If any of you have seen my previous thread about re-homing my staffy King, you will know that he had an accident earlier this year and slipped a disc.

As a result of this King has long term nerve damage and is unable to control his bowels. This problem is long term and will not get better.

After a long talk with my vet the other day he said that putting King to sleep because of his incontinence is totally acceptable as re-homing him will be impossible and given my current circumstances (10 month old baby crawling, and full time job) he understands that I can not go on living like this.

I cant help but feel total guilt for considering this because apart from the pooing in the house King is a lovely dog.

What are peoples opinion on this situation and putting themselves in my shoes would you put your dog to sleep because of incontinence??? :help:

IMO only, I emphasise. It's not fair to the dog, they know what's happening and they can get very stressed about it. They're taught from puppyhood to be clean in the house and they don't like it when they can't be.

It's also not fair to your little one, either.

It's a really hard decision to have to make, but I think you should be guided by your own innermost feelings, you really know already what the decision should be, and the vet's professional advice.

If King has been clean until his slipped disc, he too will be unhappy about soiling his home environment. It may be a kindness in the long run - unless you are able to kennel him outside.

Yes you both have a point there, King does get upset about it and he has started trying to hide it once it has happened.

As for my baby, King cannot come into the main house for this reason (carpets) so my boy doesnt come into contact with flooring that has been soiled in the past. King is now restricted to the kitchen which is laminate.

i dont see why rehoming him shoud be impossible, i had a yorkshire terrier female she had many ilness' and was inconitinent for the last couple of years of her life,she was happy in herself thereafar euthenasia was out of the question.

but i understand that you have a baby which obviously cant be easy with king,but to someone who doesnt have small children or other animals then there is always hope that he could still have a long happy life with some1 with experience of this condition. i know that the DOGS TRUST have quite a few permanent residents that have the same problem which are now living the rest of there lives out with other doggies in the same boat and getting sponsered by people(i sponsor a lil dog called jg who is incontinent and has a demormed body),so there is always possibilty of there for him.

what ever you decide i know it will be difficult but for the best good luck:thumbsup:

Is it fair to limit the dog to one room when he can hear the people that he wants to be around in the rest of the house?

In the absence of a way to make him understand why he's going through it all, I'm sure I'd find it a difficult decision, but I'd think long and hard about his quality of life. No matter how much you love him, if the quality isn't there for him then there's no reason to put him through it.

These days I draw the line on putting animals to sleep earlier and earlier- when Merlin's heart problems begin to adversely affect her quality of life seriously, I'll be heartbroken, but I'll take her to the vets for that last trip. I'm not going to look back on her life and know that she had 14 fabulous years and however many awful ones- I can save her from ever needing to go through that.

EDIT- in no way am I trying to 'tell' you to take one course of action over another. It's not just King who has to live with the outcome of your actions- you do too. This is not my decision to make.

You know King best and only you can make that decision. If you do decide that it isn't fair to keep him, please don't torture yourself with guilt. You have done a lot of soul searching and he has had a lovely life. You have given him that extra chance that some people wouldn't have given.

My biggest regret is that I kept Meggy and Rosie just a little too long, and it was for my benefit, not theirs.

MY mum kept her dog for 6 months after became incontinent. She used to put nappies on him which he did not seem to mind, she done this for her benefit as she wanted him to die in his sleep rather than have to make the decision. In the end she bit the bullet as he could not stand any longer , he was 16.

Its your decision on what to do , its a hard one to make and i fully understand your position. good luck with it all and whatever decision you make will be the right one.x.x.x

Thank you all for your honest advice and opinions :)

Not a nice decision to have to make. I have had to make a similar one with an elderly cat. Like King, she was well aware when she had slipped up. When I found her actually asleep in a pool of urine, I decided that it was time for her to go. All I can say is to look at it from the dog's point of view and ask yourself how you would feel. Good luck

My collie cross bonnie, suffered from incontinance for around the last 8 months of her life of varying degrees. she would look real guilty when she weed in the house even though we didnt scold her as we knew she couldnt help it. she was over 17 years old at this point. eventually, she started having blood in her urine too. tests revealed she had some sort of urinary tract cancer. after consideration of the suffering she would experience from this, together with the fact she now had very poor sight and hearing and had started going off her food, we decided the kindest thing was the have her put to sleep before she suffered any more. we were offered surgery etc, but being realistic, how long would a 17 year old dog have left after surgery, assuming she even survived the anaesthetic. Fortunatly, animals have the one option we do not in not having to go through a long lingering death. I guess incontinance in an otherwise healthy animal could be managed though use of nappies etc, but always consider it from your dogs point of veiw.

Brude was 3 years old when he suffered his spinal injury, and we were very grateful that his bladder and bowels were not affected by this, as we knew already that we could not allow him to suffer incontinence, as he was of the opinion that the world would end if he had an accident - poor mite :(

He had one accident whilst regaining his ability to walk, and he was mortified, so although we'd be able to cope with his problem, we know he wouldn't have been able to.

It depends on your dog though....

We had a Jack Russell who's bedding needed washing every morning in his last coupe of years, but as it didn't bother him unduly, my mum was happy to just go through the rigmarole for him every morning.

I also met a beagle owner who was walking a new pup but was still beating herself up over the decision to put her last one to sleep. Listening to the list of symptoms of her 6 year old dog, I agreed she'd made the right decision (she was examining my dog with regret over her own), but I agreed that I'd have done the same to Brude if his symptoms had been the same as her dogs :(

Exactly how bad is King's incontinence Sall?

What are your main concerns in keeping him?

Is it just that caring for both your child and your dog is too much? or do you have other concerns too?

How old did you say he was? You didn't go through all this with him so far to give up on him now did you? :(

How aboout if somebody was able to foster him for a couple of weeks - as I suspect your home just wouldn't be the same without him - and with fostering there is a coming back from ;)

Exactly how bad is King's incontinence Sall?

What are your main concerns in keeping him?

Is it just that caring for both your child and your dog is too much? or do you have other concerns too?

How old did you say he was? You didn't go through all this with him so far to give up on him now did you? :(

How aboout if somebody was able to foster him for a couple of weeks - as I suspect your home just wouldn't be the same without him - and with fostering there is a coming back from ;)

I just cant do this any more strix, I've managed for 8 months since his accident and now my baby is mobile I'ts just not fair on any of us.
He has bladder control but pretty much all of his poo's are done in the house. He doesn't realise its happening until its too late.

Because of this and the danger to my son, King is confined to the kitchen which is not nice for him especially as I'm at work all day so he's stuck with those 4 walls all day poor thing.

The first thing I have to do in the morning is clean him up, thats before I change, feed, dress my son and my self b4 heading out to nursery and work.

This is the hardest decision Ive ever had to make and Ive tryed so hard to cope with him and then Ive tryed re-homing him, but nobody wants to take on a dog with these problems.

Fostering wouldnt help as King will always have this problem and I will still have the same issues when he returns.

King is only 5 which makes this even harder as he could have years ahead of him if only we could find him a new home.

But as it stands I am seriously having to consider King going to doggy heaven :(

from experience recently - knowing you are doing the right thing doesn't make it any easier.but at least you loved him and will always have the happier memories.

i can honestly say i wouldn't consider homing a dog with control problems,but thats just my opinion - someone else might but i think it is an extremely long shot.
my thoughts are with you during this difficult time for doggy owners.

I'm sure that there are more people than you realise who understand how hard the whole situation is for you and your family Sall, but however much understanding you have from others, it's yourself you have to justify your actions to.

Personally I think when you're reaching the end of your tether, if you really can't find a solution to this issue (and that includes calling people like the Dogs Trust to see if they could find a long term foster home for him) then you have to make the only choice that you can for yourself and your baby.

That's not to say that it's going to be easy, but once you've explored and discounted other options, what would it do to you if you thought that this was going to go on for possibly another 10 years?

I'm not trying to be awkward by the way - I just know how much you love your dog, and having met the beagle owner who decided to have her's put down, and the distress she was still going through after having had a new pup for a few months too, I wouldn't want you to put yourself through the whole 'what if...' thing if you weren't confident it was exactly what you wanted. I can already tell it would break your heart if you thought for one minute that things could have been different :(

King was due to go to the vets for that final trip this week, but Ive cancelled!

Ive been in touch with the Dogs Trust re-homing centre in Leeds and am waiting for a place for him to go there. That way I can sponsor him until hopefully someone falls in love with him and takes him home.

I just couldnt bare to do it. :cry:

If the Dogs Trust cant give him a place by End of Dec/Jan then I will have to reconsider.

Thank you everyone for your support and I will keep you posted :)

Now that's what I meant by finding an alternative- well done Sall (trying not to sound patronising).

It's amazing how much better things can feel when you can see light on the horizon, isn't it?

Thats fab news im so glad you made that choice hes a beauty :thumbsup:

Congratulations, I really hope it works out for you X

King was due to go to the vets for that final trip this week, but Ive cancelled!

Ive been in touch with the Dogs Trust re-homing centre in Leeds and am waiting for a place for him to go there. That way I can sponsor him until hopefully someone falls in love with him and takes him home.

I just couldnt bare to do it. :cry:

If the Dogs Trust cant give him a place by End of Dec/Jan then I will have to reconsider.

Thank you everyone for your support and I will keep you posted :)
Thats good news. I hope it works out!

Ive been in touch with the Dogs Trust re-homing centre in Leeds and am waiting for a place for him to go there. That way I can sponsor him until hopefully someone falls in love with him and takes him home.



Good on you for looking for alternatives ! It's not a situation I would want to be in, and I sympathise with you - on a lighter note I would be happy to help sponsor your little man - let me know what I need to do.

L x

:cry: I'm so happy for you both :)

Keep us posted, won't you? :)

It looks like I'll be chasing Dogs Trust Leeds up too :thumbsup:

What an appalling dillemma Sall, I don't envy your situation.

Just seen the latest news - so glad for you both.