Hi all,

I'm having a very hard time figuring out what to do about this, so I'm hoping to get some good outside viewpoints on our situation.

Long story short, on Monday we adopted from animal control what was supposed to be a 5 year old corgi/shepherd female. When I picked her up, her paperwork then said she was 7. I've got several reasons to believe she's much older than that -- her front teeth are completely worn down to the gumline, she appears to have bad arthritis in her front elbows (along with some VERY badly ulcerated lick spots on them) and either arthritic hips or perhaps hip dysplasia (her back feet are very close together, she has to hop up stairs and she doesn't seem to be able to lay down without twisting a foot back behind her.) Her muzzle is heavily grizzled, which *could* just be her coloring but I think is probably due to her age.

She will never stand for very long -- she'll stand and walk to go potty and drink water, and occasionally to stretch. At all other times, she prefers to flop and lie down. She is constantly shifting positions when flopped unless she's deep asleep, and she usually softly grunts and struggles whenever she tries to stand up, turn around or lower herself back down. I've been around dogs for much of my life, including several very old dogs, so after observing her for these past few days I'm pretty sure this isn't just an adjustment period thing. I tried to take her on a short walk and after half a mile she was walking so slowly and having such a hard time navigating the curbs that I was practically in tears when we got home and she immediately sat at the bottom of my 4 shallow front porch steps and had to be coaxed up them to come inside. It was really shocking to see her so worn out so fast. She had started out so eager to walk and we went approximately 5 or 6 blocks before she was lagging behind -- and I'm terribly out of shape so my pace was already pretty pokey. She spent the rest of the day and all day today mostly sleeping.

I'm planning on taking her to the vet tomorrow, but I'm at the point where I feel like I'll be basically asking them whether or not she needs to be put down because of her mobility issues. If they confirm what I already suspect, it seems sad and cruel that me rescuing her could wind up with her being euthanized when at least at the shelter she had other dogs and visitors to play with while her time was running out.

Her age aside, I'm going to have a very hard time deciding on how rigorous a treatment course to consider. If I'd had her all these years and knew her history and how much her capabilities have diminished, at least then I'd have a baseline to judge her quality of life by and make the call.

There's plenty of advice out there on coming to a decision on whether or not to euthanize your pet, but they assume that you've had it for some time. I've only had this poor girl for a few days.

I can see she's suffering and unable to do what she'd like, but I have no history to tell me how bad she's gotten or what sort of mobility she might possibly regain even with treatment. She seemed tired at the shelter, but she was brought in from the playing field and 90+ degree heat and humidity, so her laying in the shade seemed normal and we didn't have a reason to question her stated age or the shelter folks' word that she might not be a frisbee-player but she was still one of the last dogs to come in for the night. After seeing her on the walk back to the house, I've no doubt she was the last dog in at night... she probably had no desire or energy to get back up and trudge inside.

We have considered taking her back to the shelter, but I don't know if I can stomach that since she deserves better than everyone passing the buck on her. Her former owner passed the buck on her health by ignoring her joint issues and then letting her lick herself so obsessively that she's torn up her elbows, tail and sides. Animal control probably passed the buck on assessing her actual health and quality of life and made some misdirected & overly-generous assumptions about her true condition in the hopes she'd get adopted. I don't want to add to the cycle. Could I have made a more informed decision about adopting her? Seems so, but that genie is out of the bottle; it's been an extremely difficult and stressful lesson learned on my part but two bad decisions won't make a good one.

Of course, my hope is the vet will tell me she's got years left and might just be a little wobbly & nothing's wrong with her apart from some treatable hot spots and granulomas, or that she's old but easily treatable but realistically I am thinking I may need to make a judgment call, if not tomorrow then soon.

I'll report more after visiting the vet, but in the meantime I cannot sleep for worrying about her.

[Lara's mom]

Please let us know what the vet says. It does sound to me as though she could be older than you were led to believe. I'm very much hoping that the vet can offer you something that will make her comfortable so she can enjoy the rest of her life with you. Good luck!!!

Oh I do so hope that it is not serious. I am however happy for her that you found her when you did. I would hate to think of her sitting alone, or worse dying alone in a shelter. Even if it's a few days she was happy. I will pray for her and for you.

Laura

[lil mutt]

any update with your dog?

Hope everything is ok...

keep us posted.