My mental health has taken a toll the last few months from personal situations I had no control over. To the point I had to go to the hospital from chest pains (ruled to be anxiety induced.) This is relevant to my post.
I have had two dogs for the past four years. One I purchased in a Walmart parking lot (I know, bad call) and later found out he was only six months when we got him. His training has been phenomenal easy over the years and he took to me so well, it was like a match in heaven. The other one I adopted about six months ago. Though I have tried working with her, she is a problem for my anxiety.
She was kept in her crate 22/7 and allowed short walks on leash by previous owners. As a result she has terrible separation anxiety. Her situation broke my heart when we saw her posted on a FB group page. The previous owners commented that they were planning to turn her into a kill shelter within 48 hours so we acted without thinking. We set up a meet and greet with our first dog at a park nearby. The guy drove up, asked for his money, and handed her over without us really having time to see how the dogs would get along. This ended up not mattering, they fell into friendship at first sight and are now practically inseparable. This means so much to me, as my first dog has never taken to other animals (including dogs) introduced to him.
She has had problems crop up that I am having trouble handling though.
She chooses to eat trash off the ground when let outside into our fenced yard. By trash I mean organic things like roots, seeds fallen from bird feeder, neighbor cat excrement, and pecans that fall from a neighbor's tree which borders our fence.
She then comes back inside and vomits on our carpet after a few hours which, due to my anxiety, has begun to send me into a spiral and when I finish cleaning it I find myself wanting to lay in bed in a renewed depressive state. I can handle a bit of puke here and there but she will vomit 2-6 times after consuming whatever it is she gets ahold of. We originally thought it was the food we feed her, but the vet assured us our brand choice was right for her (grain free, simple ingredients, not a big box store or grocery store carried brand)
We have taken her to the vet for this multiple times. We are not hurting for money but we are not well off either. We can't afford to continue costly vet care at this rate. She was diagnosed with gastroenteritis and we gave her the medicine and followed instructions for care. But she continues to throw up. We now know what is causing it through process of elimination and have ordered a soft muzzle for her to wear when walking alone. We hope this is a viable solution but worry she will not take to it well.
Yet there is one more issue. She refuses to use the bathroom outside most of the time, especially when leash walked (very shy and hesitant on the leash which concerns me so I try not to push her into it as much as I can but I can't always go with them because agoraphobia is difficult)
She expels on our carpet every other night. This has been going on from the day we got her but improved from month 2-4 and then rebound in month 5 and escalated this month. I am the only person who looks after her during the week from 7am-6pm. This is causing me so much anxiety I have noticed the past 9 days I have done nothing productive beyond cleaning up behind her. It kills me to admit this as my first dog renewed my energy for life and helped me through some dark times. Now I can't be there for him either.
Is it wrong for me to want to rehome her, despite loving her very much? I am at a loss of what to do. I feel my limits are too short for her and she isn't going to improve under my care.
Call me names, guilt trip me, I don't care but somebody please give me some sound advice. I feel so torn. This has been disastrous and my partner is losing patience with my short lived solutions and grows tired of having to help clean it when she does make mistakes while they are home. The current situation is not sustainable.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/atrpqv/im_considering_rehoming_one_of_my_dogs_advise_me/
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