So my dog, she’s a 10 year old, spayed, Yorkie. She weighs 5.5-6 lbs. She has had a number of health issues in her life (a weird nerve/spine thing that the vet was never able to diagnose that eventually passed, recurrent seizures, recurrent pancreatitis, arthritis). Her anal glands were removed in 2015 due to constant impaction. Her quality of life after the surgery improved dramatically, however now she has complete fecal incontinence. Initially for several years after the surgery, it was just when she barked but it’s pretty much all the time now. I clean up poop from the house at least 5-6 times a day, and have to wash her multiple times a day because she has feces stuck in her fur. She won’t wear a diaper. She’s frequently on courses of metronidazole for diarrhea.
She also has a collapsing trachea (vet rated at medium severity, currently). She is on hydromet for the coughing and it helps but it also gives her diarrhea and sedates her a lot. She’s also on meds for allergies to help the general irritation in her throat and alprazolam to help with the anxiety about her trachea. So lots of regular meds for her.
She isn’t exactly suffering, I don’t think. She still enjoys being with us and she still eats, tho it does seem more difficult for her recently. We do still take her for daily walks but fairly short as she is easily winded. We can’t play with her at all anymore, sadly, as she immediately starts coughing and retching. I’ve been starting to feel like it might be time to start thinking about euthanasia. I’ve had to euthanize plenty of pets in my lifetime but they have all been critically ill, I’ve never been in this tenuous spot where they aren’t quite suffering yet but quality of life isn’t great either. In addition, the fecal incontinence is hard. Today I literally spent more than an hour bleaching the floors because she pooped in several places and someone tracked it around the house (I have small children, one who is crawling so the floors can’t have E. coli all over them...).
I don’t know what to do. I love my pooch, truly. And I also know this is hard on her and on me. Any advice welcome, but please, no hate. It’s hard for me to think about this and I won’t do it if it isn’t in her best interest but it’s a tough situation. Thank you.
Edit: she is under the regular care of a vet that she has been seeing her whole life.
She also has a collapsing trachea (vet rated at medium severity, currently). She is on hydromet for the coughing and it helps but it also gives her diarrhea and sedates her a lot. She’s also on meds for allergies to help the general irritation in her throat and alprazolam to help with the anxiety about her trachea. So lots of regular meds for her.
She isn’t exactly suffering, I don’t think. She still enjoys being with us and she still eats, tho it does seem more difficult for her recently. We do still take her for daily walks but fairly short as she is easily winded. We can’t play with her at all anymore, sadly, as she immediately starts coughing and retching. I’ve been starting to feel like it might be time to start thinking about euthanasia. I’ve had to euthanize plenty of pets in my lifetime but they have all been critically ill, I’ve never been in this tenuous spot where they aren’t quite suffering yet but quality of life isn’t great either. In addition, the fecal incontinence is hard. Today I literally spent more than an hour bleaching the floors because she pooped in several places and someone tracked it around the house (I have small children, one who is crawling so the floors can’t have E. coli all over them...).
I don’t know what to do. I love my pooch, truly. And I also know this is hard on her and on me. Any advice welcome, but please, no hate. It’s hard for me to think about this and I won’t do it if it isn’t in her best interest but it’s a tough situation. Thank you.
Edit: she is under the regular care of a vet that she has been seeing her whole life.
