Euthanizing dogs...

[weaver_67579]

I could never put down a dog for the reasons stated above. I'm going to be going out to buy diapers for my 14 yo dog who has a very bad heart, but started to have incontinence issues. The other things I'd just happily deal with.

 

care with my last 2 dogs that I lost last Easter and this past summer. I would (and very likely will) again in a heartbeat. My dogs were dear companions for the whole family and dealing with incontinence....doesn't phase me a bit-gee I changed diapers on 3 kids. DS still doesn't always have the best aim....:glare: good thing we no longer have carpet in the bathroom...I do know not everyone would/could deal with a very ill or inconvenient health problem in a pet. Still-when they let me know they were "done" I did euthanize them-when they had lost the will to live....It is a hard choice no matter the circumstances. For me it is very difficult to know I have the power to decide whether another being lives or dies and that is not something I take at all lightly (I am not in any way suggesting the op is). Even when i knew a pet was in deed suffering it was never an "easy" choice-though i made it without hesitation since I believed it to be ther right thing to do. No doubt it is harder still when you feel you have no or few choices.

 

So to the op-I am sorry you have to make this hard decision. I am sorry for you, your family and the dear old dog. Now go find a big box of tissues and look up the poem "The Rainbow Bridge" and have a good cry. I didn't look at the bottom of your posts for ages of kids-but mine like the book "Dog Heaven" Now I have to go get some tissues from thinking about the pets I have lost.....all waiting for me at the Rainbow Bridge.....

[ondreeuh]

We recently put down our cat for equivalent reasons. He'd been an outside cat for ~ 3 years due to deliberately peeing in the house, and was having allergic reactions to everything causing his health to slowly fail. My mother, who gave her cats IVs at her home in their 18th year, didn't understand it. For us, our pets are our pets - not our fur-children. We aren't willing to do life-support to extend the life of an animal who had underlying issues that could not be fixed. Animal rescues won't take animals who aren't adoptable, and mine definitely wasn't (and I assume your dog isn't either). It really came down to our guilt over letting the cat live with health issues being outweighed by our guilt over letting him go.

 

I don't feel totally at peace with our decision, but I am OK with it. I am glad he's not sick anymore.

[StephanieZ]

((hugs))

 

I adore dogs.

 

But, kids come first. If you have to choose between dental/medical care for your kids and vet care for your dog, it's a no brainer.

 

A shelter/rescue is generally not an option in your situtation, so euthanasia might be the only humane option if you can no longer keep her.

 

Is it feasible to keep her shaved 'down there' to avoid the fur collecting urine, and to bathe her once or twice a week? (You might also want to experiment with applying a gentle emollient such as olive oil to her skin in the area after the bath if it is getting irritated.) If you haven't tried that, then I'd encourage you to consider that before euthanasia.

[Murphy101]

Didn't read all replies.

 

Have you asked the vet how long he estimates she would likely have sans any medical care or medications?

 

If it were a somewhat short time (and your short and my short might vary greatly), I would probably decide to just let things be until her end.

 

You don't say how old your kids are, can you show them how to groom her? Or maybe since you aren't paying for expensive meds and vet visits, you can splurge on a groomer once a month or so?

 

And I would restrict her to one room or crate her in a main room, rather than let her relieve herself all over the house. Also, they make diapers for dogs that would help at least when she is roaming about the house.

 

That said, you gotta do what you gotta do for your entire family, not just the dog.

[4wildberrys]

So----we took the dog to the vet Friday with the understanding she was going to be euthanized. The vet then assured dh that she was in pain and incontinent and we were doing the right thing...it was time. Buuut.....our other dog who had a stroke 2 days before Christmas had a bloated stomach Friday afternoon and hadn't eaten in a day and was very, very weak, so we rushed him to the vet Friday evening afraid it was as twisted bowel. Turns out it is a spleen tumor---more than likely cancerous, which is probably what caused the stroke in the first place. He is extremely anemic and so his blood has to be built up in order to even operate. Sigh---so in the meantime she hadn't put the other dog down and said to come back the next day. So we did----and the dog had miraculously 'recovered' from her extreme mobility problems and was not leaking urine! :confused: And the vet assistant kept saying "Boy, she sure is full of life!". So guess who COULDN'T put the dog down under those circumstances? :001_huh:

 

Anyways--the vet said she didn't have incontinence on Sat after saying she obviously did on Fri----but that its more than likely an infection. So now----pills for that dog, operation and pills for the other! We prayed for God to show us the right thing to do.......so trusting that after all of this drama and emotional roller-coastering, we will have the ability to do all of this and make it through financially with our sanity intact.

[Remudamom]

Haven't read all.........but I would never, never put an older dog like that in rescue. She would know she had been abandoned.

 

I put my beloved collie down at 13 years when he was blind, deaf and cried when he didn't know where I was. I thought it was best for him and I've always regretted it. Always.