Kelly Ripa Gets Emotional Over Elderly Dog's Deteriorating Health: 'Just Wish I Knew' What to Do

Kelly Ripa is grappling with one of the most challenging dilemmas a dog owner will ever face: deciding when to say goodbye.

While discussing National Dress Up Your Pet Day during the Jan. 14 episode of Live with Kelly and Mark, co-hosts Ripa, 54, and Mark Consuelos, 53, opened up about their family's two pups — and revealed that the eldest is "slowing down" in her old age.

After discussing their 4-year-old dog Lena — specifically, the fact that she "finds outwear humiliating," per Ripa — the hosts turned their attention to their older dog, Chewie, and the conversation became a bit emotional.

"Let me just say this: we are at a stage in our lives with Chewie where Mark and I are now trying to decide …. Dogs can't speak, and she's at a stage in her life where she's…," Ripa explained, trailing off as Consuelos chimed in: "She's slowing down."

"She's stopping doing almost everything," Ripa said before revealing that the night before, the 17-year-old dog "had a huge, huge accident and then slipped in it and rolled around."

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This revelation led to a troubled groan from the Live with Kelly and Mark audience, prompting Ripa to tell the crowd, "I know — you weren't there!"

"And so, this was like the real sign to me, so I took her to the tub to give her a bath," Ripa recalled of the previous night. "And usually bathing Chewie is like bathing a dragon. This is a dog — even though, as an elder dog — she will fight you tooth and nail. And she just had her head down on the side of the sink."

Combined with Chewie's old age, this drastic difference in behavior led Ripa to question the best way to move forward; she explained: "I just … and I was looking at her like, 'Tell me what to do. Tell me! Tell me!' People are like, 'No, you'll know.' But you don't. Nobody knows. You don't know."

"But she's almost 18 years old. She's old. She's really old," Consuelos said, as Ripa reiterated that she "just wish I knew what to do."

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The longtime couple went on to explain that Chewie's health has been deteriorating for a while, recalling an incident from "a couple of years ago" that Ripa said "was just the beginning of her not really knowing what is going on."

"Anyway, I don't know," Ripa said about dealing with the pup's ailing health. "If you have advice, maybe send it to our inbox. If you're a veterinarian, I want to hear from you."

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After the hosts pondered a future segment exploring how to determine whether humane euthanasia is the next step for a pet, an emotional Ripa explained that she wishes Chewie could communicate with her directly.

"I wish she would, just this one time, say something," the co-host said. "And I swear, I know she has this little benign tremor that she does, but the other night, I picked her up, and she locked eyes with me. And she hasn't locked eyes with me in a really long time. And I said, 'I know you. Do you know me?'"

"And I know it was the tremor," Ripa continued, "but she looked at me" and nodded her head. "And I was like, 'Wait, do you know me?' And now I'm talking to this dog. I have full conversations with her now."

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The previous night, when Chewie had her accident, Ripa said she cradled the 17-year-old pup "like a baby."

"I was just cradling her like a baby, and I was talking to her out loud," she said. "I was like, 'I just need you to tell me what to do, babe. From one old girl to another, tell me what to do.' And she was just looking at me like, 'Look, I'm a dog. I can't. I'm the equivalent of 200 years old. What do you want from me?'"

"She's a great dog," Consuelos concluded of the family pet, and Ripa agreed. She's the best."

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