Hey Ladies,
Long time, no post.
It's with heavy heart that I'm starting this thread.
Willow has entered the end stages of her kidney failure. It's been almost 2 years since her diagnosis, and the vet gave her a prognosis of around 2 years, so I guess she's on schedule....
Chris and I are having a really hard time deciding if we should wait a bit more before we make "the decision", but she seems to be worsening with each day. There's a list of 12 -13 signs and symptoms that we found online for dogs at the end stages of renal failure, and aside from seizures and incontinence, Willow has checked off all of them. We've decided that we absolutely do NOT want seizures to be the sign we wait for to "know", and if she were ever incontinent in the house, we think the guilt alone would kill her (she hides whenever she vomits - which, because of the renal failure, is nearly every day).
We went to the dog park today, and I think it'll be the last time she goes there. In the same amount of time that we usually circle the park 3 times, we walked around once. She's so lethargic. She's been curled up on her dog bed since we've been home. Chris has covered her with an afghan as she's soooo skinny now and shakes like crazy.
I think out biggest dilemma is that we're moving at the end of the month. We're moving into a townhouse that has A LOT of stairs, and at this point, Willow finds it difficult to get up on the couch. We're worried she won't cope well with the move.
She still wiggles her stump when we talk to her, and still slowly makes her way over for cuddles, but I just don't think she's as happy as she was, even last week.
I guess we all know where this is headed, and I guess I just needed to get this little bit of worry off my chest. I'd also appreciate any thoughts/prayers/best-wishes you can offer!
Hope you're all well,
~M
