
Last week I lost my beautiful girl, Tilly. If you’ve read my previous posts you will know that Tilly had been diagnosed with arthritis in her hips. A month ago the pain had started to increase & she was struggling. We upped her painkillers but it made no difference. After speaking to the vet last week, we increased her painkillers again & in addition to that we added another painkiller into the mix. It is thought mixing painkillers is more effective than continually increasing the dose of the original painkiller. She was now on a high dose of Metacam combined with a low dose of Paracetamol. Her symptoms at this point were:
- Grinding her teeth which is a sign of pain.
- Not eating properly thus causing her to lose weight.
- Struggling to move about.
She could still hop but it was a ‘heavy’ hop & you could see the stiffness. Twisting round had also become a problem for her.
The new pain plan seemed to be working & I was about to update the vet the next day. However, that evening Tilly did not come to me for her drugs nor her treat. This was most unusual as she absolutely loved both. She had been having an afternoon mooching about the shed with Peanut. I sought her out & she was in a cardboard box looking ok but I knew the change in behaviour was not right. When I offered the medicine she took it eagerly & her treat but still did not come out of the box.
In the end I picked her up & could tell she seemed in pain. I felt resistance in her back legs too when I tried to put her in the normal carrying position in my arms. I was worried but hoped the doses of painkiller I had given her would kick in soon. Later that evening she did look a little more comfortable & ate some veg. However, the following morning I found her collapsed & rushed her to the vets. They gave her fluids & high doses of painkillers in the hope we could get her pain under control. The next few hours was hell as we waited to see if it would work but sadly it did not. The pain could not be brought under control, not even with the Opioid drug & she was struggling to move. She looked awful. Her urine had also been tested & her kidneys were not in a good state so I felt the only right thing to do was let my baby girl go. So heart breaking.