have some warning when their dog is imminently dying, and in many cases end up having to put the dog to sleep. Is that the most common scenario? I have fears of coming home and finding him dead. Whenever we come home from anywhere the kids (3, 4, and 7) usually run downstairs to get him since he is pretty deaf and doesn't always hear us come in -- should I be discouraging them from doing that just in case?

Thanks for any replies.

[Anonymous]

We had a 12.5 yr old choc lab pass away 2 yrs ago. Eventually we saw it coming, he would have diarrhea all the time, hard time climbing stairs or jumping in the car. The final month he began losing weight drastically. The last day we knew it was imminent. I went to bed at 11pm. DH passed out a while after on the couch. Couldn't sleep well, around 2am DH heard our dog move to the tile area near the front door. DH got up to rub him for a while. As he was rubbing about 15 min later the dog took its last breath and DH felt his heart stop beating. It was very sad but we know he left the world feeling loved

[Anonymous]

mixed breed dog that had a heart condition. Was on a series of pills for 2 to 3 years, and I was told that a dog can have heart problems or kidney problems, but not both because the medicine for heart taxes the kidney and vice versa. (I may have been not heart & liver, but I think it was kidney). A weekday night, she was okay. The next morning, panting, could not stand, I carried her outside, diarahhea, no appetite. Clearly dying. Found a vet to come to the home a few hours later and adminster a lethal injection.

One thing that I was clear on (and the circumstances made it easy) is that I was not going to pay a lot for another vetinary exam, emergency treatment etc. A trip to the emergency vet hospital would likely have resulted in bloodwork, IV, xrays, and a large bill with still the same outcome, just the dog having suffered.

With a cat, I once put her thru surgery in case the growth was not cancer. It was cancer. so the cat got a miserable few weeks and I got a large surgerical bill.

[Anonymous]

Leukemia

[Anonymous]

I've had it happen both ways- found my dog dead totally unexpectedly and put dogs to sleep. Almost six months ago, we put our lab to sleep after a short illness. She was deaf and had dementia, which i had not experienced with a dog before. She developed what the vet believes was some sort of cancer along with congestive heart failure. We didn't go through testing to get a diagnosis. Between the arthritis and dementia, and her difficulty breathing, we felt like the best thing was to let her go. It's difficult no matter how it happens.

[Anonymous]

One of mine was sleeping all day and when I got home from school to walk her she tried to stand up but had trouble, and just tipped over and died.


Another one (pretty young) had some kind of heart issues. It was hot day and he got all excited about something and decided to just go running and running around the house and I guess his ticker couldn't take it and he just stopped in front of me, shook, and passed out.

Neither one really had out-of-the-ordinary signs that I noticed ahead of time.

It's always sad, take care OP.

[Anonymous]

We had a little dog when I was growing up - she lived to the summer before she turned 16. Her hearing was going, she was getting stuck on the stairs and then confused, then she had a couple of strokes. Her quality of life had declined so significantly. We went to the vet after the last stroke and they had us come in and say goodbye to her before they put her to sleep. She kissed everybody.

[Anonymous]

She was old (13 yr old Mini Schnauzer) and had a stomach tumor so we had to euthanize her.

[Anonymous]

pp here .. to clarify, a very large, inoperable tumor ...

[Anonymous]

I think the best thing to do is to gently bring up with you children that Fluffy's body is starting to break down and thta she will eventually die. They see it and already know something is wrong, but I think it helps for them to know what is going to happen. I would bring it up every now and then, but not constantly. Treat it as something that is matter of fact but not scary - just part of life.

Then, do nothing. I had this same talk off and on with my children about my 12 year old Lab. He didn't quite make it to 15. Doing anything drastic now might be premature. In the end we put him down, but only because his condition detiorated rapidly in about three days and was suffering. I woke the kids up and said, "He's dying now. I'm taking him to the vet but he won't be back." They got a chance to say goodbye.

If it had happened the other way, that we just found him or they found him, I don't think thatwould have been bad at all. I would not worry about shielding them from it.

Death isn't an easy topic no matter what dies - a relative, a friend, or a goldfish. You have an opportunity here to help them learn how to deal with grief. There are also a number of good books for children about the death of a dog. We had them all and had read them ahead of time, but we pulled them out again when it happened. We still talk aboutt hat dog today, even though we now have two others. He was an incredibly important part of their baby years, especially for my older kids (he was 8 whent he first one came home), so we still miss him, and that's ok.

[Anonymous]

PP here - sorry for all the typos.

[Anonymous]

One toy poodle was about 13 when she went off to the back yard and died alone.

Two large golden retrievers, both lived til about 10 or 11, started having seizures and had to be put to sleep.

Another large golden of similar age just laid down, fell asleep and died. It was very quiet and unexpected.

[Anonymous]

We had a German shepherd who stopped eating when he was about 14. He had hip trouble and avoided steps like the plague but he seemed comfortable walking. My parents have 3 acres of property and he had a routine of walking along the border until the day he died. He also made a little girlfriend, a gorgeous golden retriever puppy from next door, "Lucy." He would always make an effort and act more energetic when she came over. Sometimes they would just sit together quietly on opposite sides of the fence. In his old age I took him on more walks to force him to exercise and move around a bit more. When he would get tired and want to stop and he would pretend like he was going to make #2 in the street and embarrass me in front of the neighbors, and I would have to be like "He's faking, don't worry everybody!" and look like an ass. I think he was also blind, and he spent most of the day sleeping, but as far as we could tell, he wasn't in pain. Oh, my mother was also giving him a daily regimen of glucosamine and an aspirin. For a month after he stopped eating, my mother would hand-feed him hamburger 3 or 4 times a day, which he would eat. He started eating again, and since he was an extremely large dog (+100 lbs), whenever he would lose weight, he would actually do better because it would be less weight on his hips. One day he stopped eating again and this time really couldn't eat. My mother fed him some hamburger one morning and petted him for awhile, and then he mozied to the backyard under the deck, and passed away. He seemed pretty content and comfortable in his old age. I actually have started crying as I write this. I'm still mourning for that dog!!!

Has anyone else ever given glucosamine and aspirin to a dog? Did this actually help him or was my mother being nuts?

[Anonymous]

I had a 12 yr old pit mix. I adopted her when she was around 6. She had lung cancer, diagnosed about 3 mos before she died. I came home one night and she hadn't eaten, had been vomiting, refused to go outside. That's how I knew it was time.

[Anonymous]

Glucosamine has been used for years in horses with arthritis. Perfectly safe for dogs. Not certain about the Aspirin.