Quote:
Originally Posted by gemy  I also feel that as time goes on in a dog's life, that not only quality of life is important, but just how much life is left! Many large breeds - Great Dane is one, Irish Wolfhound is another, have an average life expectancy of 7 yrs. My breed is 10 yrs. So that also comes into the equation when considering extraordinary vet care - of course not normal vet care. And large breed dogs do NOT do well with limb surgery and recovery. Just too much weight on the limbs, and it is very hard to try to ameliorate weight borne when the dog needs to go out to eliminate. |
This is a factor that I can't help but consider whenever I think about potential health issues with any dog, not just mine. I'm a very (probably overly) logical person, so I am inherently forced to weigh every outcome, all the pros and cons before I make a decision. Even though weighing the cost of vet care against the anticipated life of a pet seems a little harsh and unemotional, it is something that I would have to take into consideration. If I had a 3 year old diagnosed with liver shunt versus a 12 year old that had LP...I would make very different decisions regarding vet care in those two situations. With an older dog, or one with other health issues that might limit recovery, it would not be as justifiable to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on vet care when chances are good that something else (or just old age) is going to take the dog sooner rather than later. I'd be more willing to pay thousands of dollars to save an otherwise healthy dog with many years left of life than to spend thousands on a dog who realistically only has another 2-3 years left anyway. It's a hard decision, and one that each person could only make for themselves, but Brit is right...no person should be judged by others when they have to weigh those options. They are probably already torn up over seeing their pet suffering and having to decide if they can afford vet care in an emergency situation without also having other people condemn them for not forking over the cash.
As a personal example, we had a nine year old poodle who had a heart murmur that I didn't know about until it was too late and he ended up with congestive heart failure. At the time, my husband was in grad school and we were living on my income alone (about $20,000 a year). Things were incredibly tight but we spent over $800 within 3 days just trying to get Zach back on his feet...not even to FIX the problem, just in emergency vet care. And we lost him anyway, before he could even come home. If you had asked me a week before he got sick what I would have done, I'd probably have said that we couldn't afford that kind of money. But when you are in the middle of the situation and grasping at any kind of straws, sometimes you do things that you can't afford. However, I have no children and if I have to live on peanut butter sandwiches for awhile, it isn't going to kill me. I am in a position where I can choose to make my own sacrifices and no one else has to suffer with me.
-C