Tough Decision

[deanp]

The older one should most likely be put down, as unfortunate and painful as it is. Her quality of life has taken a huge hit and at 13 the likelihood that she'll recover is pretty slim I would imagine. I've heard that it is in the dog's nature is to hide pain and discomfort from the Alpha, in this case you or your wife.

As an example we had a Samoyed that was diagnosed with diabetes at about age 12. We were giving insulin shots, which was tough to regulate in the winter due to arthritis flare ups, causing stress, which in turn would make the diabetes go out of whack. I left for an overseas business trip and he 'appeared' to be doing okay. I ended up telling my wife that we (she) had to put him down as he was going places in the yard where he would never go as if he were looking for a place to quietly pass on while I was gone. I still regret not being there when he was put down, but couldn't bear the thought of doping him up until I returned.

[Superman]

It's tough. I guess I like Nostatic's suggestion of making a decision, and then seeing if it feels like the right one over the following few hours. If it doesn't then reverse it. If it does, then execute the plan. I cannot make this decision for you and I am not attached to the dog(s), but I would lean toward putting both dogs down and getting one or two puppies.

[Nathans_Dad]

My wife and I had agreed to take a 6 month break from dogs after these two go. I have always had dogs, my dad used to show Dachshunds (that's wiener dogs to you rednecks) and we always had at least one dog. I have to admit that the problems we have had with the younger one have soured me a little on dogs for now. We also have two young kids and are thinking about a third. Dogs just seem to take much more of a back seat once you have kids.

My wife is really a huge dog lover, she is so upset over the older one that she said that she wasn't sure if she wanted to get another dog or not. I'm sure that will change with some time. I did finally get her to agree to a smaller dog, the labs are great dogs but they are so stinking big. Big poop, big food bills, big yard damage, more hair to shed, tougher to move around, etc. I finally got her convinced that a medium sized pound puppy mutt is what we should look at next if we get another dog.

I just talked to her about 30 minutes ago and she says the dog has fallen about 4 times so far today. That is much less than the 20 or so times she fell yesterday. Of course, this all makes our decision harder....