Dog Owners Only
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- pango0
Oi... That's why I can't see my self getting a pet.... Ohhh the attachment... And losing them eventually ;(
I'm only friends with straight cats. Cuz if one day they are gone. O well.- "I'm only friends with straight cats"
Quote of the dayORAZAL - Stray*
God damn it! Stray!!pango - hahasine
- hahaha straight cats, cuz those "gay" ones are a nightmare!cruddlebub
- "I'm only friends with straight cats"
- newuser0
Why don't they live longer?
- Weak creatures. Evolution didnt treat them too well.CygnusZero4
- 7 though? They're so big.newuser
- << not evolution... human breeding.sine
- < yupmoldero
- 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
- yurimon0
does one really own something that is alive?
- < this guy, coming in here and being a wise guy.capn_ron
- lolyurimon
- yurimon hazapoint.ohhhhhsnap
- 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
- 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. :(
- 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
- elahon0
We dropped about a grand into our 15 year old cat Simba about 6 months ago in hopes that we'd get another 2 years or so with him. He had an enlarged thyroid and had dropped a considerable amount of weight, was racing around the house at night, yowling, etc. The doc said that for a cat his age, that wasn't quite normal. So we went ahead and he removed one of his thyroid glands, and was well. Now Simba is back at it, he's lost some more weight, racing, yowling, etc.
Right now, though, we don't have the money on hand to have another huge vet bill, so I'm putting off taking him in. Sucks so bad. My 5 year old son LOVES this cat. =(
Back in 2009:
- mantrakid0
@yurimon In the sense that you cant come into my house and walk away with my dog, yea.
- mantrakid0
I mean... come on..
- melq0
It would seem that when the costs become extremely high, that's due to the treatment being something pretty intense. The question then becomes, "Do I want to put my dog through that," instead of, "How much am I willing to spend?"
- hereswhatidid0
get a second opinion as well. Vets, specifically cat and dog only vets vary widely in their pricing. Also, most of the time you can negotiate the price down as they will typically include a lot of procedures that aren't truly necessary.
I have a boston terrior that split a femur jumping off the deck. The first place I went to said the only option was a $2,000-$3,000 surgery. Told him no way would I pay that for an 8 year old, he immediately countered with, "Well, we could try a splint. That's around $400." So we did the splint and he's just fine now and we've changed to a more reasonably priced vet clinic.
- Yeah we're coming out of a small town, so options are limited.. gotta take a ferry & 6 hour drive just to get to surgerymantrakid
- Ouch!hereswhatidid
- monkeyshine0
Depends on quality of life for my dog. What type of surgery? Will it make a difference and how long is healing time? Personally, my decision would revolve around that, not money.
- 5timuli0
Our little guy passed away in June last year. I'd still pay what I did for that last year with him.
- moldero0
depends on the situation, if I don't have much scratch at the time something happens to my dog, I have to prioritize my kid first so IDE be like "yo dawg I heard you like to be homeless, so I put a homeless in your homeless!" other than that, IDE be willing to spend a small fortune on my dog because he's got my back and I'm all he's got.
- JackRyan0
Rad!
- mantrakid0
Just wanted to give you dudes an update, since I appreciate all who took time to add their wisdom and experiences.
We brought dora to the cardiologist in Vancouver, thinking we couldnt afford a pacemaker but we could find out how to at least make her last weeks more comfortable / less painful for her (if she was in pain). Cardiologist said based on the tests we had done that he wants to test a few more things because he thought it wasnt her heart at all that was the problem, but her heart stopping was basically a 'result' of other medical issues she was having. So he tested it up and said yea, it's looking that way, so have some more tests done back home to see if it's Addisons Disease again (what our vet originally thought it was, but he tested for it and it was negative).
We ended up getting a couple more small tests to get us 90% sure that it was her chemistry fucking up, but instead of paying another $400 to see if she had Addisons disease, we decided to just start treating her for it since the treatment was meds that basically would stabilize her chemistry, which we knew was fucked up from tests that confirmed it. well, after a couple weeks of taking these meds, she was pretty much 100% back to normal. She hasn't had an attack since (its been a couple months now) and is basically just like she always was before shit started to hit the fan.
We were basically saying our goodbyes to her, thinking she would be toast within a day or 3 and now its like the whole 4 months of emotional hell and stress never even happened. Insane man.. insane..
Thanks again for all your support and insight guys. You will be happy to know you played a part in saving a cute little dogs life.
