Fecal incontinence in elderly dog.

[Louisa111]

Our lovely dog is 15 , partially sighted and deaf and has now started to not to be able to hold his poo. I know generally this can be quite common in elderly dogs but it getting quite frustrating for us and prob not nice for him either.
I know the vet will want to run tests but at 15 I wouldn't want to put him through it.. what would you do in this situation. We have said if he becomes totally incontinent we would have to make the inevitable decision but it's heartbreaking for us to know what to do 😢

She will be quite sprightly no doubt to the vet as she loves people but she is nearing 16 and I want her to go peacefully before any potential emergency.

Goosefatroasts I know what you mean. Mine is a people pleaser and we have to say to each vet he may look happy here but he is trying to appease you. We had it this week prior to being rushed in for emergency surgery he was wagging his tail and looking happy at the vet but all the time we were saying he is in great pain and very ill so don't take his appearance as to how he actually is.

he sleeps a lot , doesn't enjoy going for walks anymore and doesn't play as he can't see

Just because he can eat does not cancel out the above. Dogs and food are just an automatic reaction.

A pal had a lab which ate everything but hated brussel sprouts. But if you offered him one he would try to eat it and then spit it out after a while. Offer him another and he would try to eat it etc. You could see his tiny brain going 'I must eat this, it is food' without taking into account he hated brussel sprouts.

Your dh is right, time to let go.

It's so hard isn't it? We had to make the decision to let our old lady go just before Christmas. She had lots of health problems including mobility, deafness and cataracts. She needed a lot of support in the garden but never lost her enthusiasm for food.

Someone on here kindly suggested that merely being able to eat was setting the bar very low and a few days later we called to vet who came to the house. She was asleep, snuggled up in her bed having had some favourite treats and calmly and quietly slipped away. DH was broken and I don't think he would have been able to make this decision had I not been quite insistent that it was time.

As a number of people on MN have said in other threads- better a week to early than a day too late.

Take care. X

A very tough decision and I'm sorry for everyone else having to or have gone through the same ... have lots to think about .

I lost my old boy nearly two years ago, at almost 16. He had had this problem for some years but as his quality of life was excellent otherwise, I dealt with it. He was PTS for an entirely different reason. But I had had the conversation with the vet a long time before and he had said don't feel guilty if you have had enough. But fortunately for me something else caught up with him in the end. He had been blind for a decade.