Conversation

One of the pictures from my 14.5 year old dog's last day (Tuesday). He had a good last day. He lost 10% of his body weight in the last 18 days from refusing to eat anything other than a tiny bit of expensive fresh organic meat. Was barely able to stand up with help and walk.

Golden retriever lying down in their bed looking content/happy despite everything that's wrong.

read image description

ALT

This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author. Learn more

Daniel Micay

@DanielMicay

Jun 26

Forcing him to eat food wouldn't have fixed him throwing it up, having diarrhea and being unable to stand up or lie down on his own anymore. I don't think you realize what forcing a dog to eat would entail either. It wouldn't be pleasant and would likely result in him choking.

Daniel Micay

@DanielMicay

Replying to

@DanielMicay

He was willing / able to eat small amounts of meat every day. That wasn't enough to sustain him and I doubt he was getting much from it due to the diarrhea. Last option given by vets was giving him more powerful painkillers where he'd be partially sedated and anti-nausea meds.

3:03 AM · Jun 26, 2022Twitter Web App

Replying to

Golden retrievers usually live to 10-12 years. 14.5 is quite old and as a dog who was extremely active he really wore out his legs. They're known to have issues with their rear legs / hips when they get old, and he did. Not being able to stand or walk wouldn't be a good life.

Replying to

We had the option to drag it out for a few more weeks but there isn't a solution to the leg/hip issues. It wasn't an issue that could be addressed with surgery and he was too old for surgery, and too frail after weeks of losing weight. There isn't a nice solution to everything.

Show replies