9 year old Great Dane struggling to stand and incontinent
I know 9 isn’t very old, but I thought this would be a good place to ask for advice. My family has a beautiful, angelic Great Dane named Blue that is doing really poorly lately, and my parents are at the end of their rope. He is having a lot of trouble standing, he shuffles his back legs when he walks, and he can’t control his bowel movements anymore. He’s had occasional issues for months, but he’s taken a huge downturn in the last two or three weeks. The thing is, it really seems like he’s not ready to go. He plays, he tries to run and keep up with Beef (other dog) when they go outside, it’s like every other part of him is totally fine, but his back legs and hips just can’t keep up. It’s difficult to get him in and out of the car to take to the vet (really seems to cause a lot of pain), but we go regularly, describe symptoms, show pictures, etc., and he’s on two different kinds of pain relief medication but it just doesn’t seem to help much. Has anyone experienced this with a giant breed before? It’s so heartbreaking, I wish we could do more, but I’m at a loss. If anyone has advice, please share it — I really don’t know what’s best for Blue right now.