@HappyDaze wrote:
@ccassaday wrote:
Sounds like the dog has a active bleed from cancer. Most of the time with the spleen it is hemangiosarcoma. They will have to drain it then just let nature takes it course. Or they can have the spleen removed but prognosis isn't great.
Sadly, it sounds like this as well to me. I hope not. I hope she does further testing to see what was seen on the spleen- a biopsy would be ideal but even our initial biopsy showed it was benign until it was removed and the whole tumor was tested and they found it was malignant after all. I sure hope the vet isn't just leaving it as "it is hard to know" and is doing more testing and trying to figure out what was seen on the xray (send the xrays to a radiologist!).
All of that takes $. Major $$$$.
It's great when one can budget that in, even with a credit card, but not everybody can.
Some people would say, "Well, then don't have a pet!", which is discounting all the GOOD that an owner has done in the past to keep their pet healthy.
Yes, it is heartbreaking to have a beloved pet suffer, and I would NEVER want any of my pets to have so much as one second of suffering.
But, there comes a point where one has to weigh the cost of the procedures, no matter how badly that they may want them done, vs. the reality of expenses, and the prognosis.
Case in point.
About five years ago, I had a cat that I had raised from a kitten.
This cat was my heart and soul.
One day, he stopped eating.
I took him to the vet, who gave him an appetite stimulant, which worked for a few days.
Then again, he stopped eating.
He was about 12 years old at this point.
I took him back to the vet, and this time the vet told me that they could do procedures on him, but that he would never be the same.
I knew that my cat would not want to be carted back and forth to the vet, if the final outcome was that he was never going to be 100% ever again.
I knew that that would not be fair to him.
And while expenses never entered my mind for a second, I knew what had to be done.
I made the difficult decision that all pet lovers have to make.
I had them ease him to Rainbow Bridge.
I looked in to his eyes, so that I would be the last thing that he would see.
I told him over and over again that I loved him, so that I would be the last voice that he heard.
I petted him, so that I would be the last touch that he felt.
Some might call me "callous" and "heartless" for not going deep in to debt to make my cat better, or even say that I never should have had him in the first place if I couldn't afford thousands of dollars in vet bills.
The thing is, all true lovers of pets do the best that we can for our furbabies.
Some of us don't bat an eye at spending thousands of dollars at the vets, in order to make our babies healthy.
And for others, that's a financial hardship to do.
And just because one can't spend thousands and thousands of dollars to make and keep our pets healthy, does NOT mean that they are bad pet parents, or shouldn't even have pets in the first place.
Blogs & Forums
