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Please be kind with this. I have an ethical dilemma with regard to possibly putting my dog down. Help?

I am going to try to explain this as best I can. You MUST put yourselves in our position to answer this. If you're just going to come up with the first value judgment that pops into your head without trying to realize that the decision is being made in the context of our lives, which may have no similarity to yours, then you're just going to be harmful to another human being for no reason. We love our dog. He is a sweet boy and he's been a great member of our family. But he's 11.5 years old and has been going very slowly down hill for about the last 3 years. He has already popped the tendons in both of his back legs (We didn't treat it because we only knew he got hurt, we didn't know what it was. We gave him something for pain and he started walking better in a few days.). He has strange non-cancerous growths on various parts of his body, one of which is on the rim of his lower eyelid. It has to be insanely annoying. Now he appears to have a UTI of some sort that isn't clearing up on it's own (I gave him AZO and an appropriate dosage of aspirin at infrequent intervals and that seemed to give him some relief, but didn't cure it). He releases a lot of air when he urinates which makes us think he has a perforation in this bladder or intestine. Sometime in the next few days, probably Monday, I'm going to take him to the vet. If all he needs is antibiotics, I'll get them for him. If he needs any procedure/testing that can be done with up to $300, I'll probably do it. If it's any more than that, we're going to have a really hard time doing that. If he has cancer anywhere, I feel like I have to put him down rather than wait, which is hard for me because he still has a lot of mostly good days. All our money, such as it is, and all our energy, is tied up in just trying to get by day to day and taking care of our two little girls, one of whom has autism. We live in an unlivable apartment and have to move. The problem is, we're a working-class family and we have had some rough things happen, and we have a huge debt to landlord (that shouldn't be there but there's nothing we can do about it) from two years ago. We live in NY where apartments are crazy expensive unless you live in the 'hood (which we do now and no longer want to), and even the 'hood is getting pricey. We also have a circumstance happening here that necessitates moving very quickly (long story and this is long enough), so we have to ask a landlord not to charge us 3 months of rent up front, to ignore the dog, and to ignore the credit rating and bad rental history, and hope we actually get a good landlord and not one who takes advantage of people like us and runs the place like a slum (that's what we have now, and no thanks!) and I'm sure you can see how highly unlikely it is to find someone who will ignore all those things. I wish this wasn't so, but I have to consider the practical value of taking the one thing I can change, the dog factor, out of the equation if he's really just going to decline anyway, even if it's a couple of years earlier than it would otherwise have to be. I love this dog. But I feel like it might be a choice between him and housing my children. If credit reports were not allowed to contain things that affect a person's ability to obtain necessity of life things, like, oh, economy cars, non-luxury apartments and jobs, I would probably just keep treating whatever goes wrong with him until he just could no longer be repaired, but they do. I feel like I'm being backed into this. His quality of life is unlikely to improve. We just don't have time and money to improve it. I suppose I want to know if I'm thinking wrongly or rightly about this, but please, be a human being about this. Don't just say nasty things because you enjoy screwing with people. Nothing about this is easy or taken lightly. Thanks for reading all of this if you actually did. It had to be that long if people were going to understand the situation. RICHARD AND I CARE 4 U: Thank you both for your well-considered and kind responses. It means a lot to me. WENK, what's with slumlords is that they're greedy as hell, even compared to other landlords, and that takes a load of doing. They want to do nothing and collect unreasonable sums of your money and will do it until someone sends them to jail or they drop dead. Thank you for understanding and for your input. The thing is, we've had this boy for pretty near all his life. I found him when he was about six weeks old and he's going to be 12 in December. He's not healthy. I can't imagine his being adoptable however sweet and wonderful he is. I also think that on a certain level, to take him from his family and throw him in with someone else at this point in his life is almost more cruel than putting him down, especially given that his health really isn't great, and dogs you can always assume feel about 50% worse than they actually seem because they bear under it so well and don't complain until every single breath is painful.

Public Comments

1. i think that you should try to answer that question with your family, that's a family decision with the people living with the dog.I guess if he doesn't have any major sickness then try to make an effort and pay for the vet and all that, but if it is something major then i just put him down.
2. I know this is hard and you have a full plate..listening to your story I am in no place to judge and I PRAY THAT NO MORON BLOGS AND JUDGES YOU!!! In this situation it seems as though his situation will only decline and he wil suffer worse because financially you are in a strain right now. Being that he is suffering and so are you all because your heart is aching I would let him be put to sleep so that he wont suffer anymore. I know this is hard and I would struggle really bad as well but you have to think about what is best for you all as a whole..if he's sick he is going to need extra care and that is a financial strain on you..I pray you do what is best for you..this is what I would do in the situation and i pray that your family makes it through all of these hardships..
3. Could you give him to the humane society? There are no-kill ones (around here anyways) And maybe you would feel better about giving him away than putting him down. Otherwise as a dog lover myself, I think that it will be a really tough decision, but your kids need a place, and if it comes down to needing major surgery or outrageously expensive treatment, I don't think I could pay either. And I don't even have kids. PS what is with slum-lords anyways???? I agree, they suck.