Pet Dilemma - When To Put Them Down

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ABM

ABM

Happily Married In Music City, USA!
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Simply put, where do you draw the line between sinking more and more dollars into your long-time pet and putting him/her down.

My boss just had to put his 14-year-old dog down....but not before spending thousands beforehand. He was waging a war of (self-imposed?) guilt vs. reasonability/practicality.

Any thoughts/experiences on this subject?

Thanks.
 
We had to put our dog down age 16. We also spent money prior to making the decision to try to extend her life, but she wasn't improving and was in noticeable pain, couldn't hold down any food and developed jaundis after her liver gave out.

My advice if the dog is still suffering after you've done what you can it's probably best to put it down.
 
I know I am seen as the forum asshole and what not. But I would like to offer my real, honest opinion here.

If the animal is suffering, I would consider putting it down. If money is not an issue, don't worry about that. What you should worry about more is the animal. If it is suffering and not having a happy life.. consider it.

My roommate works at a vet clinic and she says it is the hardest thing to do, but if the animal is not living a happy, healthy life, put it down. You can get another animal that would LOVE to have a home with you!
 
put the animal down....let them go instead of being in pain while you (with good intentions) throw money at the problem. Not saying this is your situation but usually the people who prolong it are doing it for selfish reasons (dont want to deal with the sadness)rather than the animals well being.....the decision becomes easy if you put emotion to the side for a second and think practical.

Sorry you are dealing with this
 
Had to put my cat down after he developed a large tumor in his intestines at age 16 and the vet didn't know if they could remove it (it was wrapped up in his intestines and at his age don't know how surgery would have worked out). Tried putting him on medicine and monitoring the situation, but the tumor grew even larger in a short week period. It was hard to do, but at least I knew he wasn't in pain anymore. Now he's in a nice box buried in the backyard that will scare some kid who lives here in fifty years that digs it up on accident.
 
The best time to put down a pet is right after they go from being veal to right before they become stew meat.
 
We have had a number of pets over the years and lost several. No amount of money ever gave them any more time, really. Any time we let the vet operate, the animal died soon after. I wouldn't recommend it.

It sucks that they die, but they do. I too am sorry you're going through this.
 
The best time to put a cat down is when they first start squirming. If you hold them any longer than that, you are likely to get clawed up.

barfo
 
Yep, I have the same problem now. My 4 year old dog, who is a real part of the family, has a partially torn knee ligament and the surgery is $5,000 with a low to medium success rate. I'm feeding him expensive medicine to keep ther swelling down, and he loves his home, but I'm struggling with pain v. happiness as there's a lot he can no longer due...
 
On a somewhat different note, we at the zoo have to deal with that type of stuff a lot. Not this year but in past years there is always the question of whether or not this animal should be put down or not. As long as the animal seems happy and healthy they stay fine no matter the age. But when the animal is for sure in pain or for sure not going to make it they put them down pretty quickly.

Right now we have two tigers around 16 years old, very old. We also have two dolphins into there 40's, very very old by dolphin standards. But all the animals seem to be healthy and fine. In fact the male dolphin who is in his mid 40's actually knocked up another dolphin, although the baby was stillborn.

Putting down some animals in zoos can be very painful to watch. I've never seen it, but I know the livestock take a long time to die, as do the reptiles being cold blooded.

If I ever had to make a decision on a zoo animal, it would come down to whether or not the animal could ever live a happy and helathy life. There are some zoos where cost of operations doesnt matter, so I would do all in my power to keep the animal happy and healthy.
 
Denny Crane said:
We have had a number of pets over the years and lost several. No amount of money ever gave them any more time, really. Any time we let the vet operate, the animal died soon after. I wouldn't recommend it.

It sucks that they die, but they do. I too am sorry you're going through this.
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That money is a part of this discussion is yet another sad reflection on present-day America.

I've had better Vets maybe but had a mutt live 8 happy years with a pin in his leg and daily pills to digest his food. Our cat who also got a leg-pin refused to move when we did, but we saw him roaming the old haunts years later. My wife nursed our dog through Parvo 'cause there was nothing the vet could do. But we did have a 14 y/o Husky we had to put down due to a brain tumor. The vet did not recommend surgery. My advice is look your pet in the eye and you'll know if it's time.
 
This happened about two months ago:

The best pet I've ever had, a 9 year old yellow lab, had a giant splenic tumor. Dog was barely eating. The vet said I should put him down in the next week. He said I should give him his last meals--something tasty. I'll always remember on the way out there was a new receptionist who cheerfully offered, "Have a nice day!" even though everybody could plainly see I'd been crying my eyes out. (Probably the first time I've cried in a decade or two.) I don't know how I didn't murder her.

Anyway, I get home and grill up a nice steak for him, then chop it up. He eats nearly the whole thing. Next day I do the same. Day after that I switch to a softer dog food, and he goes along for a month, looking healthier and happier. But the tumor was still enormous and getting bigger.

So I go to a different vet. This guy asks me if the other vet had x-rayed him or performed an ultrasound. I said no. He winces, then we go straight to it. After consideration, the vet says, "It'll cost you around $800 or so minimum to operate, depending on how complicated. Given what I've seen, it doesn't look cancerous, but it could be. If it is, he'll die within a few weeks to a month or two. If it isn't, he'll recover fully."

I tell him to proceed. Vet calls me after the procedure is over. He says, "Look, I just pulled out the biggest tumor I've seen in 30 years. I'm not kidding. It was 10 pounds (the dog is only 60 pounds) and the size of a volley ball. I'm having the tumor cremated after I get some pictures." A few hours later he calls back to say the biopsy showed it wasn't cancerous. The dog had 30 staples to sew him back up because the hole they had to cut to get the tumor out was so damned big. The bill was an astounding $2000 because of how ridiculously large it was and difficult to remove. I pay it.

Two weeks ago I took my dog to the coast on our annual family week holiday. Every day he got healthier and healthier, until the last day he was running as fast as I'd seen him when he was 5. I'm planning on taking him bird hunting this fall. Which is great, because besides being the best dog I'll likely ever have, he's also the best hunting dog I've ever seen.

His name is Mook.
 
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mook said:
This happened about two months ago:

The best pet I've ever had, a 9 year old yellow lab, had a giant splenic tumor. Dog was barely eating. The vet said I should put him down in the next week. He said I should give him his last meals--something tasty. I'll always remember on the way out there was a new receptionist who cheerfully offered, "Have a nice day!" even though everybody could plainly see I'd been crying my eyes out. (Probably the first time I've cried in a decade or two.) I don't know how I didn't murder her.

Anyway, I get home and grill up a nice steak for him, then chop it up. He eats nearly the whole thing. Next day I do the same. Day after that I switch to a softer dog food, and he goes along for a month, looking healthier and happier. But the tumor was still enormous and getting bigger.

So I go to a different vet. This guy asks me if the other vet had x-rayed him or performed an ultrasound. I said no. He winces, then we go straight to it. After consideration, the vet says, "It'll cost you around $800 or so minimum to operate, depending on how complicated. Given what I've seen, it doesn't look cancerous, but it could be. If it is, he'll die within a few weeks to a month or two. If it isn't, he'll recover fully."

I tell him to proceed. Vet calls me after the procedure is over. He says, "Look, I just pulled out the biggest tumor I've seen in 30 years. I'm not kidding. It was 10 pounds (the dog is only 60 pounds) and the size of a volley ball. I'm having the tumor cremated after I get some pictures." A few hours later he calls back to say the biopsy showed it wasn't cancerous. The dog had 30 staples to sew him back up because the hole they had to cut to get the tumor out was so damned big. The bill was an astounding $2000 because of how ridiculously large it was and difficult to remove. I pay it.

Two weeks ago I took my dog to the coast on our annual family week holiday. Every day he got healthier and healthier, until the last day he was running as fast as I'd seen him when he was 5. I'm planning on taking him bird hunting this fall. Which is great, because besides being the best dog I'll likely ever have, he's also the best hunting dog I've ever seen.

His name is Mook.
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Awesome...Brought a smile to my face
 
mook said:
This happened about two months ago:

The best pet I've ever had, a 9 year old yellow lab, had a giant splenic tumor. Dog was barely eating. The vet said I should put him down in the next week. He said I should give him his last meals--something tasty. I'll always remember on the way out there was a new receptionist who cheerfully offered, "Have a nice day!" even though everybody could plainly see I'd been crying my eyes out. (Probably the first time I've cried in a decade or two.) I don't know how I didn't murder her.

Anyway, I get home and grill up a nice steak for him, then chop it up. He eats nearly the whole thing. Next day I do the same. Day after that I switch to a softer dog food, and he goes along for a month, looking healthier and happier. But the tumor was still enormous and getting bigger.

So I go to a different vet. This guy asks me if the other vet had x-rayed him or performed an ultrasound. I said no. He winces, then we go straight to it. After consideration, the vet says, "It'll cost you around $800 or so minimum to operate, depending on how complicated. Given what I've seen, it doesn't look cancerous, but it could be. If it is, he'll die within a few weeks to a month or two. If it isn't, he'll recover fully."

I tell him to proceed. Vet calls me after the procedure is over. He says, "Look, I just pulled out the biggest tumor I've seen in 30 years. I'm not kidding. It was 10 pounds (the dog is only 60 pounds) and the size of a volley ball. I'm having the tumor cremated after I get some pictures." A few hours later he calls back to say the biopsy showed it wasn't cancerous. The dog had 30 staples to sew him back up because the hole they had to cut to get the tumor out was so damned big. The bill was an astounding $2000 because of how ridiculously large it was and difficult to remove. I pay it.

Two weeks ago I took my dog to the coast on our annual family week holiday. Every day he got healthier and healthier, until the last day he was running as fast as I'd seen him when he was 5. I'm planning on taking him bird hunting this fall. Which is great, because besides being the best dog I'll likely ever have, he's also the best hunting dog I've ever seen.

His name is Mook.
Click to expand...
Hell of a story!
 
Who wants to see a pic of my killer attack dog Rudy Fernandez?!?!
 

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Last year my dog (Half Golden Retriever, Half Lab, about 12 yrs. old) started coughing. The coughing became more and more common so we took her into a vet. They did an xray and said its either pneumonia or Lung cancer. I was absolutely in shock, and I remember that hurting like nothing else.

So we got some meds, took it home and used them and she got a little better. Then she started getting worse so we had our pet doctor come over to our house and he gave her some different meds. Well a side effect was restlessness/nervousness, and the poor thing couldn't sleep at night. So I ended up playing her guitar all night. Her breathing was still shallow and her appetite starting to decline.

Eventually, one evening someone came in the door, and she ALWAYS used to run to the door and jump on them and show affection and she loved it. Best dog ever. Anyway, she didn't do it, she looked at the door but stayed laying down over by the TV I was watching. I looked into her eyes and took her straight to a vet clinic that night. They said they wanted us to leave her there overnight for them to give her oxygen and moniter her. I couldn't comprehend leaving her there as i'm never away from her, but I figured this is best for her health (though the dog didn't want us to leave, and went in the back with her tail between her legs, poor thing).

We got a call later that night that her breathing was becoming more and more shallow, and should they try bringing her back or just let her go? We said just let her go. The toughest thing I ever had to do in my life, in all honesty. Apparently she held on for some time because of us, and she didn't want to leave us. But when we left her there, she decided she was ready to go. God I so regret leaving her there alone. Probable the one thing i'd do over, i'd definitely have stayed there overnight with her to be with her because she deserved that (even though they didn't let me stay with her). I remember that night as the worst night of my life. The home didn't seem like a home without her, but just a house.

To this day I still have dreams about her, at least once a week where I somehow try to save her and always wake up in tears. She was by far my best friend, noone was even close.

Man that was hard to type...

If you are going through a pet dilemma like this, I am truly sorry. If you know your pet well, I think you know when the right time is. Money wasn't a problem for me, I would have paid w/e it took.

Edit - like most have said, its all about the quality of life for your animal.
 
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I've had to have cats put to sleep. The short answer is when they can no longer have a quality of life.

Two of the cats were very old, 18 and 21. They were low energy. The cat who lived to 21 had lost her hearing. But they still had things in life they enjoyed. Sitting in the sunshine, being petted, fresh salmon. However, when one cat got pancreatic cancer and 3 years later her sister went into renal failure, it was the end. The cats were in great pain, unable to eat or enjoy anything, and with virtually no chance of recovery. It was not a question of money, it was that no amount of money will restore kidneys when they are gone (they don't do transplants on cats and even if they did a cat who is nearly 100 in cat years is a bad candidate) or stop a fast moving cancer with a virtually 100% fatality.

So really, you have to look at both issues, quality and prognosis. Putting an animal through some pain and surgery if he/she is expected to recover, at least enough to enjoy life, is one thing. Prolonging their lives for nothing but pain is another.

Incidentally, since humans don't have the option of euthanasia, this is exactly what my mother went through. She died, literally, by inches. Breast cancer. Then uterine cancer. Then glaucoma robbed her eyesight. Then congestive heart failure forced her to live her life on meds. Then colon cancer. She spent years in pain and disability and was extremely, clinically depressed. Time after time she would ask to be allowed to just go and they kept dragging her back to "life" which was no life. This definitely impacted the decisions I made about my cats. I did not want to see them suffer and suffer with no quality of life and no dignity.
 
More than five hundred bucks?

Put em down. They are animals for petes sake. Spending thousands to prolong the life of an ancient pet is silly.
 
This thread is painful for me to read. I've lost two of my three beloved cocker spaniels in the last 6 months, and I cried my eyes out as we put them to sleep. It was the right decision both times, as inoperable conditions arose that were causing them pain and impacting their quality of life. But I still wake up in the middle of the night and call out for one of them to jump on the bed for pets... the one that's left happily obliges, but I terribly miss the stampede of love that occured almost every night. I hope that if there is an afterlife, they'll be waiting for me. Whoever belittles the impact that a pet can have on your life and the shared bond of love that exists has no soul, in my opinion.
 
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