In late September, we made the decision to put Tater to rest. He was declining, increasingly unable to process where he was and what was going on, and exhibiting signs that his anxiety was increasingly overwhelming.
Tater’s decline was long-term and slowly progressive, but during the month leading up to his death he has declined more quickly. In the last two weeks he had obvious trouble breathing at night. He sustained injuries several years ago from a dog attack that partially compromised his vision and hearing on his right side; it was expected that the neurological damage would eventually lead to more severe hearing and vision loss, but the timing was uncertain.
Over the last year that decline has been obvious. Toward the end, Tater was increasingly unable to maintain situational awareness. He couldn’t tell who was present or departing a room, and sometimes lost track of who was nearby. This caused him great distress. In the final month, it also became evident that Tater could no longer reliably get up or lie down in any comfortable fashion, and that trying to do so was causing him significant pain. Border Collies are famously stoic; for the pain to be evident it had to be pretty bad.
While there was no imminently fatal disease (as has been the case with our previous dogs), Darcy and I made the difficult decision that Tater should not be forced to live his life in a state of constant distress, disorientation, pain, and confusion.
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