Dog Owners Only
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- 5timuli0
Our little guy passed away in June last year. I'd still pay what I did for that last year with him.
- cruddlebub0
we bought this guy home 4 weeks ago! hes a beaut!
- Just got a little black and white Frenchie too. Fun dog!aslip
- yeah, he's a great laugh, just had his second injections and has been chipped today! 1 week till walkies!cruddlebub
- GM2780
I rescued my pitbull, Hank, off the highway after some assholes had used him as a bait dog and decided to toss him. He was severely starved and had deep bite marks all over him. My vet said he was willing to try to save him but it wouldn't be cheap. (He also mentioned there would be no shame in putting the dog down as he was really in horrible shape). After multiple surgeries, the bill came to $8K.
Flash forward 13 years to this past October. Hank had been having trouble getting up the stairs (I'd carry him up to my apt.) and became a bit cranky at times. (I'm putting it mildly). My vet examined him and said the reason was not muscular, as I'd thought, but a kind of dementia that senior dogs can experience. He said while there was no treatment for this, I could give him meds that would keep him pretty sedated.
I ended up making the hard decision to put him down that day. (I knew in my heart that if I took Hank home from the vet, I'd selfishly never bring him back.) He was and is my best friend and as his caretaker, I owed it to him to do what was best for him....not what was best for my emotional needs.
So to answer @mantrakid's initial question of how much I'd spend to extend his life...you need to ask yourself who you are doing it for? You or the dog. Hank had 13 amazing years with me. He slept in the bed, ate a raw food diet and was spoiled rotten. What he gave me in return was priceless. All he asked was for me to make those hard decisions that every pet owner needs to make at some point. I miss him more than I can express and I'm still haunted by that day but I know I did the right thing.
Sorry for the long post, guys.
- aww man, you did so right by him, what a thing to of done! cherish the memories... :(cruddlebub
- sorry to hear brother, yeah its toughmoldero
- thanks guys. I'm still not 100% and I feel like I'm missing half of me. But I know he had an amazing life.GM278
- moldero0
^^
crazy, my rescue dog (1/2 rotweiler 1/2 german shep) was a bait dog my dad and cousin found in a burlap sack on the freeway in the bay area 14 years ago, when they brought her to me she was scared of everything including her own shadow, but within 6 months I had her very confident and even swimming out all the way to the surf line up through 8' swells, just to get on my board and ride one in with me
just last week she started getting seizures, I brought her to the vet, I was thinking she was diabetic, but they ran a bunch of tests, and nothing, just 2 nights ago she had 2 seizures within 1 hour and figured, maybe its time to finally put her down the next morning because the seizures were long and very violent, but yesterday I took her to the beach and let her swim and played some fetch before she got the axe, she had a blast, so i figured, shes having more fun than seizures so i didn't put her down, it's tough call. she doesnt have long to go, but I will be taking her every mother fuckin day till the bad stuff seems to outweigh the good stuff, because once shes gone, thats it. :(
- jtb260
I spent 3k on my cat. Though he was two and it essentially guaranteed a full life span.
Quality of life post surgery would be my biggest concern. I wouldn't want them to live in any kind of pain.
- sarahfailin0
They wanted to hospitalize my cat with a catheter for a bladder blockage for 3 days and said it would cost $1500. I asked if they could remove the blockage without the hospitalization and they said sure but it was more 'risky.'
They did it. It cost $300, and my cat was fine.
- sarahfailin0
Personally I wouldn't spend more than $1000 tops for any pet. Pets are just animals. You will love almost any pet as much as any other because that's the nature of human/pet relationships.
Of course there are some really exceptional pets. But is yours really one of them? Think: Maru, Grumpycat, Shadow from Homeward Bound.
- do you own a pet? one that you love like a child?cruddlebub
- i own a pet, but i love it like a pet, not like a childsarahfailin