15 years is a really good life for a big dog like a lab. You have been an amazing dad to him and I’m sure he feels the same way.
Ezra got adopted yesterday, previously returned Leif adopted yesterday as well. Some longtime volunteers wrote a letter to the leadership team and the board of directors Friday. A meeting has been scheduled for Monday after closing for staff and blue level volunteers, it's gonna get ugly.
I’ve talked about our two Sharpei’s passing, but we got an English bulldog puppy in February with the plan to get a Saint Bernard to raise him with. He has been a handful behaviorally, so it put things on hold. My wife is part of some saint group on Facebook and I finally takes her into fostering as I think a lot of our bulldog’s issues is he is bored. We were contacted on Friday about a family having surrender their 20-month old Saint due to her barking at their duplex. She came to us last night. She’s huge. Ran around our huge yard with our bulldog until our bulldog was throwing up he was so tired. Hadn’t barked once. Hoping it’s just what everyone needs and we keep her forever. Spoiler
Circling back to this post, has anybody had any further experience with seizures in the past year or so? Our 5.5 year old had his second seizure in two weeks this morning. Both have been incredibly violent and really scary. During this second one, he bucked his head into the wall and punched a hole in the drywall. Awaiting blood work results (because this age seems late to develop epilepsy), but most likely have to start him on phenobarbital. Really not looking forward to those side effects and hoping it doesn’t change him too much.
What kind of flea/tick stuff do you use? We found out our dog did not have epilepsy, and the seizures were caused by the vet-prescribed flea/tick medication, Simparica. The pill form that you give them once every three or six months. It’s a serious side effect that can happen to some dogs. Our old vet never mentioned it, and we had no idea. Didn’t learn about it till later and found out that it is the most common cause of seizures in pets. Changed vets since then. Anyway, we took him off that and put him back on the Frontline topical. And thankfully, he hasn’t had a single seizure since. But yeah, wanting to avoid phenobarbital at all costs is definitely understandable. It’s slowly poisons your animal until they eventually die from it. Two seizures in two weeks isn’t frequent enough to have to use it just yet though. Our dog had three in just over a month. But once we switched off Simparica, they stopped. So as scary as it is, I’d hold off on pheno until they become more frequent.
Yea, he’s on Simparica, but he’s been on it for a few years so it seems unlikely (to me) that this side effect would just now pop up. I’ll run it by the vet though.
Same thing with ours. They turn seven this year and never had any issues at all until last year. We gave them the Simparica three-month chewable up until that point too. Apparently the seizures can happen randomly, or it can take other factors (stress, heat, etc.) to trigger one. Just based solely on my experience, I wouldn’t give your dog Simparica ever again (or any other ingestible flea/tick medication for that matter). I’d stick to topicals. And one million percent wouldn’t give him phenobarbital until you’ve tried taking him off Simparica for a while. Or ever unless his life depends on it. Cuz once you do, there’s no coming back.
Geraldo, Milk and Mango all adopted in the last two days. Barring any returns that concludes our study, 22 days to re-home 10 dogs and euthanize one. I wouldn't have guessed the GSP would be the one to get euthanized. If German Shepherds or Huskies are your thing you're in luck, nearly 40% of our adoptable dogs right now are those breeds. We have a cute 6 month old female Shepherd who just wants to play. I'm sure if you give it another 6 months she'll just want everything dead like the rest of the Shepherds. If you're in the market for a new family member... get 'em while they're hot!
New cavalier is the dumbest dog I’ve ever owned but he is so damn cute. Won’t leave his sister alone for shit. An overall pest really.
How'd you deal with him going deaf? My older lab is 11, I'm pretty sure he's starting to lose his hearing. I know he hasnt lost it completely because if I'm yelling for him to come inside he'll stop what he's doing and stare at me before ignoring me a few more times. Ive touched him in the morning and startled him when he didn't wake up to my alarm. Same thing late at night if I got up and he was on the floor or in his bed and I accidentally brushed by him.
Bridger came home in April. 7 months earlier this week. Reported to training yesterday. Dad is now on vacation lol.
Dogust has been a hit so far. I went in for a 2 hour dog enrichment shift today and ended up staying 7 hours. We had a line of people out the door. I got thrown into socials/matchmaking with no training in that area. Lot of empty kennels at closing today. Feels good. Meet our newest tripod Kalani, 18 pounds of adorable! She came to us absolutely filthy.
I assume as soon as we got an English bulldog my vet went and bought a new boat knowing that he would have a steady stream of disposable income over the next 8-10 years.
Nothing major really after first having the vet rule out anything reversible. Manly I just didn’t/don’t take him off leash any more. He got really testy in the dog park once he couldn’t hear other dogs come up behind him. He does better in a smaller setting around dogs he knows. He could hear me clapping longer than anything else so I used that to get his attention. Make heavier footsteps when I want him to know I’m coming up behind him. Otherwise he compensates pretty well day to day.
My 15yo Lab passed away in April. I'm starting to think about getting another dog. I've had Labs my whole life. I've owned 2 in adulthood. My father had a Lab Kennel my entire childhood. Every breed type test I've taken tells me I'm incompatible with Labs - WTF. I think mainly because I put in they have to be left at home for 8 hours a day. A guy in my neighborhood has a boykin that I adore, not sure I'll be able to leave one of those at home for 8 hours while at work. Any suggestions?
Making calls this morning to in-home vets to help our little girl Penny cross the rainbow bridge... She’s 17 and has been mostly blind for the last 3 years, but now she’s also having trouble staying on her feet and walking. I know that, while we are around she could be okay, but my real concern is leaving her for any length of time and her hurting herself. Last Saturday I left to grab some groceries. Was probably gone for less than an hour. During that time she hit her head pretty good and we’re pretty sure she suffered a concussion…we plan on helping her cross over at home and letting her enjoy some pizza (her favorite food) beforehand, but there is nothing about this that doesn’t suck. She’s my first dog. I got her after my parents had passed and I was in a pretty dark place before I got her. I never imagined letting her go would be this hard.
So sorry man. I think it's a really good choice to do It in home, that is what we did with ours. Being able to sit with her when doing it is very hard, but the least that we can do after all our dogs give to us.
Ask friends, people at work, anyone you trust if they’ve used anyone local. The right vet makes a huge difference in the process. We did this last year and our vet was incredible. Very sorry you are having to make this difficult decision but focus on the great quality of life you gave her. Hope all goes as well as possible.
Thanks guys, really appreciate that. It’s going to be near impossible holding back tears when the time comes but I don’t want her to feel my grief in her last moments. We were hoping to put this off until a friend of ours who is a vet recovered from her knee surgery, but I don’t think that’s an option now. There are a couple of providers in our area with very good reviews. I plan on calling all of them and going with the earliest appointment. I made the mistake of reading an article on what to expect that included a number of things that could go wrong (other articles I read were very helpful) so now that’s in my head. For anyone whose been through it, I’m wondering what you opted to do with your pups remains and would you have done something different if given the chance?
Our process. 1. Vet came to house and talked with me. 2. Did an assessment of our dog and made their recommendation 3. We agreed and consented to helping her pass peacefully 4. We took her outside in our backyard in one of her favorite spots and had her bed out there 5. They sedated her and we visited with her for a few min. Said our goodbyes. 6. They gave her a second shot that stopped her heart. She was asleep when that happened. We sat with her for another few minutes and I cried like a baby. Tearing up now writing this. 7. We buried her in our backyard and planted a rose bush. other context - we knew the vet was coming per the appointment so the days leading up to that we treated her even more like the queen she was. Golf cart rides around the neighborhood to see all her friends. Cups of cool whip, steak for dinner, etc. It was really sad knowing what was coming but giving her as much as possible until the end helped me and my family grieve. Hope you have peace with your decision and the process is as painless as possible for your dog and family. God speed.
First off I'm sorry you're going through this. One of the hardest things I've ever done. Our animal hospital or whoever they used put together some really nice stuff for us. We got a paw imprint and his ashes in a nice container. Our most cherished thing though is he had a blanket he loved. My wife found someone online and we turned that blanket into a stuffed animal. The person required we wash it first so we used the tiniest amount of mild soap and imo it still smells like him.
17 years! I sure hope my boys get up to that age. I am so sorry for what you are going through with right now, I can't imagine how hard on the heartstrings it is. Do you have any more pictures you can share of Penny throughout her life so we may celebrate her?
I got Penny when she was 11, so unfortunately no puppy pics. But the first pic is of her wearing her Easter bonnet the first year I had her and the second pic was taken just a couple weeks ago. Lots of Iggies her age have trouble keeping on weight and will typically lose most if not all of their teeth- not this girl. I had someone as recently as a couple weeks ago comment on how pretty she was.
I don’t know much about her life prior to adopting her. Just that her mom was an older woman who lived at the Jersey shore and had passed away. She came with a full wardrobe with things like “diva” printed on her clothes…not exactly what I thought my first dog would be like but like they say, the dog picks you not the other way around. When I went to her foster’s house I was actually there to meet a different dog. But as soon as I walked though the door she put her paws on me, climbed into my lap and fell asleep.
So, so sorry. Our clinic has one vet in particular that has put down our last 3. She handles it so gracefully. We bury them on this big hill on our property where they all liked to sit. I wouldn't change it.
with both of our dogs it was an extremely smooth process. There was no indication they were in any type of pain. I’m not religious at all, but I can tell you that the experience of being with my dogs when they passed was both the saddest and closest thing I have had to a spiritual experience. We had the vet take our first dog and get cremated. Our second was on a Sunday, so I had to load him into my truck and take him to the crematory. I sat with him in my back seat for 10 minutes just hugging him and crying. We have their ashes in urns in my office with paintings of them that my wife commissioned off Etsy. The crematory also gave us seeds with their ashes, and we have planted those in the back yard.
Use sign language. Come = hand on side make dog come to you. if dog was put through obedience training use sign language for it to sit and stay.
I remember having to do this with our old golden cocker spaniel. She was both blind and deaf and we had to use sign language. She was a beautiful dog though. Her name was rani.
Here are my bubs. Samson (German Shepard) and June (Golden/Pyrenees). Both rescues, Sam was found abandoned on the edge of farm. He has about 1/3 of his tail because monster people wrapped rubber bands around it and had a collar embedded in his neck and had grown around it. Has some pretty gnarly scarring as a result. Sam was an only child for a couple years until we got June. She was given up by elderly lady that couldn't handle her. Sam is around 12 or 13, and June is almost 9. Sam is such a smart dog, he did a great job teaching June the ropes. And while we love June, she is our anxious, ditzy girl. Sam has started to slow down some, which has been difficult.
She's been recently buried (tombstone not ready yet) but her patch of grass shows no disturbance or seams if it's just patched over with sod? Interesting work of fiction. If I'm right, this is just extra fucking weird to be exploiting a cemetery for influencer shit.
Thats where I went after watching it. Kept looking for new hole in the ground signs. I wanted to believe it though.
I hate being the "let me burst that happy bubble for ya" guy but it seemed just too far of a leap to believe.
Moose has been off Simparica since his first seizure almost 6 weeks ago. Obviously not a long time, but he has now had 4 seizures in that period - once on 7/19, once on 8/1, and now two today. Unfortunately, it looks like we are going to have to start phenobarbital. I’m not excited about it, but he can’t handle multiple seizures in a single day. EDIT: make that 3 seizures today