Great.  Our kid Fosgate had surgery about two months ago to remove a skin
tumor (which the doc didn't think was cancer).  Fourteen days ago, we
almost lost him.  We ran out of their normal food, so we went back to
Science Diet.  He stopped eating, got really bad, and we took him to the
vet.  He gave him amoxy and some electrolytes and we were giving him
Pepto to cure his case of the runs.
 
He got considerably better and started eating a LOT of puffed rice
(although he would ignore regular food).  We put him back in the cage
with Rockford and his own bowl of rice.   We thought he was doing OK
until recently.  Now, he's just barely eating and drinking and his hind
legs seem to be stiff.  We have to force him to eat, but when he gets
started it seems like he'll eat for 5 or 6 minutes at a time, then go to
sleep.  He wants to get out of his cage and play, but we're afraid to let
him lose any of the energy that he's got left.
 
The vet thinks that he's about six or seven years old.  Is it just his
time to go?  We've seen him bounce back from lotsa colds before, but it's
never taken him this long and he's NEVER been this bad.  Fosgate's in the
pet carrier by himself and he just doesn't look like himself.  He doesn't
walk too well, just kinda steps and falls.
 
How long should we wait?  What's the time difference between hoping for a
recovery and just prolonging suffering?  The poor little guy is down from
1.75 pounds to about a pound now.  Since these are our first two, we've
never lost one before, so we really don't know what to do.
 
[Posted in FML issue 0901]