Hi, hoping for some objective thoughts on our situation as we face a heartbreaking decision.
our very much loved boy is 12 and has had deteriorating health over the last couple of years including multiple surgeries for mast cell tumour removal and more recently seems to have lost a lot of sight and possibly dementia.
On top of this he has severe arthritis with a particular issue on his one leg and we struggle to get him to rest at all because he just paces around all evening, will not settle in his crate at all and has had a couple of little stumbles resulting in limping but seems ok the following day.
Last night he pulled away from me as we got home from his walk and has injured his leg. I didn’t see what he did but most likely jumped and landed awkwardly. He has been in a lot of pain since, I’ve never witnessed him in so much pain even when he fractured his pelvis several years ago.
I’ve been so upset and due to it being the weekend our options are very limited. The out of hours vet quoted around £2k for an xray, which we would pay and have insurance, but the thought of travelling there with him and leaving him (he gets extremely stressed at the vet’s) was awful and due to it being an out of hours service they couldn’t give any clarity around what would happen.
He also had an xray recently under sedation very recently because his liver bloods were a bit high so the vet didn’t want to put him under anaesthetic, so I was anxious about that and the out of hours were again vague on this and what they would do. Our main concern has been that the best scenario is it’s just some trauma to his arthritic limb which needs rest (which we would struggle to manage because of his recent behaviour change and refusal to rest) and will likely happen again. While the worst being a break/fracture requiring treatment we wouldn’t put him through.
He is a big boy and the last 2 vets we have seen in the last 6 months have both mentioned quality of life and him being a good age for his size and have advised against further surgeries for mast cell tumours etc.
It’s been heartbreaking seeing him in so much pain today and we have decided to end his suffering this evening with someone coming to euthanise him at home. I know in an ideal world it would be useful to know the exact issue to consider this alongside everything but we really don’t want to put him through anything painful or stressful which may not even change things at all.
We have thought and talked extensively about this but it’s still so hard to be sure it’s the right decision, or at least not the wrong one. It’s not about cost, and in fact is costing significantly more to arrange for home euthanasia because I could never do it at the vets where he gets so stressed. I would quite literally do anything to make him better but the reality is that he has a few things going on and hasn’t been ‘right’ for a while.
Nevertheless I feel so much guilt which is likely tied to the fact that we have two very young children so the last couple of years have been very different to the old days when he was our whole world.
if you have made it this far thank you