Should I do an MRI or not.....
- Thread starter dawns2shelties
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dawns2shelties
Forums Sage
That's a good idea. I'll call my vet and ask him about it tomorrow as long as it wouldn't affect his diarrhea It's definitely worth a shot. That's one I hadn't thought of thanks.
dawns2shelties
Forums Sage
I am sure you probably tried all these, but this is what we did. You might also be limited to his diet due to his pancreatis. Most worked for a short time before we moved on to he next option. We started with adding warm water to the kibble. Then we started warming it up. We also added various brands and kinds of wet food to the kibble. We had good luck with that for some time. He seemed to like the venison and duck flavored foods. One in particular was Petkind, venison. But I had to feed him with a fork after awhile.When he completely stopped eating, we switched to ground beef, chicken, eggs, rice. We switched it up until he stopped eating them and then we went back to the kibble and wet foods as we have a lot of different kinds in the house. Almost looks like a petstore... We found that at most, he would stop eating for 2 -3 days, but he would always start eating a little bit after that as I think he was really hungry. When he stopped eating completely, we would feed him treats to get something into him. The vet said it's better than nothing. We also started to feed him senior supplements as we were worried that he wasn't getting a balanced diet. We currently are having success with Fromm 4 Star duck and sweet potato. Strange thing is, he was on that before for awhile before he stopped eating, but our other dog Sophie is on it and we had a fresh bag and he decided that he wanted to eat that. We are still hand feeding him, but we don't mind if that's the only way we can get him to eat.
Hopefully there is something here that might be new to you and will work for Chandler.
Thanks for all your suggestions. The only foods I know of that I haven't tried are Origins which is on order and Fromm which I had never heard of but saw a post about it on here. I'm glad you were successful with it because that is on it's way also. Chandler and Rusty's situations sound so similar. Chandler did OK March -April switching to different foods every couple days with days not eating in between but after the spinal stroke is when he turned away from all dog foods and meats from the grocery store. He ate lamb a few weeks ago but hasn't since. He is on Hi-Vite which is RX vitamin from my vet and just like Rusty will eat a few treats a day but has also turned away from most of them. I feel bad giving them to him but if that's all he will eat the vet said at this point let him have them. I've also been hand feeding him since he got sick because that's what worked when he origionally was diagnosed with the pancreatitis.
Thanks again for everything Rusty's in our prayers,
Dawn,Chandler,and Gypsy
danisgoat
Moderator
Dawn-
Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you on this.
The supplement that we used for Blossom was called Poly-MVA
http://www.polymva.com/about-polymva-for-pets.html
It was the holistic approach that we took to dealing with Blossom's brain tumor.
From what I remember, it is pretty expensive, but since the Shelties are smaller, they didn't need to take much of it.
Maybe worth just reading about.
Danielle
dawns2shelties
Forums Sage
Best wishes with Chandler. I will keep you both in my prayers. I lost my Valentine to a brain tumor. She was only 6. She went in to the vet for her annual shots. 3 months later it hit her. Not sure when it grew but there were no symptoms until one night we heard a bang and she started flipping. It was horrible. We treated her for 6 weeks hoping she would get better and that the diagnosis would be wrong.
You're a great mom. Chandler is lucky to have you.
You're a great mom. Chandler is lucky to have you.
dawns2shelties
Forums Sage
I'm so sorry for your loss. it just sound horrible. My sister's 2 yr old Lab was diagnosed with brain cancer a week after they lost their oldest lab to a stroke. The 2 yr. than passed 2 weeks later. I don't know how she was able to survive losing 2 dogs in 1 month. At the time she also had a 1 yr old Jazz who is now 2 and 1/2 and got Tobin her choc.lab about 6mos later. They are all enjoying life in Myrtle Beach and took up agility right before she got Tobin so it keeps her going now. She's an amzing woman and sister.
She sounds amazing. We got Tiara shortly after we lost V. Then 9 months after that we got Angel. You can never replace a lost fur child but you can always let your heart grow bigger to love another. I think we lost V so we could rescue 2 more. If you saw how Tiara and Angel are together you would know they were meant to be sisters.
BarbV
Forums Celebrity
This is one of the toughest decisions that you will ever need to make.
My forever pup, Timber, was 12 when he died. For some months, I'd noticed he was ailing somewhat, but didn't act on it....I attributed it to old age.
Then one day, he suddenly had difficulty breathing. I rushed him to the vet. They did an Xray, found fluid in his lungs and a tumour in his chest.
The vet immediately starting talking about more testing and chemo and surgery. But first a round of meds to deal with the fluid. I knew while listening to the vet, that further invasive treatment was just not going to happen. Not because I didn't love my pup and want him to be with me forever, but because I knew I could not put him through a whole rack of vet visits for something that had low probability of extending his life much further, and a poor quality of life during that time.
I settled for the meds. I never did get to make the final decision to abort any further aggressive treatment, because he died the same day.
Dr. Shelli, and others, are 100% correct. If you think the outcome of the MRI would drive you to continue more aggressive treatment. But if not, there is no point putting your pup or your pocket book through it. Make pup as comfortable as you can and enjoy your remaining time together.
p.s. I'm so sorry....losing a precious loved one is the hardest thing in the world.
My forever pup, Timber, was 12 when he died. For some months, I'd noticed he was ailing somewhat, but didn't act on it....I attributed it to old age.
Then one day, he suddenly had difficulty breathing. I rushed him to the vet. They did an Xray, found fluid in his lungs and a tumour in his chest.
The vet immediately starting talking about more testing and chemo and surgery. But first a round of meds to deal with the fluid. I knew while listening to the vet, that further invasive treatment was just not going to happen. Not because I didn't love my pup and want him to be with me forever, but because I knew I could not put him through a whole rack of vet visits for something that had low probability of extending his life much further, and a poor quality of life during that time.
I settled for the meds. I never did get to make the final decision to abort any further aggressive treatment, because he died the same day.
Dr. Shelli, and others, are 100% correct. If you think the outcome of the MRI would drive you to continue more aggressive treatment. But if not, there is no point putting your pup or your pocket book through it. Make pup as comfortable as you can and enjoy your remaining time together.
p.s. I'm so sorry....losing a precious loved one is the hardest thing in the world.
dawns2shelties
Forums Sage
Thanks for complimenting my sister. Since I wrote this Robin and her partner found a lump on her dog Jazz's leg, she was the remaining 1 yr old when she lost her other 2 labs so closely together. Jazz had a biopsy today and we are praying for good results.
I'm so sorry you lost V. It is amazing though I always feel our lost pups guide the new ones to us and V. brought you double the love this time when you needed it most.