My faithful dog and companion of 11 years started limping on one hind legs, went to the vet.. left and it cost me 500$ didn't find out much from them except after xray and examination he might have arthritis they gave meds for him, they also wanted to remove the tartar in his mouth.. $900 for that. Last year it cost me 1200$ for his pancreatic attack.. I really believe they really overcharge way too much and do unnecessary tests for extra $$, that being said, I feel this might be the beginning of the end for my pouch..
I just lost my dog yesterday. She's was 13.5 years old. About 4 months ago, we wanted to get her teeth cleaned (not cheap, but it's good for the dog's health). Unless a dog had been trained to deal with that kind of "personal space" invasion, the procedure requires to the dog to be under anesthesia. Because of her age, the vet needed to do up a blood panel and general physical on her before judging her fit for the procedure. The result of those routine tests was that we discovered she had a heart murmur and that her kidney function was declining. The vet's prognosis was that we were looking at a a few months to 6 months more.
Because she'd already lived a full life, we decided not to throw money at the problem since her quality of life still good -- as it was pretty much up until her last day or two. In the meantime, we started feeding her a special (homemade) low-protein diet that her vet prescribed to slow the decline of her kidneys.
Last night, after my son's 10th birthday party was over, I was getting ready to read my daughter a bedtime story when she asked me, "Is Sunny having a bad dream?" I looked over at her dog bed, expecting to see my dogs legs twitching as she dreamed abut chasing squirrels, but instead I saw she was having a full-blown seizure. I sad down with her and cradled her head in my lap as I tried to explain to my daughter what was going on. It lasted for almost 90 seconds.
When the spasms stopped, I knew her time left with us was short. It took her a couple minutes to regain consciousness -- the vet later said her brain was literally rebooting during that time -- and when she did and tried to get up, she flailed a bit, then finally rose and walked around the room in a drunken-like daze. I tried to get her attention but she was not really aware of my presence until much later, and then when she noticed me it was as if she had no idea who I was.
She eventually did stop walking around and bumping into things and recovered to the point of recognizing us again. My wife contacted the vet and we took her in, knowing we'd probably be saying goodbye that night. And indeed, there was no good news at the vet. We decided to euthanize her so that she wouldn't have to go through any more seizures, and possibly fall down the stairs during a post-seizure daze.
Sorry to hijack your thread. The feeling of loss is still fresh, and I still haven't left the "need to share" phase of my grief coping. Hug your dog, and keep an eye on his quality of life and always balance the money you spend on him against that.
