Our dog has an undiagnosable condition affecting her side which is creating sores and pushing small lumps of (apparently deep) tissue to the surface.
She scratches and licks at the area constantly. She’s had mutiple specialist vet visits, scans, lab testing etc plus two very big operations removing large amounts of dead tissue with no answer as to what is causing it. Obviously the area gets infected and antibiotics have cleared it up temporarily but it keeps returning, after a few months at best. She is healthy in every other way but she absolutely hates going to the vets.
The last time we took her to the vets they were pushing to do another very expensive operation but obviously could give us no reassurance it would help. We don’t have insurance unfortunately as we felt we could afford anything she would have needed at this stage (she’s now only 8) but were clearly naive about what might happen and what it might cost (£11k plus and counting so far!). We pushed back and they gave us a longer prescription for the antibiotics to also cover the next time it returned instead. Of course now it’s come back and the antibiotics aren’t helping. She’s still very active wanting to go on walks etc and no other signs of physical problems but she has started seeking out quieter, more comfortable spots (sofa, all our beds!) which is becoming problematic as the sores are weeping and she’s very smelly and she growls at us and snaps when we try to move her. She’s clearly unhappy and we’ve tried a cone but she still bashes at her side with it and uses her back leg to scratch so it doesn’t really help (it’s definitely an underlying condition and she isn’t causing the problem).
We will have to return to the vet soon as we are nearly out of antibiotics and they don’t seem to be working…. And I’m at a complete loss as to what to do… they’ll push again for another scan and operation at great cost (c£5k minimum - money we don’t have) but the alternative seems so unfair, cruel and irresponsible on our part to have an animal and then not do everything to cure her…. Are we even able to have her put down if the vet is saying they believe (wrongly in my opinion) they could still try to help? Is anyone on here a vet that has any ideas what this is or other dog owner who has experience this?
It would be absolutely awful to have to have her put down (we have young children who also love her very much and we’ve had her since she was a puppy) but we cannot afford to keep spending such vast sums on money on things that do not help her. It’s become a really stressful situation even just managing where she can be in the house, whether the dog walker will still take her etc. I just don’t know what to do anymore and my husband is burying his head in the sand about it.
Any insight or advice greatly appreciated and thank you for reading so far!! X