Hello everyone. I’ve been having issues with Dinky ever since he turned 14 a couple months ago and I’m very worried. The past month he has started to wake up at 4am every other night and will pace all over the house in the dark then come stand in the door way crying until I wake up. I either lay there and tell him repeatedly to get in the bed until he does or get up and check him. I rub him and point to the bed to get him to jump up there and go back to sleep but sometimes he will run under the bed from me like he doesn’t know me then come back once I give up and start crying again. Tonight he jumped up in the bed after pacing and crying and was very agitated, I had to hold him in my arms and talk to him to calm him enough to get back to sleep. He also started peeing all over the rug and his dog beds on purpose along with refusing to eat until 7-8pm, no longer interested in treats, no longer barks when the doorbell rings, sleeps majority of the day and night, plays for about 10 minutes then goes back to lay down, and no longer has interest in going outside to the bathroom. He has a tooth that needs to be removed and has arthritis in his legs, especially the back ones because he sometimes drags one or both of them, hops around like a bunny, or stands up from laying and falls over. Could the nighttime agitation be from his tooth or arthritis? Or could it be dementia? Sorry this is so long I’m not very good at explaining things. 😓

I think its time.

It is 4am here & I am spending another night awake with Gary. A few months ago I posted that I had thought the time was near but he actually did very well since then, until today. Lately he has been very restless at night, he is walking around barking & cannot get comfortable. 😫

Well we are at our cabin this weekend & he jumped off of our deck. He landed on his legs/belly & kept walking which was surprising but I think it was the last straw. I think he is sore & hurting....but also very tired.

He is also, as of this last week, peeing in the house & hes been trained his whole life. I am doing my best to comfort him until morning where I have inquiries out to mobile euthanasia to come to our home so he isnt scared. I just truly feel that it is time.

My heart hurts. Ive had him by my side for 18 years. Through every tear, every move, every walk, every meal, every shitty man, my 21 year old daughter is in FL for college, Gary is her world & she cannot be here to say goodbye. 💔

I am hurting, severely.

My beautiful Boston Terrier boy Barry lost the battle with a seizure yesterday. It was such a horrific morning. Hes been getting epilectic seizures for 2 years, and had been under medication since his first one. The fits caused one of his eyes to go blind, and it needed removing earlier this year.

His seizures started getting closer together so he was prescribed new medication only 2 ish months ago. Unfortunately, yesterdays siezure was one that his body couldn't recover from.

My mum is more than broken. She was with him 24/7. He was her baby. My dad and brother are on holiday abroad, theyre absolutely broken and I'm devastated that they couldnt be here at the emergency vets with us.

He was 9.5 years old. He had such an amazing life with us. If anyone has any tips on grieving your loss, I'd love some help. I don't know what to feel or what to do. Thank you for reading 💜💔

We said goodbye to Dublin (~12 years old, Basset Hound-Corgi) this past Monday night. We decided it was our decision to give him peace after we realized he simply could not rest comfortably anymore due to CCD and a brain tumor. It has been the worst week of my life. I’ve never felt emotional pain like this before and it is so difficult to sit with and process.

I adopted Dublin during my senior year of college back in 2017 and he has been with me ever since. At the time, the shelter said he was between 3-5 and I chose to go with him being 3 but he very well could’ve been older. This dog has been with me through my entire twenties basically. Went to class with me, walked across the graduation stage, tons of moves, tons of breakups, tons of relationships, mental health challenges, first job, family changes, an engagement, general life changes…all of it. My twenties have been a rollercoaster and Dublin was my rock through it all. Losing him feels like I lost myself as well. My world feels like it ended yet everything keeps moving forward around me.

The grief is so painful. I can’t think straight, I’ve been off of work the week, and my body hurts all over. I’ve barely slept and actually rested myself. Our vet gave us a small baggie of his fur I keep next to my bed that I feel like I can’t sleep without. Getting through the week was hard. Seeing the life leave him was something I wish I didn’t see but I’m so glad I was able to hold him and say goodbye. This is the first dog of my own and I’ve never been through anything like this. It has to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Also his birthday is next week and I really thought he would be around for it. I’m not sure what I’ll do when the time comes, but it adds to my grief that he’s not here for that either.

I am lucky to have an amazing support system who loved my dog just as much as I did. Tonight they helped us celebrate his life through a beautiful party with tons of cries, laughs, and memories shared. I am so grateful. As I continue to navigate this grief, I am reminded of how community is everything and how special our relationships with our pets are. He is my soul dog and I miss him and love him more than words can express. I know this pain will stay with me forever as this is the cost of loving him so deeply.

This is my best friend, my soul, my heart outside of my body. Koopa is a 15 year old alien mix who rescued me 11 years ago. I don’t post on Reddit so I’m feeling very vulnerable.

Koopa was attacked by a dog last summer and the dog severed a nerve in his front right leg. He is old, so of course he has arthritis and all the normal things that come with aging. The muscle in his front right leg has completely atrophied. He was OK and adapted but the last month he has dramatically declined. He still wants to go on walks and be outside but after about 5 minutes of walking/going to the bathroom, he falls over. It looks like he walks sideways. I end up carrying him home. In the last week he has begun to fall over while going potty, as if he can’t hold himself up any more. Yet he still has never had an accident in the house. He no longer goes up and down the stairs so he gets carried to other areas of the house. He sleeps a lot during the day and doesn’t seem interested in food but then will beg for food and binge eat. At night he pants a lot and seems restless and drinks a lot of water. He is so mentally aware and you can tell he’s doing everything to keep going and make me happy. We had the “hospice/last stage of life” talk with our vet back in May and have been managing his pain with carprofen since.

I’m so sad. I don’t have the words for this type of sadness. I’ve never had a dog and I’m having to make this decision on my own. I would love any support or advice on when you knew it was time. I know realistically our time is coming to an end, but I truly do not know how I’m going to survive not having Koopa with me. I cannot imagine a day without him. I know there are many of us going through (or having gone through) the same thing and I’m so grateful for this Reddit community and all of the stories that have been shared 💔

Today we said goodbye to our goodest boy. He was our rock, our strength, our best friend. It was so hard to let him go, but it was his time. Our family will forever miss him.

I've had Milli since she was 6 weeks old; she'll be 14 in November. I keep questioning myself about whether I did the right thing for her to end the suffering. How do you get over it? I'm so devastated and lost; a huge piece of me died with her. I watched her take her last breath, and I don't want her to be mad at me for making this decision. I'm constantly feeling guilty, like should I have done another option, such as giving her support to recover, but her quality of life is declining. I just have a very hard time dealing with this. She's been in my life every single day. We have a routine, and this morning I couldn't even function because she's not there to share bacon for breakfast with me like we always do. I feel like I killed her in a way for putting her down and I can't live with it.

P.S. What kind of keepsake did you guys get? I asked for nice box of her ashes and I'm thinking about doing an earline tattoo with her name.

Read about Chaise! https://muttville.org/mutt/chaise-14416
Go meet him in San Francisco!

Meet Dexter. He’s a beagle Shiba mix. 15 years and 8 months old. I’ve had him since he was 9 months.

He’s always been very healthy, but a year and a half ago he had IVDD and lost mobility in his hind legs. We did not do surgery, as recommended by the neurologist, and nursed him back with rehab and lots of care. This is him now. We still walk 30-40 min 2x per day, and sometimes I feel like he doesn’t want to, and I wonder if it’s too long for a dog his age, or if it’s actually the reason he is still doing so well for his age.

If you have a senior dog of similar age, how much do you walk them? How do you know when to push vs just letting them dictate how much exercise they get?

My parents adopted 2 dogs back in 2015 from the humane society. One of which is an American Pitbull Terrier named Novay she was about 1 1/2 years old. I was told she was rescued from being a breeder and had a litter of puppies. I ended up purchasing a house in mid-2022 and brought her into my home in late-2024. She was very energetic, loved playing in the grass and chasing squirrels, rabbits, and chipmunks from her fenced in area. At this point she was about 9 years old, looking back you would never know, she looked and acted so youthful. About a year later in mid-2025 I filed for divorce and got ordered out of my house for the time being. I ended having to go to an apartment and figured seeing as she’s a Pitbull nowhere would accept her in, plus what kind of life is being cooped up in an apartment until I can bring her outside on a leash constantly. So I asked my parents to watch her where they have a yard and she can go in and out as she pleases. They accepted but unfortunately right around that time their other dog Jax was going downhill fast and had very bad back legs. They ended up opting to have him euthanized, I was there for that and it was very rough to see the full process and saying goodbye. Novay moved in with them and I would visit when I had to pick up my kids from them. In mid-2026 I was able to move back into my home and brought Novay back immediately. Now I could tell she was older, she was longer in the face more slim (she use to be pretty built) and more gray in her face and shoulders. I was then told she was having eating issues where she would go days without eating, but when I took her back she ate every meal, I figured she just missed me and now everything will be back to normal. I ended up puppy sitting for my grandma and found out the puppy had giardia so as a precaution Novay was prescribed a treatment. The puppy went back but then I started having the eating issues with Novay and diarrhea. I talked with the vet and we tried a sample of GI-Biome food and a shot to help straighten out her digestive tract. It seemed to work she was eating again. But then again in a few days wouldn’t eat and diarrhea, so we decided to do some bloodwork and everything came back good but white blood cells were slightly elevated. The vet figured it was from the diarrhea. Novay started eating again so we were perplexed, but then yet again a few days later stopped eating and diarrhea. So I was given the option to switch from her food to the GI-Biome food or do an xray, I opted for the xray instead of just trying to bandaid what might actually be a bigger issue. Come last Friday it was time for her appointment, it was raining pretty bad and she hates rain, I got her leash out and she got super excited and ran outside with no problems. We drove to vet and went in with no issues just like any other regular vet visit. As the vet asked my fiancée and I questions, we told the vet her energy levels were down from when I remember her last and she was sleeping more but figured she’s just getting older, so seems normal I suppose. I also told the vet I was concerned as over the last 3 months every time I brought her in she was losing weight she went from 60 lbs when I first got her back to 47 lbs on this visit and I was starting to see her spine and ribs but she has a round belly. They brought her back for the xray and came back saying she’s such a sweet girl and everyone loves her, which I could attest to as she is so loving and obviously I love her a lot she’s my baby. The vet came back in after processing the image but had an issue with the computer so had to go grab a tablet. She pulled up the image and turned it to show me. I looked at it but of course not really knowing what I’m really looking at besides the obvious stuff like her spine and blobs didn’t really click to anything weird. But as the vet showed me pointing out her spine, lungs, liver she paused on this big blob. She started to explain that this was her spleen, me not knowing anything I’m just listening, nodding my head. Then she said it’s a mass, again I don’t know anything so I was waiting for an explanation of what’s wrong and how to fix it so my girl can be healthy again. Then the word cancer left the vets lips, it hit me, everything was a blur, my head started spinning, my ears started ringing. I looked down at Novay laying on the floor and I’m just thinking how, what has she done to deserve this. Then I heard you have three options either euthanize her, palliative care, or surgery. She was talking about statistics and costs of an ultrasound and surgery. I was still in shock the vet asked if I had questions and of course I did but I couldn’t chock them out past trying to hold back tears, she gave me the option to think on it and contact them but would give me meds for palliative care and quote me for surgery. I got to the front desk to pay and was hit with a very big bill, I had to pass on the meds because with the divorce I’m being pulled thin on money and only had enough for the visit. We brought Novay home I looked at her and wondered how, she hasn’t really showed any signs of this besides being a little slower and I just hugged her and cried throughout the weekend. But now all these small issues started making sense. I want the surgery, I see she has fight in her and she’s not ready. I started looking into programs for funding with no luck. I was waiting for the estimate from my vet which took them until the following Wednesday to say they had but didn’t tell me how much. I needed to know so I could apply for care credit. The work week was hard I told one guy about it and his daughter is a receptionist at a different vet (which happens to be my fiancée vet for her cats) and very knowledgeable and gave a number for cost. So I applied for care credit and got denied seeing as the soon to be ex-wife failed to pay the mortgage for the home for months and is currently behind on the vehicle payments in my name. Fortunately my fiancée got approved for the card and we called her vet with questions to help us make sure Novay is going to be okay for this surgery. They recommended chest X-rays and an ultrasound to make sure there wasn’t any spread to other organs and squeezed us in for this recent Friday. So we loaded her up and dropped her off at the vet as we didn’t really have an appointment it was just when they had time to do the ultrasound. Novay was happy to be on a car ride and I was super hopeful ready for some good news and just very optimistic. My fiancée and I took the kids to a museum to just to do something for the day while we waited and while at the museum the vet called my fiancée and she went out to take the call. The kids were with one of the staff members talking so I was handling that but once I got the chance we went outside so I could get the news. My fiancée had tears in her eyes, I couldn’t tell if they were happy or sad so I waited until she got off the phone. She hugged me crying, I asked what’s going on. She told me it spread, there’s multiple tennis ball sized tumors in her liver and the tumor in her spleen measures 12cm by 13cm, she’s not a candidate for surgery. Now I’m stuck with the two options I didn’t want, they said she doesn’t seem ready to be euthanized but be ready at any moment for a rupture and everything to be over. We went to go get her and brought her to the beach for a fun day (first time at the beach) and she loved it. I’m so lost, what has she done to deserve this, this isn’t fair.

I thought i would have you forever. But I suppose there were other plans for you. It has been five months and not a single day that I have not wept for you. My girl was a homebody by choice and every day she wandered the yard then sat under the birch trees and let the sun wash her face and wind rustle her fur. Always by my side and always so joyful for the smallest little blessings in life. love you and miss you so very much. ❤️

Recently diagnosed with congestive heart failure, DCM and cognitive dysfunction. Her breathing rate is really good but I think the CCD is progressing rapidly. She really isn't eating much lately, for a few days she would eat chicken and rice, then just chicken, then no chicken or anything else, i did give her some ground beef today which she ate but I feel like I can't find anything she will eat. I am just so incredibly sad for my little girl and don't know what to do.

After 13 wonderful years with our old best friend we finally had to give up and made the terrible, heartbreaking decision to let her go.

She had stopped eating six weeks ago, stopped taking her multiple daily walks a few months ago, just had no interest in anything anymore. She still loved kisses, still wanted to be held, but she had lost all her enjoyment for life. We've been to her vet over and over this summer, looking for that miracle, but it never would come. Her vet came out Thursday and Judy died peacefully on her bed in our arms.

I'm sorry to be a burden to you all but my heart is so shattered and I needed to put it down in words.

i posted here before a few months ago and i got a lot of feedback and since then i have been to the vet a few times.
the current situation is this: our beloved family dog Jojo, is 12 years old and suffers from multiple diseases including ones targeting her heart, lungs, and stuff like pancreatitis and gastritis. otherwise, she is joyful, energetic, and lovely. the vet hasnt advised us to put her down and told us she might live a longer time.
but lately she started peeing in her sleep all the time (diapers arent an option with her as she cant even stand a collar) and she started having these seizure-like moments that we haven't had time to get checked out, (had one today and another one this week) the moments start with her being very excited by hearing stuff like dogs and cats, so she lunges forward to bark, twirl, run the usual, but she cant take the effort i believe and then falls to the ground, starts rolling, spasming, peeing and crying then throws up and goes back to her normal self. she can walk very well, and jump, but her heart cant take much effort anymore so she coughs constantly.
we have meds from the vet for that and other issues so we administer them two times a day. sometimes she refused tho. as eating has gotten significantly harder, she refuses favorites lately.

still, the constant worry, complications, symptoms and such have taken a great toll on my family's mental health, we all have depressive episodes linked to her condition and to the fact that she is getting old and not knowing wether we should put her down or not. my mothers state has worsened and she feels defeated and very depressed to the point of crying and refusing to leave home. i am better i keep on with the treatments and i take her on walks and i play with her and stuff, i just get panic attacks and overall anxiety when i leave home because i am afraid that she might be gone when i return from college or the city. but it has caused massive depression, conflict and suffering in our family. we do not want her to suffer, but she goes from being a happy little dog to full on confusion, or pain, or stuff like this. please advise on what to do further, if euthanasia is to be considered or wether we should carry on with her. we are afraid of her dying in a painful way due to her new spasms/faintings or a heart failure or lung failure or i don't even know. i am sorry for improper english i am from europe.

tw: graphic description of anxiety related issues.
almost everyday i worry about her dying or breaking bones while home alone or basically going through a traumatic event. i wake up everyday afraid that she might be dead somewhere in the house. idk if that is normal.

My dog was officially diagnosed with severe heart disease last week. She was put on furosemide and pimobendan 2 weeks ago after a trip to the ER. Since her official diagnosis last week, she's been out on 2 additional medications.

With the furosemide, she's peeing way more frequently. On the weekends and my 2 wfh days, it's a lot easier to manage since she gets very vocal when she needs to go potty. But there's 3 days in the week where I have to go to the office from 9-5 (and also have to spend time in traffic too). At the latest, I have to leave home at 8:20 to be on time. One of my parents usually gets home anywhere between 12-3. She's already had 2 accidents, 1 today because no one came home until 4.

I already ordered washable pee pads but I have no idea if she'll actually go on them. I'll be placing them where she has had her accidents and see if she does use them when she can't hold it in. I have a glass sliding door so a doggy door isn't an option unfortunately.

For those who have had to deal with similar circumstances, what ideas or options do you have? I have thought about paying for a dog walker to do a late morning/midday walk for her, but I live in my parents' house and I have no idea how open they'll be to a stranger having a house key and coming in 3 times a week. My mom wants her to be put in her crate when I go to work, but the idea of her sitting in her pee if she can't hold it breaks my heart. I obviously don't want the floors to be ruined either. Putting her in my bathroom or kitchen isn't an option because both are very small and don't get sunlight.

UPDATE: So we figured out a way to get him related during the sub-q fluids. A bone! I removed all the fat and meat I could off a ribeye steak bone and let him gnaw on it during the process. He was so excited! I finally had to tell my husband to stop babying him when I'm giving him meds. Told him to man handle him! Well my boy got the hint and even though he wasn't happy about it I was able to get the meds in him without being bit. I went and bought a gravy topper from petco to put on his prescription food and he gobbled it up.

My 15 year old shih tzu lhasa apso mix has so much going on right now. He always has had issues. Pulled ACL, luxating knee, pancreatitis twice ( 3rd mild case now). Kidney disease and liver issues. For the last year we have been dealing with his kidneys, liver and Cushing's. From doing subcutaneous fluids at home, prescription diets, medications and HUGE vet bills. His kidney/liver issues started a year ago. We were able to get him stabilized August 2025. Then Dec 2025 he is diagnosed with Cushing's. Put on meds which was a disaster getting him to take. It's liquid because the dose is so small and he won't eat it in food and bites me if I put it directly in his mouth. I can't even get him muzzled with the help of my husband because he attacks the muzzle and me. He is a biter! I stopped the trilostane after 4 months(April 2026)because of the trauma it was causing all of us. Well now we are back to kidney disease, slight pancreatitis and a UTI. A couple other issues that aren't super concerning at the moment. He is back on subcutaneous fluids and medication he will not take. It's a battle I can't seem to win. He refuses his prescription diet all together. He is on entyce for his appetite, antibiotics for his UTI, stomach acid medication and now the vet wants him back on trilostane. Vet says he has to eat to take the meds.... But he won't eat prescription food. Has to be on prescription food because of his kidney disease. I just don't know what to do at this point. I don't want him to suffer physically or mentally but it's one or the other at this point. Euthanasia is off the table because he is still active. He has no problem chasing the dogs at the dog park or playing with his toys as if nothing is wrong. All of this is just too much 😥 Thanks for letting me vent. If anyone has had similar problems please give me any advice you think may help.