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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:07 pm Post subject: What would you do?

There's this dog at the Vet's office where I work who is being boarded there has bad artheritis(sp) in her back legs. The poor thing can't even walk and drags her butt across the floor when she does. What would you do if this was your dog?

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:10 pm Post subject:

I think I need more information. Could his condition improve with treatment? Is he healthy otherwise? I know that dogs who are paralyzed can often get around just fine with a wheelchair-like cart. Might that be an option for this dog?

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:13 pm Post subject:

How about a K-9 Cart (doggie wheelchair)?

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:13 pm Post subject:

I have been through this, so I can speak from my own experience. My Keisha had terrible arthritis in her hips. We put her on Rimadyl (that was all there was on the market at the time). The Rimadyl caused horrible diarrhea and vomiting, which embarrassed her to no end. We NEVER scolded her, because we knew she couldn't help it, but she wouldn't even look at us when we got home from work because she was so ashamed of herself. We had to make the decision to have her PTS because she was between a rock and a hard place. She couldn't walk well or stand easily because of the pain, but the medicine made her sick and embarrassed. She was only 11 years old. So I would say, I would put that dog to sleep due to the lack of quality of life for her.

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:14 pm Post subject:

I agree with Ren.
more info.

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:16 pm Post subject:

I guess I need to add that I read that the dog you are talking about has arthritis, so I equate that automatically with pain.

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:17 pm Post subject:

I've seen dogs get along just fine with those doggie wheelchair/carts,but more info is needed on this one as the other posters said

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:19 pm Post subject:

I saw a tv program recently about a small dog that had something similar. Anyway, it was fixed up with a cart like contraption and seemed to do just fine. The lady even brought the dog in to see children who were in wheelchairs also as a treatment for them.

I would be more concerned with the amount of pain this poor dog was in. I would NEVER recommend Rimadyl be given due to personal experience shared by a friend of mine. It was given to her one year old shepherd and subsequently died. Anyway if the pain can be controlled by a safe pain reliever then I would by all means look into a doggie wheelchair/cart.

Oops, one more thing. I also happened to visit with a lady in the park whose older dog was in one. He seemed just as happy as could be and had no problem "running" around on a leash like the other dogs.

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:21 pm Post subject:

fostermom, you're making me Crying or Very sad

I can see one of my dogs acting the same way. Because when he gets sick, he is also embarrassed and we never scold the dogs when they get sick, nobody can help it if they have an upset stomach. I would have to say the answer to your question guineapigmom is, it depends. If the dog could be helped with the use of a wheel chair, and be pain free or at least only have small amount of discomfort, and not have the vomitting or loose stools, than I would say O.K. otherwise, I would have to say PTS for poor quality of life reasons.

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:23 pm Post subject:

More information is needed.

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 9:25 pm Post subject: What would you do?

I wish I could give you more information but I don't have it. She is being boarded at the vet's office I work for. Have no clue if she has a 'cart' or not. Just seeing her makes me ache for her. We've been giving her Rimadyl to make her more comfortable. She can't even use her back legs at all.

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 9:31 pm Post subject:

So sad! Do you have any idea how old she is?

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 11:17 pm Post subject:

This is very sad. I would have to agree that more info is needed. My family went through something similar with our GSD mix. We adopted her when I was very little. We found out when she was about one that she had very bad hip dysplasia. I was too young then to understand what that meant, but as she got older I saw her get worse and worse. It got to the point where she could barely walk and she was so overweight it was painful for her. She was on pain meds, but they didn't seem to help much. I'm not quite sure why my parents never made the decision to have her euthanized. She certainly was in a great deal of pain and towards the end of her life she was having seizures in addition to her other problems. We eventually had to send her to the bridge but I believe she experienced more suffering than I would let my dog go through today.

To me, it depends on quality of life. Now, looking back on this situation. I would have decided long before it got to that point to have her euthanized. Because of her physical condition a wheelchair cart would not have been practical (I don't even know if they had them back then). And her quality of life was basically very bad at the end.

If this dog still has what you would consider a good quality of life. If she is in good spirits and seems to want to live then I say do everything possible to make her comfortable, but if she is suffering and pain meds don't help and that light has gone out of her eyes then it might be better to end that struggle for her.

Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 5:10 pm Post subject:

What about Derramax? We prescribe a lot of that at the animal hospital that I work at. The veternarian I work for also does holistic stuff. She does acupuncture and laser treatments on dogs like this, and it is amazing. I have seen people carry their dogs into the animal hospital and after their treatment, the dogs are running out of the office!

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