I’ve been a lurker on this board for many years, and have learned so much from your collective stories, advice and wisdom. Now I need your advice with my dog’s health problem.
Pixie is an 11 year old shih tzu mix, who normally weighs around 13 lbs. Last July, after a routine blood test showed abnormally high liver enzymes, Pixie had an ultrasound which showed a large mass on her spleen, spreading to the liver. Since it is almost certain that this is an aggressive cancer, we decided against surgery and chemotherapy. At that time, Pixie was basically asymptomatic. (This diagnosis came 10 days after our other dog was diagnosed with heart failure, so the double dose of bad news came as a real shock.)
Over the last month or so, Pixie’s appetite has declined rapidly, and she now weighs only 10.5 lbs. She acts like she is hungry, but too nauseous to actually eat (thankfully there is no vomiting). On Tuesday, the vet gave her a shot of Cerenia and sent us home with 4 more days of Cerenia and Famotidine pills, and that evening she ate fairly well. Since Wednesday morning, however, she has eaten poorly – even worse than before the vet visit. We have dry food, several varieties of canned food, Honest Kitchen, Stella & Chewys, and foods prepared by a dog nutritionist, all of which she spurns (except maybe the occasional treat-sized bite). So last night and this morning, I force fed her Gerbers baby food with a syringe so that she would have a little something in her, and now feel like I’m torturing her and teaching her to hate food. She also sleeps a lot and seems very tired, but still greets me when I come home, barks at strange noises, goes out for potty, and other than unwillingness to eat, seems to enjoy life, albeit more quietly. We don’t want to see her suffer and know that we will need to let her go soon.
So my dilemma is this – do I keep force feeding her when she is clearly too nauseous to eat on her own? Or not force feed and let her eat what and when she wants (mostly only doggie treats, and only a couple every so often, which is clearly not enough)? Or let her go now, to avoid further suffering (on both her part and ours)? Any advice or thoughts you could give would be most appreciated. Thanks for reading.