My Cocker Spaniel Sebastian

ebonyboxerlover · #1 05-23-2001, 12:27 PM

I have, in addition to my boxer Cassie, a wonderful black cocker spaniel named Sebastian. Actually, he's my sister's dog, but since we share the same house, he's mine too! I'm a bit concerned about him because he is 12 years old. He is still pretty active, well, no outward signs of slowing down. He has had a few cancerous tumors removed from his body,though, and I'm afraid he has more developing. I don't know if I should get them removed also, or just let nature take its course, with his age and all. We have been able to scrape money together for the past surgeries, but with Cassie, too, and expenses beyond pet care, we just can't afford to send Sebastian to the vet anymore. Any suggestions or comments? This is tearing me up, and I'm afraid my sister is going through denial and doesn't want to deal with this.

YourFriendDeb · #2 05-23-2001, 01:10 PM

I firmly believe that animals know when its their time to go...and they tell us so. Growing up, my parents bred German Shepherds. One little girl was the "runt" of the litter and therefore nobody wanted her...she never sold. We called her "PeeWee". Well, we ended up keeping her as a pet, and the name stuck.

She was an active girl, but had problems from the beginning from being the runt. She was always small and her ribs showed even though we fed her well.

PeeWee lived to be only about 4 years old...she had some sort of pancreatic condition that didn't allow her to digest food properly. In essence, she was starving to death. We (my parents) had no choice but to per her down..as she was suffering. The night before they took her to the vet...she came around to each of us and laid her head in our laps...looking up at us with those soulful brown eyes. She knew it was her time to go...she was ready.

Sebastian will let you know when he's ready to go....and you'll know it when you look at him. As long as he's not suffering and his quality of life is still good, don't worry yourself with it right now.

Good luck to you.

Nissy · #3 05-23-2001, 01:50 PM

I've had at least one cocker spaniel my entire life. My mother used to breed (don't worry...she wasn't a BYB). The cocker we have right now is SO rotten! Conan thinks that we all exist to throw his tennis ball.

Red Dog is half cocker spaniel. She is nineteen years old. I've known of any dog older than her. We keep thinking that the time is drawing near, but she just keeps on going. I think Red may outlive us all!

Try not to worry about Sebastian. If he isn't showing any signs of slowing down, he has to be feeling pretty good. What makes you think he has more tumors?

I know that having an older dog is hard. I worry about Red all the time. But, all we can do is to love them just as much as we did when they were young and hope for time. I'll keep you and Sebastian in my prayers.

ebonyboxerlover · #4 05-23-2001, 08:29 PM

While Sebastian is running around the backyard barking, I just want to say thanks for all your words of encouragement. As you can probable guess, I haven't had a dog as long as I've had Sebastian, so I will wait until he shows signs that he is ready to go. It must be so hard to let go. Fortunately, when we said goodbye to our last dog, Boo, I was living away from home, so I wasn't there during his last days. Deb, I cried reading about the little German Shepherd. I will continue to love and enjoy Sebastian day by day

Thanks again

audie5765 · #5 05-25-2001, 09:42 AM

I really think it all comes down to the quality of life. We have a wonderful black cocker that everyone told us not to get- everyone said that cockers were not very intelligent and terrible with kids, but Pluto is one of the smartest dogs I've ever owned and wonderful with my children- I'm so glad to see other cocker lovers out there! I'm so sorry to hear about yours! It's so hard when you reach a point when you have to make a decision like that. My parents had a boxer that developed a bone spur on the base of her spine. It very slowly affected the feeling in her back legs. It started out with her curling one paw under and actually walking on the top of it, to eventually dragging both back legs over the course of about 2 years. It was so pitiful to see her, but she didn't seem to notice and the vet assured us she wasn't in any pain. She couldn't hardly get around anymore, but they hated to put her to sleep when she wasn't in any pain. She eventually developed some other problems and one morning seemed to be losing control of her bladder and mom said her mouth was full of blood. Anyway, it was not until then that they took her to be put to sleep. I don't know if they should have done it sooner, but there is so much guilt that goes with the decision. Talk to your vet about the quality of life your dog will have with and without the surgery and make your decision from there. Good luck to you and Sebastian!

deuce's mommy · #6 06-03-2001, 12:49 PM

I also have a buff cocker. I found him last year and they think he is about 10 years old and is completely deaf. He had several skin tags that I had removed last year when I had him neutered. Because of the lack of history we had with him, we had the tags removed and thankfully they were not cancerous. Since then, he has heart trouble and takes rx for it daily (with honey ham, of course) Dioge is definitely the alpha and Deuce the boxer respects him. Dioge trained Deuce and whenever Deuce does anything wrong, Dioge head butts him. I don't think I could ask for a better combination.