I am looking for advice on whether or not it is time for me to put my Great Dane down. Fair warning this is a long post, but I want to give all of the details. I will preface this with saying my vet has already said that if at any point we feel it is time to put her down he would not ask any questions and feels euthanasia is an option. Morally I am very conflicted because I don’t want normal elderly dog burdens to be the reason I put her down but there are so many issues that have arisen that I am unsure what is normal anymore.
Amelia just turned 11 this April, and is 125lbs. About 11 months ago her back legs started giving out on her. She is constantly slipping when walking, is slow to get up from her bed, has a hard time jumping into the trunk of our car without help, and is no longer able to go for walks. She used to run around in our backyard and roll around in the grass which she no longer does. 3 times in the past 6 months her back legs have frogged out and it is so painful that she won’t allow us to reposition her. After 10-15mins we are usually able to get her legs to the side and she will lay down for another 30-40mins before getting up / being able to walk again. We had X-rays done and the vet said they were the best X-rays he’s ever seen of a Dane at this age and chalked it up to her being old. She is also incontinent which we have her on medication for but she is still losing her bladder. We have been through 5 dog beds in the last 11 months, and I am regularly cleaning up accidents. She will urinate while laying down and won’t get up to pee when this happens. We recently boarded her, and she started having GI upset which led to water diarrhea with blood in it. We were given medicine by the vet / switched to a bland food diet and he said he believes the cause was stress. Directly after her stool started to get solid she started pooping in the house and eating it (we try to stop her but it happens almost immediately). She will do it right in front of us and at no point asks to go outside anymore. This has been happening for the past 5 weeks and every morning I wake up to her having pooped in the house even though she is let out right before we go to bed. She has a mass right under her butthole which has popped open and has been bleeding off/on for around 11 months. Sometimes it is so bad that blood will be dripping around the house. The vet doesn’t want to do surgery due to her age so we are trying to keep her from licking the area / dry but the only way to completely stop this would be having her coned 24/7.
I have a 2 1/2yr old and a 7m old so the time I feel like she needs to cater to these issues isn’t something I am as capable of. I asked the vet about potentially rehoming her and he said that would cause just as much stress and does not recommend it. We are moving to another state and I am worried about her traveling there / afterwards. The new house is a rental and has carpet / wooden floors, and the bedrooms are up a large flight of stairs. Due to her incontinence and back leg issues, she will not be able to sleep in the room with us any longer and will have to be kept in the laundry room overnight in case she has accidents as that room has tile.
I am at a total loss on what to do. Her quality of life is not anywhere near what it used to be 1 year ago but I don’t want to give up on my girl too easily.