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Considering Euthanasia for my 13 y/o dog
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Species: Dog

Age: 13

Sex/Neuter status: M/ Neutered

Breed: Mixed-- Boxer/Lab most likely

Body weight: 65ish lbs

History: Adopted from shelter at 8, told he had "a little anxiety" instead he has severe anxiety and pica with obsessive behaviors. He has a history of mast cell tumor but this was removed 3 years ago and there are no reoccurrences at this point. He also had a history of urine crystals but that was resolved by switching his food. At this point we have consulted with multiple trainers and also have him on Prozac 30 mgs. We also tried CBD to help calm him and minimize the obsessive behavior but it was not any help. We keep our house strictly managed to keep things away from him but he always finds something-- if he finds a plush dog toy he will eat it stuffing and all. He swallows horns if we don't get them before they are chewed down to about 6 inches. We have had to induce vomiting to avoid impactions. He will eat any paper product. We can't put toilet paper on the roll. We've been doing this for 5 years trying to keep him alive and it seems to be getting worse and we are weary.

He doesn't care about anything other than finding food. Sometimes we try to give him extra treats in the middle of the day or just for fun and it makes him even more frenzied than before-- licking the floor and walls, chewing up cardboard, eating the mail, etc. He will scream and cry and bark at us for over an hour some nights for dinner. We feed him dinner at the exact same time every night. He only gets dinner if he is laying down and quiet but no amount of ignoring the bad behavior and rewarding the good behavior changes it. We've tried all kinds of things to help like ignoring or moving dinner time up in case its too long and he's hungry. It makes no difference. If we change the time he just starts the behavior an hour earlier. Treat training is also difficult because he becomes so frenzied trying to get the treat he doesn't pay attention to what we are asking him to do. He won't play with toys or chase a ball. I have tried to teach him fetch thinking it would be a good enrichment activity but he doesn't have any interest in the ball.

We've considered a lot of options for him including rehoming but it's extremely difficult to find a home for a 13 year old dog with these behaviors and I worry that people would not understand what they were getting themselves into and how that would translate into the care he is given. We've thought about returning him to the shelter but it really breaks my heart thinking of him in there. When we adopted him he was in the shelter for nearly 8 weeks, 5 years later I can only think that it would be much longer. There are no senior dog rescues in the area so getting him pulled by contacting rescues will be difficult. At his age I don't know if he would leave the shelter or if he would be put down. I don't want his last weeks of life to be filled with fear and stress. I'd rather he spend that time with us, surrounded by love and eating a huge steak dinner before falling asleep for the last time. I really don't know what the right thing to do is but I know that he is not happy and we certainly are not either.

Living with a dog with these behaviors has been a major quality of life drain on everyone, including the other dogs in the household who can't have bones or toys because he might sneak off with it and eat it then become impacted. It is so draining to be on alert constantly because he may swallow something dangerous or eat/damage something important. He mostly sleeps all day then when awake looks everywhere for food. He is a healthy weight and gets fed twice per day. I know this is not a standard euthanasia situation, but what are your thoughts? I'm really struggling with what to do to make his life better, or at the very least prevent him from suffering.

Clinical signs: pacing, licking, eating non-food items

Duration: 5 years

Your general location: SE USA

Links to test results, X-rays, vet reports etc: none

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Posted
3 years ago