Cecil, I don't know if this will help at all, but I'm going to try anyway. I waited too long for my golden retriever, Mandy. I still have tough feelings about making her suffer longer than she should have. On my next challenge, I have promised myself to do better.
Good point Dave. If she appears to be suffering and there is nothing that can be done I will do the right thing. But as of now she doesn't appear to be suffering, and she's such a tough dog the fall down the carpeted stairs didn't even phase her. I took in a urine sample this morning for an "ERD" whatever that is. I do know the kidney deterioration can be managed with a low protein high quality protein diet and a few other things if it hasn't progressed to far, so if she's not suffering maybe we can enjoy our time together a little longer.
At this point I don't have enough info and it could be an infection or something. We shall see.
She's scared me a couple of other times and she pulled through like a champ. One other time the vet suspected kidney deterioration and the tests came out negative. And she stopped waking us up at 3 A.M. to go pee once the humidity levels got back up to normal in the house. My guess is she was drinking a lot of water at night because it was so dry. We have a cathedral ceiling and even with one humidifier it's not enough.
Then there was the time I thought she had a stroke as she was walking sideways, stumbling, and with her head tilted weird. Turned out to be hardened ear wax up against her eardrum that was messing with her equilibrium.
