Nov. 30th we had to make a very sudden decision that broke our hearts. We had to put our beloved Harley of 12 1/2 years down. I never knew that this could be so hard. It's been a month and it hasn't gotten any easier. How do you deal with the guilt if you made the right choice? He had a cough for months for it, at first they thought maybe acid reflux but after a couple of months with no improvement they said it was most likely laryngeal paralysis, we had videoed him multiple times and showed it to them and they said that's most likely what it was, I kept telling them it didn't seem like it was that to me. He got aspiration pneumonia in Oct and thought we were going to lose him, but he pulled through except he still had his cough. We took him to get a second opinion and they thought may bronchitis so they put him on a steroid type medication. Thanksgiving day he started collapsing and a few times what looked like seizures, they stopped and he seemed fine the next day. The vet said to bring him in Saturday if we needed. Well Friday night in middle of the night everything changed, he seemed to be having more seizures and would collapse and seemed like he was having trouble walking like he was dizzy, he fell asleep but then was very hard to wake and woke up in a puddle of urine. We took him to the ER vet and within 15 min we were told that he was borderline vtach and that his heart appeared to have something going on with the left ventricle and an appearance that looked like cancer. We were told that we should make a decision sooner than later and they would get a room ready for us. We brought him home and called a place to come to our home that evening. Hardest thing ever. We asked if there was anything that could be done but the dr said IF he was still around Monday they could try to stabilize him and he could see a cardiologist but she worried he would suffer either a major heart attack or stroke. We have so much guilt like maybe we should have tried that. We miss our boy so much. I hope this get easier. thanks for listening.
Of my goodness. 2 1/2 years after losing our beautiful black lab this made me cry. The decisions we make are the best at the time and there is no going back. Barney had a cough for a few months if he rolled over. He had been put on loxicom for stiffness and I was having a battle with the vet because he had had an adverse reaction to the drug under a different name previously. I put his sudden decline down to the drug. Fast forward 2 months of in and out of the vet on drips not eating and looking very sad I asked again about the cough as I had on every visit and they x rayed his chest. His lungs were completely congested with lung cancer. We made the decision whilst he was under to end his suffering. The guilt was dreadful. Could I have done more? Should I have asked for the chest x ray sooner?Did he suffer because I didn’t? He was just 12 and had had a great life so I now forget about the end(until just now) and think about the good times. Having Toby helps although that’s another story! I know from your other post you are having problems with your young lab but time will help with that too. All the best. Keep posting and look after yourself too.
