Healthy Pets

[Sachita]

Originally Posted by VintageFemme

my little old man is barely able to walk anymore. for anything outside, i have to towel walk him. he had a seizure the other day and of course off to the emergency room we went. because of his age. the dr said it would only be a few things one of which might be kidney and/or liver damage or a brain tumor. without doing extensive mri's, etc it would be hard to tell if it was a brain tumor but he did do bloodwork and his liver/kidney look fine. so as not to 'condemn him to a life of towel walking' he prescribed rimadyl and tramadol on a short two week trial basis and said to watch for more seizures and then we'll see in a follow up what to do next. i gave him the tramadol without too much hesitation [even though we are mostly holistic in our home and rarely use medicines opting normally for supplements, vitamins, diet, etc] because of the pain relief it offers, but i was very hesitant to give him the rimadyl after doing my online research. bad bad reputation. but then after two days of careful thought and weighing the pros and cons, i've decided to try the rimadyl keeping a hawk's eye watch on him. today is the second day. of course there is no change yet but i am hoping for some perhaps in a few days.

all of this is to ask, does anyone have any experience with rimadyl? good or bad? it's really a matter of quality of life at this point and what quality is there for a medium size [large size in his prime years] dog if he can't even walk to relieve himself or stretch his legs? these days now are so very difficult but are the most precious ever. each day is such a gift.

At this point you simply want to keep him comfortable. Side effects from drugs happen over a long time. I know how hard this is. When the quality of their life is over/low its time. having put down a few dogs just in the last year or so I decided if they can not use the bathroom or they stop eating. It's gut wrenching but often the right thing to do.