Sorcha

She refuses support of any kind. If I touch her when she starts going down (to try and support her), she quits eating or whatever else she was doing and goes off to lay down. It only makes things worse if I try to help her.

Thanks for the input. The problem is that what she can eat has to be mashed or ground, otherwise she cannot swallow it due to her LP. So being messy it needs to be in a bowl but maybe I can try a paper plate. It's not that she does not want to eat, she has an appetite, it's that she cannot stand up long enough to eat everything and won't eat laying down (she is stubborn like that). I have been giving her chicken breast, rice, ground beef, baby food (and also the sausage things sliced and cut into little cubes), bologna, plain Ragu, pasta, etc.. I am worried about giving her many other foods for fear all these goodies could cause loose stools, I don't want to add that problem to the mix, that is why I have been trying to go with 1/2 dry dog food (chopped up until it's a powder and mixed with water, lactaid milk or chicken broth) and 1/2 goodies. I will look into the EVO.

Hi Jeannine, no she will not let me use a sling or anything else to support her. I have tried a few times and the only result I get is a ticked off greyhound!

Unfortunately I cannot feed her several times a day since I work away from home full time and live alone. She gets 2 hours in the morning to eat and 4 hours in the evening to eat. In the end, she is barely able to finish half of what she needs to eat to keep weight on.

I have tried putting the bowl on the floor, she won't touch it. She will only eat from the raised feeder (which is actually a trash basket!). I did try moving a square dog bed to the area where she tends to "drop" but it freaks her out and she acts as thought it's in her way, so it only ended up being another obstacle to her not eating.

By the way, the area where I have her food bowl is right next to her dog bed. I moved it into the living room when she started "failing".

Going to try to post pictures from tonight and a very short video. Hind legs starting to give out ... This is the point where she usually gives up ... Set her food bowl down on her dog bed and this is her reaction ... If she could talk she would be saying "Are you serious? I don't eat laying down" ... The brief video (battery died) shows she wants to eat ...

Thank you to everyone who has responded with their suggestions, kind words, and support. I appreciate it.

Aha.. different from what I originally thought. Is Tuna's bed flat on the floor? If it is, can you make a low platform for it? If she's situated a little bit above her bowl rather than next to it, she might be more willing to eat lying down. Hmm, I will see what I can use to make a platform of sorts next to her dog bed. I was just talking with the dogsitter, she was here this past weekend taking care of Tuna and 2 of my other dogs while I was with 1 of my dogs in Dewey for Greyhounds Reach the Beach. She brought up about how Tuna acts when she is in the back yard (so full of life, prancing around, has a big grin on her face, etc.). I wonder, if it was her time would she be still be enjoying life so much?

I think you just answered your question right here. Sounds like she's not ready to go yet. I think when she is ready you will know. Just wanted to second what some of the others have already said, have you tried to hand feed her? If she's picking the good bits out to eat and leaving the rest - why not just spoil her for the time she's got left and only give her the good bits? I've read about "satin balls" in this forum, they are some kind of high-calorie delicious food to get older/ill hounds to eat. If you search you should be able to find it. Wishing you lots of strength and patience. You clearly love her a lot, and I know how hard it can be to give so much support to a failing beloved companion. Yes I have tried to hand feed her and have tried to spoon her but she won't have it with her independent nature. She will eat bologna out of my hand but everything else she will only eat from her bowl and won't eat laying down. I have been wanting her to eat her dog food as well as the extras so that she is getting the most nutrition possible and also I want to avoid loose stools. I will search for information about satin balls. Thanks!! She has never had raw food before so I am concerned about that. Can I cook the ground beef of would that defeat the purpose?

It's not a lack of appetite, it's a lack of being able to stand long enough to eat. Although, if it was up to her she would eat nothing but bologna and Gerber Stage 3 Chicken & Vegetables baby food! This experience with Tuna is completely different then when the end came with my saluki who battled cancer.

You are describing where I was last November or December. I so feel your confusion, your turmoil, your pain. I lost my beloved TigerPower to cancer in November, and Stepper at 13-1/4 year old was starting to fail. Then Stepper discovered the couch and gave me hope for more years, it was an emotional roller coaster ride for a couple of months. Good times and bad with his shakey back end, the weight loss (which happens at that age no matter what). When he was eating a turkey neck and his back end went and I put my arm under his belly and held him up, he did not miss a bite, and kept on chomping. He never ate laying down, but many meals I was holding his middle up. Then DonnieDude entered our home, and Stepper played like a puppy for two glorious weeks. Suddenly one night he could not get his back end to move and brougth himself in dragging his hind end, he would not let me help him, he got up onto the couch. Friday morning, he ate fine, Friday night he could not get off the couch for dinner and looked at me like "what do we do now Mom?" I took his dinner over to him, and Saturday I let him go. He walked into the vets office on his own steam, got to the quilt in the middle of the floor and that was all he could do, his back end collapsed, he was done. He went swiftly in my arms hearing how much I love him and would miss him till we meet again. I still can not write this without crying for my rock, my foundation, my best boy. It is so hard to figure out when it is time. Such a personal decision, and only our hounds can tell us when they are ready. I know this does not help, but please know you are not alone in the indecision, the worry, the caring, the love, the hope, the tears as our beloved companions age gracefully before our eyes. Thank you for sharing your experience with this, When she begins to go down in her hind legs while eating, every time I have tried to help by putting my hand under her to get her back to a standing position and support her, she jumps away and goes back to her dog bed and won't go back to the food bowl for fear I will try it again, she is so independent and refuses help. So I have stopped trying to help her stand because I know it will only make her upset. Instead, she eats as long as she can until her hind legs go out, then she lays down, then 1/2 hour later I encourage her to get up again and try eating some more, and this repeats all night long. She never has been a fan of getting on the couch, and even if she could I don't think she would be able to.

I have tried, she will not allow me to use anything to support her (sling or otherwise), she jumps up and down and bucks whenever I have tried.

I honestly do not feel as though I will clearly know when it is her time. I went through cancer with a saluki, and knew when it was her time. But this is not cancer and it's not clear to me if I will ever be able to tell when it is her time, or perhaps it already is her time and I am letting her go on not realizing it's her time. She still roaches, she still nuzzles against me, she rarely has an accident in the house unless I am late coming home from work, she understands why I keep her contained to one room in the house when I leave (the less moving around she does the better), she still enjoys romping around in the backyard, even though her romps are a bit limited, she understands she can no longer go up and doen the steps to the finished basement (which used to be her favorite room) and tries to take care on the concrete steps going outside, somtimes she takes a fall on the steps outside but even though she is bleeding she continues on her way to the yard to do her busines then returns to me to help her back inside and patiently waits while I patch her up, she clearly wants her dinner and eagerly awaits to be served by stomping her front paws (only to eat a bite or two and then go lay down), so forth and so on. Oh, and she is Ms Independent and hates to be supported so I use words like "be careful" and "go easy" with her when she does something like tries to barrell out the door without stopping to size up the situation, and she seems to understand.

I have been in contact with my vet regularly. Today's conversation ended with him telling me that if she can no longer stand up long enough to eat, and won't eat laying down or with me hand feeding, then it's time to re-think her quality of life. It's not that she does not want to eat (standing up), it's just that she only can for a minute or two at a time.

Tuna will be 14 in a couple of weeks. She has degenerative myelopathy and due to this she is unable to stand for a period of time long enough to eat her food (her hindquarters give out and she has to go lay down). She refuses to eat laying down. Added to this, she has laryngeal paralysis, which has progressed to the point where she cannot eat food unless it is chopped up in a blender and moistened with water to make it soft and easy to swallow. I add all sorts of things, such as jars of baby food (chicken or turkey flavors) or sliced up ground beef or chicken. She picks out the "good stuff" and leaves the rest, I figure since she cannot stand long enough to eat everything she feels she might as well eat the stuff that appeals to her most. I spend 4 hours every night trying to get her to eat at least half of her food and another 2 hours each morning. It's simply not working, and she is to the point of being underweight so much that she is a mere skeleton of her former self. Is it time to give up? She is not in pain (at least she has not indicated to me she is), she is still able to get in and out of the house to go to the bathroom, can still get around the house from dog bed to dog bed in different rooms (no stairs, it's a ranch house) although she often scrapes her rear legs up on the concrete steps going outside because they are hard for her to manage. She still has playful bouts of energy in the yard and aside from the not eating well and not always being able to rely on her hind legs to support her she's okay. I don't know if I am being selfish to keep her going on like this. She has x-ray scans recently and there are no signs of cancer. Is it time to let her go?

Yes thank you Lynn, that's very helpful. I was going to PM you to ask what you do to manage Howie's problem. What dosage of Prilosec do you give him? Just one pill? (I take that for a stomach problem that I have). At this point I'd assume Sutra's case is mild, but my worst nightmare would be to find out he's having a hard time breathing and would need to be rushed to the evet. He's not an overly active dog...he's 11. We take walks on occasion, but most of the time he just wants to wander around the back yard. He does run with Ace sometimes, and plays bitey-face with Skimmie in the house. Lucy I'll be interested to see if the a/c makes an impact on Riley's breathing. As I said before, the house was about 77 degrees and Sutra was doing the hard breathing all the time. I turned the air back on so it's about 73 degrees and the heavy breathing has decreased - such a relief! He didn't seem bothered by it at all, but, it had me worried! I'm at work right now so I just called DBF to ask him to write down any periods of heavy breathing (and what he was doing when it started) and note any times he makes that noise. I'm looking for patterns so I can help avoid situations that will cause him to flare up. Regarding the air conditioning, my greyhound has LP and keeping her cool makes a world of difference. I also have a box fan that is pointed right at her dog bed.

Tuna does not chew, her food is ground in the blender and moistened so all she needs to do is lick & swallow. My Nola (borzoi-saluki) has been going around licking up blood spots that I miss. Either she does not like the sight of it or she likes the taste.

I went home on my lunch hour today to check on her (it is a 25 minute drive each way so I could only stay a few minutes!). There was blood on her bedding again, not as much this time. I noticed what looked like a scab dried into it so I checked her all over again and as I was running my hands over her face my fingers caught on a scab and popped it open and blood immediately flowed out. So, turns out she has a cut on her upper "lip", on the outside but at the very bottom. I have no idea how it happened, and there's not much I can do for a cut in that spot. I wiped the area with a clean cloth dampened with water and then applied pressure with a dry cloth until the bleeding stopped. It's a terrible place for a cut and since Tuna loves to rub her head on anything and everything, and lick her tounge across her lips, it's going to be a cycle of scab, pop, bleed, scab, repeat until it finally heals itself.

Okay well I do not know what to do for her, and I need to leave for work. Hopefully she will be okay today while I am not home.

Yes, I checked her mouth as well as her ears, her rear, her tail, between her toes, between her paw pads, her legs ... her whole body every single part of it.

This morning started out in a strange way. For one thing, my alarm clock went off at 6:00 am, normally one of the dogs wakes me up at 5:57 am so I was startled by the sound. Next, my greyhound Tuna did not stir from her dog bed when I got out of bed, which has never happened before. I looked over at her, she was laying there eyes open, not blinking, dead-dog style and my heart sank. It was not until I actually went over and layed a hand on her that she raised her head, but then put it right back down. I was horrified to see dried blood on her dog bed, not just a small amount from a little cut or scratch, but a significant amount. That was not there last night when she went to bed. I checked her all over, three times, and found no source of the blood. I got her up and outside with the rest of the dogs, checked her again standing up and still found nothing. I even checked the other dogs just in case, but no blood on them. What could it be?

I just learned that my regular vet is on vacation for the week so I won't be able to talk with him until next Monday. I guess for now I will hang out in limbo. I just got to thinking that the coughing and raspy panting really started to pick up when Tuna could no longer go downstairs to the finished basement where it's cold year 'round (ice cold when the a/c is on). Tuna cannot go up and down stairs anymore, so I have been keeping her in the second coolest room in the house (the kitchen) when I go to work. The central air conditioner at my house is on its last legs (the compressor and capacitator are shot). It struggles to keep the house at 79, which is comfortable and not warm at all, but also not ice cold (except down in the finished basement). I also leave a box fan on right in front of the a/c vent in the kitchen so the cool air circulates in the room better, and I close the the curtains (there is a bright night light left on for her). I can't leave her in my bedroom because it's the warmest room in the house and also she cannot jump up on the bed by herself anymore and if she tries and falls backwards that could be deadly. Tuna is not a fan of hand feeding. I have tried it in the past with no success, I tried again tonight and she was not a happy camper and refused. The only thing she will eat from me feeding her is spaghetti. The animal hospital vet did not say anything about it putting pressure on her throat. It has grown significantly since March, and is now the size of a large plum (so I say, the animal hospital vet says it's larger than that, nearly the size of an orange). I was fully prepared to have her undergo surgery for it, but then the animal hospital vet who would be performing the surgery said it does not have to be removed. I am going to discuss it with my regular vet once he returns from vacation.

She eats from her bowl atop a raised feeder but I am willing to try this to see if it makes any difference.

Tuna eats Pro Plan senior dry food, saturated in water until it's mush, topped with whatever tasty thing I have on hand to spread on the top to entice her to eat (baby food, Lactaid milk, Ragu plain sauce, etc.) but most times she licks off the topping and leaves the food because when she swallows the food she starts coughing it up, like she can't breathe when she eats. I have tried mixing in the tasty stuff, but she won't bother to eat her way through it. She never finishes so in the fridge it goes overnight and then I freshen it up in the morning and try again. Also, the animal hospital vet did also suggest laryngeal paralysis as a possibility (sorry, I left that out because I did not jot it down) but that she would have to be put under anethesia to diagnose it. She's had her heart listened to, and both vets said it sounds fine.