I hope you get as many good days with your dog as you can.
How it went when we had to do this for our cat a few years ago: the vet gave us some time to say goodbye, and then administered a single shot (he was already on some pain relief meds), and our cat went very quickly, within seconds. No pain, just went from being a very tired old cat leaning into his last skritchies to being gone in a few seconds. The vet left the room, saying he’d give us some time with him, as long as we needed. The vet gave us the choice of taking him home for burial or having the practice handle that - we took him home and buried him in a favourite sunny spot in the yard with a can of cat food and a favourite toy (I know that’s supposed to be a kid thing, but we still couldn’t face sending him off without some comforts).
Take someone with you to support you, and make it someone you’re comfortable ugly-crying around, because saying goodbye hurts, even when you know it’s the right thing to do.
I’ve done that with ill cats, who were expected to recover if they managed to survive. I’ve done it to get a supplement into an older cat who was still eating, but who wasn’t getting enough nutrients from the food.
I wouldn’t do it with somebody who’s dying of old age, or of terminal illness, and who has quit eating. It’s not something they’re going to get over if fed. (Do check with the vet. first, to make sure; older creatures can get ill too, and sometimes they do have something treatable.) Their bodies may not be able to absorb the food in any case; and all you’re accomplishing may be to distress them.
It’s pretty minimal distress and sometimes the reason for loss of appetite has nothing to do with ability to digest. Obviously, it’s up to the individual owner to decide, but unless the dog reacted badly to the food then I personally would not want starvation to speed up whatever underlying problem is bringing them to their end.
Go to some of the specialty pet food stores in your town and see what sort of exotic meats they have in the refrigerated section. Maybe he’ll like something like elk, deer, snake, etc.
You could also try freezing some bite-sized pieces of food. He might be better with it frozen when it doesn’t smell as strong.
It’s kinda heartbreaking to note that Sampiro’s been away from the board for going on two years, and it appears that he came back solely to solicit advice about how best to handle a difficult task. At the same time, it’s nice to know that here was the place he came.
Fair winds and following seas, Sampiro. While I’d doubtless be only one of the many Dopers who’d bust out the fatted calf were you to return permanently, I’m not harboring any illusions. I’m glad you found what you needed on the Dope when you came back to call.
(P.S. Goebbels Bunch? See THIS is why there’s always gonna be a Sampiro-shaped hole in my heart.)
When my terri-poo stopped eating, we tried everything. Like you, the pain reliever and treatment worked once, but he went back to not eating or drinking. I tried everything I could think of - eggs, hamburgers, steak…the little guy just would not eat. When I let him him, he would sit under the tree in the yard and wait. nothing else. When he stopped wagging his tail and cuddling with me in the mornings, I knew. Still, we tried. We really did, because I was totally not ready to say goodbye.
When it was time, I held him and whispered to him how much I loved him and what a good boy he was - for the first time in three days, he wagged his tail.
