My family and I are really struggling with what to do with our tripod...his name is Duke, he became a tripod in January, so 7 months ago, after find out he had osteosarcoma in one of his front legs. It was a hard decision, but even at 10 years old duke is very energetic and has the attitude of a puppy, so we knew he would want a fighting chance.

He adjusted great and has lived so happily since then. He is a shepherd mix weighing in at 80lbs. About three days ago he woke up and could barely walk his back legs were like jello, and he would try to walk but woukr tumbke and fall, we had hope it was just his arthritis acting up due to the rain, but noticed his legs were not stiff at all, it was almost as if he didnt feel them.

So off to our local emergency vet we went. They said thay he has some kind of nerve damage either along his spine or in his brain. They said it was one of three thinhs, either he has a tumor somewhere along his spinal cord, he had a stroke that lead to a blood clot somewhere, or he has a slipped disk. They told us we had three options, get an mri to find out what is really wrong, but with his medical histoty there assuming its cancer (the mri would cost over 3,000$, but they said that they would have to put him under with anesthia, and because of his medical history, size and age, they said that he might not wake up from the mri), or we take him home with medicine and pray he gets better, or we consider his quality of life and possibly put him down.

We brought him home, and have kept him in a room on our first floor, he has on a helper harness that we use to move him when necessary, to go outside but even when we ge toutside he lays down to go potty. He is very stressed over not being able to walk, because he is so high spirited and determined to be health, so he keeps trying to force himself up to walk and just ends up falling. He crys a lot and tries to move himself around, he sleeps only a few hours a night now because his main focus is fixing his legs, its like he believes if he pushes himself enough his legs will work again. And we have no idea what the best option is for him. 

A life where he can not move is not a life for him, he currently needs 24/7 care and you can tell he hates being so dependent on us. But he is also so strong willed and energetic that putting him down seems like a crime, no way is he mentally ready for that, so we have no idea what decision to make for him.

We just want whatever is best for him, but we feel like no matter what option we choose it eont be the right one. He clesrly wants to keep fighting, but us knowing he might not ever recover makes us wonder if putting him through the fight worth it. Any words of advice?