Is it time to euthanize my dog?
My dog is at least 16 years old (I found him as a stray so don’t know his exact age). He is full of tumors which I was told were non cancerous, I had removed some in the past but they keep coming back and at this point have spread into his nasal cavity and lungs. At his last vet visit in August, it was pretty much decided that the only treatment would be radiation and due to his age and his extreme hatred of the vet the side effects of the treatment weren’t going to benefit his quality of life since back in August he was still for the most part acting fine. I was told he will probably live 6 more months without treatment and the treatment could extend his life at most 6 extra months, but with the added side effects.
So it’s been over 6 months now and as of a few weeks ago he’s visibly deteriorated. Tumors aside, he is having other old age issues like being shaky when he stands and urinary incontinence (he will pee the bed while sleeping and just keep laying in it until I realize what has happened). In addition to that, his breathing has become much more labored. Sometimes when he’s sleeping he’s visibly struggling to suck in air and while awake he will be panting or breathing rapidly.
I know this all sounds like it’s time to put him down, but my struggle is he still seems fairly happy while he is awake and still wants to go outside and roll in the grass and still seems to get excited when he sees people he likes. He also still wants to eat everything and is drinking fine. So watching him struggle with the breathing is hard and he can’t go on walks like he used to, but at the same time he doesn’t seem miserable enough to put down.
I have put another dog and cat down in the past but the first dog lost his ability to digest food and was going to starve to death and the cat had everything wrong with him that could possibly be wrong with a cat and had stopped eating, so those choices were easier to make.
Any advice would be appreciated.