Hi there everyone,
My husband and I are at a loss and in need of some advice. Its our good boy, Morris...
I will be as honest as I can be about how we are feeling and coping. But I can say that our dogs health is causing mental health issues for my husband and I.
For a long, long time, Morrisās health has been declining. He has suffered from:
-massive tail pocket infections (his tail had to be removed) and now he cant hold his feces very well so he has lots of poop accidents
-entropion, on both eye lids, upper and lower (has had a surgery to correct)
-his vision is limited and suffers from chronic conjunctivitis due to allergies.
-interdigital cysts. They start to swell and explode across the room in about 20 minutes.
-yeast, bacterial infections and losing the fur in his back. (He uses special wipes and shampoos I import and get him professionally bathed for dogs with skin issues )
-chronic ear infections.
-obsessive foot licking and scratching
All in all, we have spend about $45,000 on him.
I have spent countless hours with him in the bathtub, at the vets, preparing holistic poultices and ointments. We have gone holistic as possible but now we cannot. We have done food trials, allergy tests. Everything.
We have tried to make him as comfortable as possible but hes absolutely miserable and wont play or lift his head most of the time.
All he does when he lifts his head is lick, lick, lick and we cant stand it. We are getting angry because the socks and shoes we use wont stay on unless we tape them. We are trying not to get angry with him but it is honestly getting really hard and we know that its absolutely not his fault. We have spent a fortune on him and cant afford to anymore and frankly, are not willing.
He has been on every medication under the sun. Apoquel, cytopoint, steroids, antibiotics, benadryl, and now hes on this anti itch which is helping a lot. Heās up walking around and engaging!
But, when a problem gets better, two takes its place.
We have had to switch him off of raw to a kibble because I have just had a baby. He likes to lick everything and with the baby , we were concerned about meat juice and getting the baby sick.
The anti itch medication heās on has increased his thirst and hes started to urinate in the house and needs to be taken out twice a night. 11pm and 3 am, then 5am.
I need to take Morris out every two hours during the day but my baby is about to crawl and its becoming overwhelming; We are concerned about the baby crawling on a floor shared with the dog with all the blood, feces and urine.
We dont want to lock Morris upstairs and we dont want to limit the babies movements. Our place isnt huge so we cannot really partition off the house.
We are at an absolute loss on what to do. We have called a shelter and they said that if we surrenered him, it will kill him and we have asked family and friends but no one wants the financial burden or can give the time for his medical needs.
Im sure Morris senses our anxiety and he has snapped at two people.
We love Morris very very much. He is a lovely boy. But honestly, hes gone from being our dog, our boy, to a burden being held together by pills and medicated baths.
And maybe there is an obvious answer we are not seeing. Everyone we have spoken to about him has said we should put him to sleep; Its giving us extreme anxiety.
We never thought it would get to this point.
Writing this has me in tears.
help help help help help help