The family dog who lives with my mum has started to deteriorate the past week or so. He’s elderly and a giant breed - his legs are giving out. I have been back and forth to the vets to collect medication for him as they were hoping by increasing his pain meds that he would perk back up again. Unfortunately, he seems to be getting worse and hasn’t got up all day today. It’s hard to tell if that’s purely through pain or if the drugs are knocking him out a bit (tramadol and gabapentin).
There is a high chance that he is going to have to be put to sleep soon. The issue is that my mum has been self isolating since Tuesday due to showing mild symptoms. If he had to be pts before her 7 days are up, I will take him to the vets myself. However, if he can’t get up at all, he is a 60kg dog and I don’t know how I will get him in the car myself. I would either have to get my mum to help me or call my brother to come and help. He was also self isolating until this week.
Even if he doesn’t manage to perk up a bit and holds off for the time being, with the current restrictions in place I wouldn’t be able to go with my mum to put him down. She would have to do it alone 😔. And I would want to say goodbye but how do I do that without going into her house if he can’t get up to say, come out to the garden?
Amongst all of this is my 8 year old DS who I won’t be able to leave at home alone, can’t leave with anyone due to Coronavirus risks and can’t take him into the vets without traumatising him and putting the vets at more risk than necessary. Even the euthanasia won’t be as normal as they will probably need to put a line in without me there and then step back to do it from a distance so I can still be with him.
I know animals don’t matter as much to some people but he is part of the family. Not sure that I am really looking for advice, I just can’t believe we are in this situation. This is just a complete nightmare 😔.