When

 

Every morning I anticipate whether we’ll have a fairly good start or not. It usually depends on how well Noah does throughout the night - how many times did he get up, of those times how many times was there a need for a bathroom break, if it was a bathroom break was he able to pee on his own. Those are just some indicators.

Some days Noah does great.

Other days not so much.

But the one thing that remains constant with him is how well he eats and how perfect his stool is.

I know. Talking about stool consistencies is gross but this has been one of the main indicators of senior pet health for me (dogs undergoing cancer treatment, dogs with kidney disease and other dogs with other medical issues are likely to have diarrhea or GI upset - Noah has none of that. His poops are literally perfect). Noah’s main thing is his inability to walk for a long period of time without knuckling. Or when he isn’t knuckling his back legs will give out and we will eventually fall. He’ll sometimes trip over as well as his front paw/nails might get caught.

Nevertheless, it’s been a confusing few weeks for me. How do I make a decision on a dog’s fate when the two main indicators that have told me about quality of life for my other dogs is actually really great for Noah? Yes there are definitely other things that factor into a dog’s quality of life, like mobility and how connected he is to his daily life, but when I see his perky face and eyes and his eagerness to move, I just can’t help but to continue to find ways to support him.

Back in November, Noah’s T4 tested low. Then in March it tested even lower. He was never given medication. His blood pressure in March was also higher than normal (170) but again wasn’t given medication. He was working through his vestibular syndrome and so the vet didn’t want to overload him with medications. She gave him just three days to turn around (I’ve read that dogs usually need 2 weeks to come out of a vestibular syndrome) and if he didn’t then she highly suggested euthanasia because Noah could have brain tumor ( I have been told that Bartles and Lady also had brain tumor, which seemed so incredible.. three dogs in a row with brain tumor). That freaked me out.

When we were supposed to check back with the vet over the phone, Noah ended up eating better but he still had a severe head tilt and couldn’t walk on his own. I reported back and made an appointment for a recheck, which I ended up canceling. Part of it was the whole Covid19 scare but another part of it was that I was afraid she would tell me to put him down because he wasn’t improving the way she had wanted him to.

I know… it sounds completely ridiculous and may even read irresponsible.

I think over the years of adopting senior dogs, some with medical issues, the level of support in moving forward with treatment for a very old dogs seemed less than enthusiastic. Or that is just the feeling I got. I never felt this with Piri, whom we had an established vet with who supported every treatment we wanted to pursue (she has since moved and we have been vet hopping since). But I’ve felt it with my other dogs.

And so we’ve been trying to address those issues (Thyroid and hypertension) at home through natural homeopathic methods, which are alway a crapshoot (sometimes they’ll work, other times they won’t, but you have to give at least 3 weeks to see results - but perhaps medicine too is a crapshoot as well. They don’t always work and you always have to deal with side effects).

Noah got up at 4 am and then 6 am to pee and has been sleeping ever since.

This is a good start. Now we’ll have to see how the rest of the day plays out.