To Euthanize or Not? Old Dog

The idea is to do it in the morning. Validate me...

15-17 year old beagle, male


Very little is physically wrong with the dog, other than arthritis, inability to walk down stairs, 0% vision in low light, 50% deaf.

Mentally, the dog has severe anxiety and confusion. It has gotten progressively worse and worse over the last two years. Unresponsive to trazadone and large doses of fluoxotine. Shits and pisses uncontrollably, but this is not a lack of ability, it is panic-shitting when he has his episodes, which is any time he is left alone more than two minutes, and anytime he is let outside by himself. He has chewed up the doorframe of two different doors in the new house, to get inside, ripping out his own teeth and bloodying his mouth. He has chewed radio collar wire in half, all the while being shocked. He chewed out six metal bars in a kennel, losing more teeth.

He shits and pisses in the house (in his own kennel) 5/7 nights of the week. In the daytime, he either sleeps (like most geriatrics) or paces around the house confused (like most geriatrics).

He has no survival instincts left. When briefly put outside in the rain over the weekend, under a 12x16 dry deck with a dry bedded igloo for him to lay in, he instead paced around the yard in the rain, confused, whistling, whining, paranoid, psychotic.


The dog's quality of life is shite, our quality of life is shite.


Validate my decision please.



(background- adopted dog in 2008 from the pound, has always been very low intelligence, but has done relatively well once kennel trained and given a large yard to play in. He just started going downhill about two years ago. He gets regular bloodwork, great physical health in that sense. His issues are all mental, and unresponsive to medications. Personally I think he got worse with them, in the last six months)