Losing A Pet

[lumuah]

Hi Derry, Sincere condolences. We lost our old Newfie in identical circumstances in 2000. It was devastating - he was such a lovely dog. He's buried in the garden with his blanket and toys. Right now we are nursing our border collie through the final stages of bladder cancer. He is on medication which keeps him painfree but cannot alter the final outcome. He still enjoys his food and rooting about in the garden, the only sign that he is ill is that his bladder is constantly leaking. The house reeks of Dettol. While he is enjoying life we will keep him going. Our vet has assured us that we will know when the time has come. He estimates 3/4 weeks. This is the real price of being a pet owner, not the financial costs incurred over his lifetime, but the heartbreak at the end. As you know, only too well.

 

http://www.nappypantsfordogs.com/ > good quality and quick delivery for incontinence pants for dogs (or *****es in season pants which is what i've bought from them in the past)

[BadgerBadger]

I blubbed like a baby when I had to put our old collie down, almost 7 years to the day now and I still miss the old fella.

[littleoldladysaint]

http://www.nappypantsfordogs.com/ > good quality and quick delivery for incontinence pants for dogs (or *****es in season pants which is what i've bought from them in the past)

 

Thank you soooo much!

[Saint_Ash]

It has not come to it yet, but I can imagine losing my exotic tarantulas is not going to be much fun.

 

You might think it would be nothing, and it probably seems weird especially to those who do not like spiders and wonder how I can even keep such a pet. But they are amazing animals. Sure, they cannot love you back like a dog can, and they don't show you emotions. They're not pleased to see you when you come home. But they do each definitely have their own individual personalities, and with their striking vibrant contrasts and colours, they are incredibly beautiful creatures to care for. The key thing is, the ones I have are capable of living for around thirty years. That is a long time to care for any animal, and even though it is not the same relationship as you can have with say a dog or a cat - you cannot look after something for that long, without developing some affection for them.

 

My Poecilotheria Subfusca Lowland (from an area just outside Kandy in Sri Lanka), is an endangered species who is part of an authorised captive breeding programme. Her natural habitat is being destroyed daily, as her forests are razed to make room for expanding the Ceylon tea plantations that drive the industry in her home territory. Our captive breeding programme is helping to keep the species alive, so it is always especially sad to lose an animal in such circumstances, when you are part of a group doing what you can to keep their species in existence. So whilst it is hopefully a long way off yet, I imagine it will be a sadness when she finally passes on oneday.

 

 

Cracking little T she is, with a very spirited personality, and incredible colour contrast and markings.

 

www.the-livingrainforest.co.uk/living/images/price/RErKU4DgC-Poecilotheria%20subfusca.jpg

www.arachnoboards.com/ab/gallery/files/1/7/0/9/9/subfusca_lowland_resize.jpg

 

(I used links rather than posting the actual images, as one, they are not mine, just used as examples of what she looks like - and I know many are squeamish about tarantulas, so you don't have to look if you don't want to.)

 

My brachypelma smithi or Mexican Redknee called Jules, died when I was going through a divorce about 9 years ago, I had to move house and take her with me and I think it unsettled her, I had her from a tiny spiderling but she died at about 7 years old, I have kept every moulted skin she ever did in a jar by my bedside table and the young kids love getting them out to scare their nan. I would love to get another at some point but my wife has put her foot down so we now have a Giant African Land Snail called Blinky, he's a pretty cool pet and and I will be very sad to see him go.

 

We also have a Jack Russell who is mental and has a massive personality, she's going to be 8 this year but eats so much rubbish all the time we don't know how long she'll last, only a few months ago she got bloat and was on a knife edge but a weekend stay in vet hotel and £1500 quid later (think god for insurance) she was back to her usual barky self. My wife's previous Jack Russell was 20 when she died so hopefully we have many more years of fun left with "Snowie".

[Secret Site Agent]

I have three dogs and the eldest is very poorly. Didn't think he would be here today based on how he was in the week, but I cant believe how much it has hit me.

 

I have had him from 6 weeks old and he is now 12 (Springer Spaniel) but without a stiff upper lip, I would be a blubbering wreck.

 

Happy to take the big girls blouse and soft woss comments that might follow.... (I use to get so annoyed when people would ring in and tell me they couldn't come to work because their cat had died etc. and I have no intention of taking a day off, but maybe this is karma).

 

 

 

Never had a pet to lose previously , so this is a first but never expected it to be this hard.

 

Normal or Man up?

 

Hi Gemmel, my condolences to you.

I lost my dog this time last year. We got her when she was a puppy and she was 15 when she died. She had been a little unsteady on her pins the last few years, but was still sprightly and still went out for her wees and poos in the back garden and used to hang out with the Rabiits in their run. She suddenly just lead in her basket and wouldn't get up one day. That led to a visit to the vets and I got a phone call on a Friday that she had two shadows on her X-Ray that they thought was cancer. Had to make the decision there and then if to let then put her down or operate. We chose the operation route, as we wanted to give her the best chance at life, and the shadows turned out to be stones - she always dug up stones and droped them for you to throw for her, and had swollowed two of them. Unfortunatly she didn't get better after the operation,and our vets got us to take her on the Friday to the Emergency vets in Winchester. We discharged her on Sunday afternoon, and on the Monday I had to make the decision to have her put down at home.

I've always been able to keep a stiff upper lip at best through a lot of muck, **** and bullets and have cried likea baby three times in my adult life, once when my Mum died, once when my baby daughter was in hospital, and once when my dog was put down.

Man up? ********. Perfectly normal. And if you met me, there is not many that would tell me to man up to my face.

And my pet insurence didn't cover her full treatment and left me paying 2 grand to two different Vets, which I am paying off now. So get good pet insurence and check the small print is my advice.

Edited 16 April, 2014 by Secret Site Agent

[Golden Balls]

Only ever had one dog, a collie. Grew up with her from the age of 4 until my early teens. She got lung cancer and started to struggle. One particular bad day I stayed home from school to be with her (I couldn't believe my mum allowed that) and she was in clear pain. I told my mum when she got home from work that I think we should have her put to sleep. Her reaction - "I've been thinking it for a week but wouldn't do it until you said". She thought I'd hate her for killing my mate.

 

We went to the vets that evening and I held her through the whole lot. As she drifted away she silently haemorrhaged and the vet told us she would have died that night had we not gone ahead. That made me feel a lot better.

 

Still to this day, 13 years later I still miss her. She was family and like a best friend. As much as it hurt, I'm looking forward to having another dog.

[saint boggy]

Had my cat put to sleep last year after a VERY sudden deterioration (at 9am she was fine, by 10.15 am she was gone) . I rushed her to the vets knowing that I wasn't gonna be bringing her home alive. My kids (8 & 10 ) were inconsolable as was I . Trying (and failing miserably) to hold it together in the waiting room whilst the guy in front of me, unaware of my emotional state, laughed with the receptionist about his cute little puppy ,was awful ! I just wanted to scream at him to get out of the effing way! Lol ....

Losing a pet is a truly awful experience. I never experienced it properly until I was in my early 20's when our beloved lab X alsatian became ill with cancer. ... we had had pets my entire life but my parents shielded me from the upset of their demise by telling me that " they've gone away" or suchlike. .... unwittingly though, rather than protecting me all they did was leave me completely unprepared and unable to deal with death properly. ....a mistake I wont make with my own children ,... :-( ...kids need to understand the circle of life and I used our cat's death as a tool that will help them learn about love and loss.

Good luck to the OP , just remember that you gave them the best life they could've wished for

[SNSUN]

This thread reminds me of when we lost our family Golden Retriever 'Max' in 2002. We'd had him from a puppy in 1990 when I was 9. Such a lovely dog, so placid, so loyal, so obedient that he became a PAT dog for the elderly. Aged 12 though the vet discovered a massive tumour which was too big to operate on so he had to be put down.

 

The night before he was scheduled at the vets, I slept on the sofa next to him as he could no longer climb the stairs. I fed him some sausage roll, which he ate despite not having eaten anything for a couple of days. Eventually I fell asleep. I was awoken the next morning by the front door smashing open against the wall, and my dad running into the lounge in floods of tears before burying his head in my duvet. Sob after sob after sob. I'd never seen my Dad like that before, he was a Police Sergeant at the time and I'd rarely ever seen him show his emotions, aside from a comical lighthearted demeanour. Max had gone. Naturally the female members of the family were distraught but I hadn't expected it from my Dad.

 

I didn't cry. I was sad, sure, but it was nothing compared to what my Dad went through. It was weird that he reacted in a completely different way to me. He was always so closed off with his emotions until the day that dog died. This situation repeated itself this year when we lost Max's replacement Oscar to the vet's needle, Dad inconsolable and me largely unfazed by the incident. I can only think that I'm more detached from the dogs than he. (Although in Oscars case I hadn't lived there for the last 5 years of his life, but I was still a frequent visitor.) Perhaps it'll be different one day if I get my own dog rather than it being a family dog.

[Saint in Paradise]

In the last 5 years we have had 3 cats put to sleep and it has broken me up every time.

We now only have 1 cat left and she is now 12 years old. I can't type any more about them

and what has happened in the 7 weeks since Bonnie died as I will just crack up even more.

When I was younger I used to think that as I got older the death of a pet wouldn't hit me

as hard, well getting older seems to make it even worse it's certainly not easier. :(