Our 18 year Parson Jack Russell Terrier was diagnosed with CHF on the right side with ascites, he has been suffering from Mitral Valve disease and likely also has CHF on the left side, as his health is deteriorating we decided to be conservative about medical checkup to avoid further stress for him.
Our dog was ill but doing relatively well up to about a week ago when we noticed his belly was enlarged, we had that drained got his CHF diagnosed, was put on Lasix to eliminate water from his body/lungs. We had one relatively good day with him two days ago however it seems we where just lucky.
I was hoping he would pass away peacefully in his sleep but understand that is really the case with CHF and we decided that we will therefor euthanize him at home when the time is right and we are concerned to wait until he gets into pain, right now he is in now pain.
His condition below and my question I ask myself and would like to put out there is this a good time to say goodbye with him before it gets worse. We where thinking to have a veterinarian come home to us tomorrow:
He does not want to eat, even the best ribeye steak, lamb or anything. He had one or two bites of steak yesterday which I chewed for him first. Two days ago on his good day he ate cat a bit.
He drinks some water but it seems he drinks and pees less now then when we first started the Lasix. He has very large problems walking, at times a little bette rand at times he can hardly stand up, I carry him outside, put him on the grass, he may try to walk slightly or just stand there.
He is extremely lethargic, he never used to sleep in my arms but i can now hold him for long periods and he will sleep, I am not sure it gives him comfort or he is too tired to really notice. We are trying to pet him and hold him as much as we can at this stage.
After he was drained from water and on Lasix his coughing has actually disappeared, before that his coughing was constantly there. It seems his respiratory rate is 18 more or less what it has been for the last 6 months, I feel that it may be slightly slower then before.
He had two episodes with throwing up a yellow watery substance yesterday, he hardly poops, he is constantly leaking a watery diarrhea which I wash of him and had one episode yesterday around noon where hi had spurting diarrhea.
Obviously he is not playing, not going for walks, he sleeps, he waged his tail once yesterday when his Daddy came home and sleeps next to us on his pillow wrapped in a blanket in the evening and in our bed at night.
I would like some advise and if anyone has had dogs in similar situations where there is no pain or panting or strained breathing and what is a good course of action.