My dog is suffering, my family refuses to put her down
I (22f) recently graduated from college and realized that my dog’s health situation was way worse than I thought. Around a month ago, my family had to put one of our dogs (11 year old shih tzu) through surgery for what they thought was pyometra but was actually fibroids + something else (closest that we’ve found is that it’s probably some autoimmune condition, this is important for later). While they told me that she was sick, my family sounded really hopeful and thought she would make full recovery, so I ignored it and went on with finals, sure by the time I returned all the problems would be mostly solved.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
It was only when I came back home in the last week that I could see what was happening to the fullest extent. Additionally, I am now supposed to, in addition to being the live-in housekeeper and cook, be the one who takes care of all of my dog’s needs. For an entire month, my dog has not stood up and, to this day, shows a lot of weakness on her front legs (cannot hold her own weight) and her back legs are basically useless. She still eats and drinks some, but she’s skin and bones. She cannot flip herself from laying on her side, so if I’m not there to change her position, she’ll overheat. I need to feed her by hand and bring a water bowl to her face. I have to carry her everywhere and she’s around fifteen pounds, so it’s not horrible, but it basically leaves me stuck in the first floor of the house, as going up the stairs with her is horrible. She barely pees or poops, but when she does, I also have to clean her up. My family all works full time, so it’s only now that I’m job seeking that someone can take care of her needs for the entire day. Before I arrived, she was left alone (with our other dog) the entire day. There is little hope here.
Our previous vet, that had taken care of her for the last five years, has said that he cannot do anything else, but instead of my family listening to him, they’ve moved on to another vet, further away, that keeps putting her through test after test, taking steroids and random other pills I don’t quite understand, but my dog is not improving. It is clear to me that she is sad and she is suffering and that it is inhumane to keep her living like this, when she cannot even enjoy the warmth of the morning sun from her favorite resting tile.
My family all refuse to see this. In fact, before I even said anything, they interrupted me by saying that she is doing “her hardest” to “fight back” and me having “bad vibes” would hurt her progress. I know the right thing is to let her go before she suffers any longer, as she’s not going to be the same happy-go-lucky, active dog she was a few months ago. My family refuses to even see this as a reality, and I just feel dirty by enabling their mistreatment of my dog by lessening some of her suffering.
I just don’t know what to do anymore.