TigahXX713

Need the sage advice of the OT - Have a 15 year old dog that seems to have early-mid stage dog dementia. Having trouble figuring out if I’m being selfish in keeping him going or would be selfish in letting him go.

The good parts - He eats and drinks like a champ. Gets excited when the family comes home, gets up to greet us, tail wagging. Still loves pets and ear scratches.

The bad parts - He’s 80% blind and deaf. He lies/sleeps in his bed 95% of the day. His back isn’t great - not limping but walks with a weird arch.
Most importantly, he goes through phases where he pisses and shits at random places in the house. He’ll have just been outside and then drop down a shite next to the dinner table. No whines, just goes. This morning, I hear him get up so I get up to take him out but need to go myself first. In the 20 seconds I take, I hear a whine and come out to him pissing in the middle of the bedroom. I pick him up he’s still going in mid air. Used to be if he got caught he’d stop immediately.

The hard part is he’ll randomly improve and not do it for 2 weeks. Then he does it 3 days in a row.

On the dementia, when coming back from being outside he’ll walk up to a random wall and just stand there face to the wall. Even when he gets to the door, it’s like he doesn’t understand how to get around it. Sometimes have to pick him up to get him to figure it out. Then there’s times he starts incessantly digging at his bed in the middle of the night, waking us up.

To make matters worse, we’re moving next month. I’m worried that the stress of moving is going to make all this worse, that’s even if he can find his way outside in a new house.

I keep coming back to he’s happy and eating great, so I can’t stomach putting him down. But then I think if this was a farm, he’d have been put down years ago. So what’s the OT ruling here?