About 3 months ago my 9 y.o. yellow lab fell down the stairs during the middle of the night and had issues using his rear legs the next day; then the day after he couldn't use them at all. It might be worth noting that he has episodes in the past couple years where if he played too much then he would temporarily lose some control over his rear legs, but would be fine usually in a couple hours. He lost complete control of his bowels and legs and seemed to be in pain. Since we were in a unique situation in that we were moving overseas for a few years, we decided to put him to sleep after multiple vet visits. We didn't want to put him through risky surgery and then essentially abandon him with family/not be with him for the last years of his life (very unlikely we could fly him in his current medical state). Fortunately, he started to make dramatic improvements and started to return to his happy Labrador self/was improving with getting up and walking by himself but still needed assistance. At the last second we decided to not put him down and started the difficult process of taking him overseas with us. The main vet gave him some meds to manage pain and other symptoms and another vet ruled out IVDD after an X-ray (even though I read IVDD can only be diagnosed with MRIs?).
Then a few weeks later he stopped eating, drinking, lost bowel control/diarrhea and wanted nothing but to lay down all day. He was resistant to letting me help take him outside to go to the bathroom. Vets noted his elevated kidney levels in the past (and was on a special diet for that too), and while his levels were increasing, the vet said they aren't critical yet and we gave him some fluids. Testing also ruled out poison or him eating something he wasn't supposed to. After about 3 days of no improvements (and now vomiting), I was ready to call it and I started looking around for an at home euthanasia for the next day. Then he did something strange and let out a weird howl and was acting scared of something invisible in the room immediately after. It only lasted about 5 seconds then he snapped out of it. After that I knew I had to do it that day, so I was calling around to vets that could fit me in on such late notice. About 15 minutes later he let out a yelp/howl and started to have what I think was a seizure. I think it lasted about 3 minutes, and the whole time I felt completely helpless. Then he stopped and gave a few deep breaths before passing. When I took his body to the vet and asked what he think happened, he said it's hard to say since his kidney levels weren't life threatening a couple days before, but that it could possibly be cancer/tumors (he started getting random lumps on his body this past year).
I'm not looking for exact answers, since I know it's hard to say for sure without a necropsy, nor am I trying to blame anyone. He passed a month ago and I find myself thinking about it daily. So I guess I'm just looking for other thoughts of what it may have been. Do dogs pass away from cancer in that same way? Did his spinal issues factor into it? Brain aneurysm? Kidney failure? Thanks in advance.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/o1vv1x/looking_for_some_possible_answers/
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