Not being able to afford potentially huge vet bills

DD265

Glad he's on the mend OP!

When my horse was ataxic, we thought it might've been arthritis but eventually realised (because he improved without medical intervention, although we'd x-rayed at the time and concluded arthritic changes) that it was the result of trauma from a fall he had. When you feel your dog is up to it, more exercise (in our case time in the field) was the best thing for my horse.

peoplefirst

people loving animals as much as people is just ridiculous, are you desperate for love, I say put the dog down, you care about it, love it, but putting it down is in the best interest of you AND the dog, whats so wrong with death anyway? or euthenasia for that matter? prob be reincarnated anyway, animal out of pain, owner out of debt, done and done. Stop being so ridiculous about its just a dog.

Kim_kim

orlao wrote: »

I'm also not a believer in treating all diseases -bone cancer is one that I would and have had at dog PTS on diagnosis and old horses in my care do not have surgery for anything - everything is about quality not quantity of life for my animals.

I do wish people would realise that not everyone can or will make the same sacrifices for their animals that they would. As long as the dog doesn't suffer there is no right or wrong answer. I personally have less time for those who put their animals through pointless ops just for a little bit of extra time with them but no hope of a cure...

Animal medicine has had leaps and bounds in what it can treat, I’m not always sure that’s such a good thing.
You can explain to a person, we are testing you for x so we can do y.
An animal is just taken to the vets - which is stressful (I’m probably biased as a former cat owner), pokes about & subjected to things that scare them.
I’ve never been in the position of having to PTS, but I always hoped if I ever did, I’d make the decision based on them rather than more time for me.

seven-day-weekend

We made the decision to have our 19-year-old cat PTS last summer when she had what could have been a manageable (not curable) condition.

It was only manageable after the animal had invasive tests. We made the decision ages ago not to put our elderly cats through invasive medical treatment. We felt they had lived good long lives and it was crueller to subject them to medical procedures which they would find stressful than to have them humanely euthanised.

The other cat, now twenty, is still fit and still jumps and climbs. She has a good quality of life. When she hasn't, then we will know the time has come.

We would not get into debt to give them a few more months. Apart from the financial angle, it is not in the animal's best interest.

heartbreak_star

peoplefirst wrote: »

vicious inflammatory comment that does not belong on this board at all.

Oh look, half term again and the trolls have arrived...did you just revive this post to say something nasty?
HBS x

GDB2222

We inherited an elderly dog when MIL died. An elderly uninsurable dog, by the way.

MIL had said that the dog should be put down when she died, but we didn't want to do that. At the same time, it wasn't a dog we particularly loved, and we didn't feel any obligation to spend a fortune on vet bills.

Luckily, the dog was pretty healthy, and eventually died quite suddenly, so we didn't have any hard decisions to make.