(please don’t tell me about how wrong it is to own pugs, he was a stray I adopted who was found on the street, not a breeder dog I bought. He has a lot of health problems and I’ve devoted a lot to keeping him well cared for).
My poor old puppy. The restlessness and spinning in circles, the staring off into space, the coughing fits. We are already treating the cough but started some dementia-type medicine and melatonin last night. I don’t want to do extensive interventions if he’s unhappy but I want to try to improve his quality of life and make his geriatric years as happy and peaceful as possible.
It’s so hard to make good decisions about elderly pets isn’t it? You want to do the right thing.
Losing pets is hard. “Restlessness and spinning in circles” sounds to me like possible symptoms of a stroke. Pets usually don’t tell us what kind of discomfort they’re feeling, so we have to make these kinds of decisions on their behalf. Our vet office has thanked me for not waiting on this kind of decision too long.
This is your call to make, and as long as you’re making it with the best interest of your pet in mind, you will make the right decision.
He saw the vet last night and she didn’t think it was. He’s not spinning all the time, just sometimes, so she thinks it’s just dementia behavior. Thank you for pointing this out though, I did indeed ask. We’ll try some things that are more palliative treatment than big intervention and see what that does. It’s just so hard to know what the right thing to do is.