Hello Im new to the group and im looking for advice for my 15 year old dog Amy.
She is a labrador x springer spaniel. We have had her since she was a puppy.
So ill tell you a bit of her back story before i get on with asking my question. about 3 years ago amy had a vestibular attack even though she recovered from this attack the vet said it was quite a violent one. Unfortunately this changed things for her not completely she just became unsteady and unbalanced on her feet.
A year and a half after this she got pyometra luckily we caught this in the early stages and was able to get her in to have an op before this got worse. Yet again she recovered from this very quickly.
Now to present day she is quite unsteady on her feet. She has been diagnosed with doggy dementia, she is blind (only see`s from one eye but even then her vision is limited she only see`s shadows), a bit deaf or ignorant we cant decide, she has some sort of digestive problem (currently eating only white fish or tuna with brown rice), she has gone down from 14 kg to 11kg in just 2 weeks. She also has become incontinent.
We have recently taken her to the vet for some advice and tests to be done. she had a blood test and a urinary test done to see if there was anything else behind her incontinence. Both have shown that everything is okay there was a slight worry of kidney failure but after reviewing the urinary analysis they have decided there is nothing to be greatly worried about at the moment. The advice i was given is that things wont get better and it would be nicer to put her to sleep now before things get any worse. I tried to see if i could get some advice on some sort of nutrition but the vet wasn't very helpful in this department.
Now for all those who are saying put her to sleep. I agree i would like to do this but she is a family dog and the choice is not mine alone. My moms view is that so long as shes eating and shes happy in herself, she is happy to let her continue.
Now i would like to try and get her if possible to gain some weight now i know that this will be either really hard if not impossible as elderly dogs do not absorb the nutrients from there food as they use to when they were younger. But i would feel like i have failed if i didn't at least try for her benefit. Now she is very keen on food we have tried recently to feed her twice a day instead of the usual 1.
I guess my question is can anybody recommend something that we could either add to her food or a different food that may suit her better.
She is a labrador x springer spaniel. We have had her since she was a puppy.
So ill tell you a bit of her back story before i get on with asking my question. about 3 years ago amy had a vestibular attack even though she recovered from this attack the vet said it was quite a violent one. Unfortunately this changed things for her not completely she just became unsteady and unbalanced on her feet.
A year and a half after this she got pyometra luckily we caught this in the early stages and was able to get her in to have an op before this got worse. Yet again she recovered from this very quickly.
Now to present day she is quite unsteady on her feet. She has been diagnosed with doggy dementia, she is blind (only see`s from one eye but even then her vision is limited she only see`s shadows), a bit deaf or ignorant we cant decide, she has some sort of digestive problem (currently eating only white fish or tuna with brown rice), she has gone down from 14 kg to 11kg in just 2 weeks. She also has become incontinent.
We have recently taken her to the vet for some advice and tests to be done. she had a blood test and a urinary test done to see if there was anything else behind her incontinence. Both have shown that everything is okay there was a slight worry of kidney failure but after reviewing the urinary analysis they have decided there is nothing to be greatly worried about at the moment. The advice i was given is that things wont get better and it would be nicer to put her to sleep now before things get any worse. I tried to see if i could get some advice on some sort of nutrition but the vet wasn't very helpful in this department.
Now for all those who are saying put her to sleep. I agree i would like to do this but she is a family dog and the choice is not mine alone. My moms view is that so long as shes eating and shes happy in herself, she is happy to let her continue.
Now i would like to try and get her if possible to gain some weight now i know that this will be either really hard if not impossible as elderly dogs do not absorb the nutrients from there food as they use to when they were younger. But i would feel like i have failed if i didn't at least try for her benefit. Now she is very keen on food we have tried recently to feed her twice a day instead of the usual 1.
I guess my question is can anybody recommend something that we could either add to her food or a different food that may suit her better.
I would really be inclined to give her any food she really enjoys, I lost my Springer through kidney failure but she was only 9 years old, also became incontinent . Vet prescribed Urilin for this which really worked until a couple of weeks before we lost her. Amy will let you know when she’s had enough so enjoy her and make the most of every day with her, we would have loved to keep Molly with us for longer but we had to be kind to her in the best way we could. It’s the quality of life that matters .
