my lively little girl slowing down

[Another Mollie]

My cocker Mollie will be 13 in June and I have been lucky enough to have had her in my life since she was eight weeks old. Its been a while now since she has walked a long way, chased pebbles on the beach, ran around the garden with a sock or even had any energy in the house. She totters round the block and sleeps most of the day now, which I think is because she is an old lady now so thats fine, but it has happened really without me noticing and now I see her with her lumps and warts, grey beard abd tired eyes and feel so sad that her puppy days are gone. She is more special than ever, still barks for more food and has grumpy growls before bedtime but I do worry that the lumps she has is something more sinister, in fact I worry about everything. She is always at the vets, been on antibiotics and steroid since new year because of anal sac problems, they did not seem overly concerned about her. How did your cocker age? When did you notice? I hope we can have along time together yet.

[elaine.e]

Your description of Mollie reminds me of my old boy Josh in his last few years.

Josh lived until almost 17. I lost him in 2004, which is quite a long time ago, so I don't remember exactly when things changed over the years for him, but I know that by Mollie's age he was deaf, had lots of warts and a few lumps that were fatty and harmless. I didn't have needle biopsies done on the lumps because the vet was pretty sure they were harmless and none of them was large or affected his movement or quality of life. Josh also had mild heart failure and a low grade heart murmur, both diagnosed between about 10 and 13 years, and both well controlled by daily medication.

At about 13, maybe 14, Josh had an anaesthetic for a much needed dental and to have a couple of troublesome warts removed. One was on the top of his head and he kept knocking it. The other was on his chest and he kept scratching it and it was always infected. I was really worried, but even back then anaesthesia was pretty sophisticated and he had the latest and newest one and recovered very well, if a bit slowly. He also started losing his sight to cataracts at around that time, but he adjusted well, probably helped by being slow and ploddy and therefore less likely to bump into things.

When he was 15 I thought I was going to lose him to a nasty liver infection. He was very ill for a couple of days but then rallied and started to pick up. It was around that time that I went through a phase of constantly worrying about him. Every morning I'd come downstairs worrying that he might not have come through the night. If he had the slightest off day, being fussy about his food, or more sleepy than usual, I'd fear the worst. I'm guessing that you're going through something similar at the moment and I think that's perfectly normal. We look at them and wonder how did old age creep up on them

It was taking a huge toll on me at the time. Josh was my only companion because my husband works abroad on long term contracts, so I'm on my own most of the time, and I was just constantly worrying about him and not enjoying him. Then I decided I needed to start thinking differently and start looking at every day with Josh as something to celebrate. So even though his walks were slow and limited to about 10 minutes off lead pottering about and sniffing in the New Forest I could see that he still enjoyed them. Even though he slept most of the time I knew he was still contented when awake, enjoying a cuddle and a gentle groom (or any attention really), a bit fussy over his food but still mostly enjoying it, loving a patch of sunshine in the garden or sun streaming through a window indoors. I was confident that although what he could do was limited he was still enjoying those things.

I hope this helps? Mollie isn't worrying, she's just getting on with life, and as long as you think that she has a happy and pain free life, even if it's definitely life in the slow lane, then please try to stop worrying so much and focus on enjoying your lovely girl and hopefully some lovely times still to come

[Another Mollie]

Thankyou thats a lovely post, very nice to read about Josh and he lived a long life. Yes it is a constant worry that never eases, but Mollie is always a happy thing, as cockers are and rarely has off days.

[Ben's mum]

My Ben has just turned 12 and I suppose I've worried about this this last few months as his aging has sort of just arrived, with sight loss and hearing loss all happening in the space of a few months. I've also had some worries about dementia.

It's interesting reading how you describe Mollie, as Ben is completely opposite in that his energy levels are as high as when he was 6, he walks a good couple of hours a day and runs round like a lunatic. But that brings its own problems as he moves so fast he frequently hurts himself, he runs into things at speed because of his sight, and he still jumps off the bank into the river despite the fact he doesn't have the power in his legs to get out again.  He also throws himself around and we have some issues with his back and back legs. I am torn between wishing he would slow down a little and dreading when he does. 

Like you I find hearing about Elaine's Josh just so heart warming and gives me hope my boy will go on for a while yet.  I also find I worry over every little lump and bump and convince myself they might be nasty, but so far we have been lucky. I think because Ben is my first dog I just don't ever want to lose him, but I know that's not realistic but I keep hoping.  It sounds like Mollie is happy in herself which is lovely to read.

Here's hoping for many more summers with our lovely golden oldies 

[MIN]

we have an elderly staffie (13) she is my oldest dog ever. she is grey, wobbly and a whinger. has different whinges for going out, hungry, want a drink, bed time, want to go out etc. she sleeps 23 hour a day. she snores so loud ( but not during day time sleeps) and her breathing is irregular so I spend most nights awake in-case she pops her clogs.

[MrsOmalley]

Reading this makes me realise how lucky I was with my first cocker Cindy.  She lived until she was fifteen and a half and behaved like a puppy until two weeks before she died and she was still walking a good three miles a day up to that point.  She had a few lumps which didn't bother her and the vet was not worried about them.  Obviously the older she got the more I worried about her but she certainly lived life to the full.  Conversely we also had a cross lab at that time who was twelve when he died, he was deaf and almost blind and wasn't at all interested in going out,  he had a bad fit at eleven and we worried about him every day after that, he also had a few lumps and a very grey muzzle.

[PennyB]

I know that feeling - Wilf is 11 nearly 12 (in May) and have just starting noticing he's aging but he's still quite active and to be honest in Ruby's case it was the tumour that did her in, as the rest of her was just Ruby a norty active 12 year old going on 13 (in 2 weeks).

Wilf makes me laugh as he's been in the vets once for trying to keep up with the youngsters but could hardly walk by the end of the weekend - it was his choice to race up and down steep riverbanks all through the walk LOL

[minimoo]

One thing i would say is at 13 DONT worry about her lumps and bumps, cockers are prone to lumps but at 13 they arent going to worry her much, my old girl kizzy had lumps and  warts but she lived a long lovely life  , my girly now Ella is 9 and has alot of fatty lumps but is perfectly happy and the vets dont seem too bothered about them 

[PennyB]

Yep - I've stopped worrying about them but I always get them checked periodically when I see the vet

Wilf creaks more and I notice it especially as he's a skinny boy