I don’t write about my dog, Lily, much. She doesn’t do anything odd, she stays out of trouble, she’s mostly quiet and she’s just a good good dog. However, she’s now 15 and that means she’s pretty much elderly.
When I took her to the vet, several months ago, the vet noticed that one of her pupils was not reactive to light. She put Lily through the paces and noticed some unevenness in her gait. I’d written it off as her just being less spry and less flexible due to her age. The vet did a few more things and told me she felt Lily had had a stroke recently. I guess, in dogs, it’s not always as obvious as with people and can easily be missed.
At that time, I was given the option of putting her through a bunch of tests with no guarantee they’d find anything or be able to fix whatever had caused the stroke, or just letting her live her life without the stress of tests and vet visits. I knew that, given her age, we most likely would not have a great deal of time left with her and I didn’t want that time to be stressful for her. I wanted whatever time she had left to be normal and stress-free.
Early Thanksgiving morning, Lily suddenly stood next to me and looked at me with the strangest expression I’ve ever seen. I knew something was wrong and got down on the floor with her. I sat with her until she felt up to moving. When she tried to move, she seemed to have lost all sense of balance and was unable to stand upright and could barely walk. I believe she had another stroke.
Being that it was very early in the AM and we don’t exactly live all that close to anywhere that I could take her, I spent the rest of the morning at Lily’s side. She’s such a good dog, even though she was obviously unwell she tried to get to the door so she could go to the bathroom outside. I ended up carrying her out and being her support so she could do her business.
The kids were very worried and I told them I would give her until the day after Thanksgiving and, if there was no improvement, I would have to take her to the vet to be put to sleep. She showed a little improvement so I decided to take a wait and see approach. Over the weekend, she regained most of her mobility but she’s just not herself. She’s not drinking very much, she’ll eat only if I offer her special foods and she’s started to have trembling and panting spells. She’s begun behaving oddly too. She’s become incredibly clingy, she does not want me out of her sight for even a second. She’s tried to climb into the shower with me which is very strange because she HATES baths and getting wet.
We only have a vet on base on Fridays, so I made an appointment for her for Friday afternoon. Even though I can see that she’s not herself and I know she is the equivelant of a 105 year old lady, I’m still struggling with this decision.
