Pet Forum / Miscellaneous / Animal Health / November 2007

I have a 14 year old Westie who has been blind for about the last year
(cataracts) and in addition over the last four months or so he has
developed the following symptoms:

- swollen belly
- foul smelling drool which stains his bed
- foul smell
- stumbling like his legs are giving out
- pacing
- occasional crying
- except for the belly he looks like skin and bones
- lots of small skin tumors

Being blind the pacing has him bumping into the table, dishwasher,
kitchen cabinets etc. Today I let him outside (he has an enclosed
backyard for toilet etc) and he spent over an hour just circling a
dwarf pine at a fairly fast speed. Finally I'd had enough watching him
so I picked him up and brought him inside. He drank and then paced in
the kitchen for about 10 minutes before eventually sleeping and
occasionally waking to cry.

On the plus side he eats like a horse, better than he did before his
blindness, has two or three normal-looking bowel movements each day,
and pees fine. Well, lately he's been having accidents but by fine I
mean he doesn't seem to pee any less or more than before and there's
no obvious problems such as blood.

He no longer barks, rarely wags his tail and no longer seems
interested in human contact even with his previously-preferred people
(the kids).

There's no question of incurring any vet bills for diagnosis or
treatment. We realize that he's terminal, it's just a question of when
we yank the plug: now, or do we wait until he stops eating (my wife's
criteria but will this ever happen?) or until some other symptom
appears (say: vomiting blood)?