AARP Member
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Background
Name: Deb
Birthday: June 28
Gender: Female
Status:
Divorced
Ethnicity:
Caucasian
Location:
Texas
United States
Texas
United States
Quote:
"Life's a BEACH. I love the smell of the Ocean in the morning."
"Life's a BEACH. I love the smell of the Ocean in the morning."
Can you be haunted by the present?How much is your pet worth?
Lately, I have not been having a lot of luck with my pets. In fact, my family has not been having much luck with theirs for several months now either. First, in the beginning of summer my sister’s dog got snake bit by a cottonmouth and his head swelled up but fortunately he was a large dog and got better with a few doses of Benadryl. Still, he has not had the same spirit and activity level as he did before and his eyes somehow don't seem as bright and clear as they used to be for a 3 year old.
A couple of months later, one of my dogs was diagnosed with kidney failure. I had noticed some things that I found out later were signs of this condition. I didn't know to look for them or I may have been able to catch it sooner. I spent several hundreds of dollars trying to keep her alive and just prolonging and intensifying her misery, when they could have told me the truth, that the chances of anything helping or at the least not make her worse, faster, were slim to none. Instead, they kept giving me false hope and draining my cash flow until she finally had, had enough and succumbed to the inevitable.
During all of these problems my Beagle at the ripe old age of 14 was having continuing issues with growths on her eye, gums, ear and various places on her body and pain from her bad teeth that I was unable to have taken care of for way to long until I borrowed the money to have these things addressed. Again these things cost hundreds of dollars, over six hundred dollars actually. After these surgeries she seemed to be better for about six months then she started having problems with chronic cough then, her anal glands leaking and well, there was several more hundreds of dollars. Now, it has been around 3 weeks since her last series of antibiotics for the gland problems and she is having pains internally and not wanting to eat or drink and coughing deeper and harder. I took her back to the vet today and they did about four blood tests and several x-rays and still cannot give me a definitive diagnosis just a suspicion of an enlarged heart and fluid in her lungs and possible pneumonia, they just want to give her more drugs for things they are not sure is the problem and charge me another five hundred plus dollars and "hope" that will do the trick. And let’s not forget we need to bring her back in ten days for a recheck and a few hundred more dollars.
Don't get me wrong, I love my pets and have and will do all I can to keep them healthy and pain free and I know that the vets are in "business" to make money but have they no shame, to supposedly treat your beloved pet for as much money as they can squeeze out of you and making you feel guilty if you tell them that you simply can't afford that amount of money.
Why can't the vets be truthful and tell you that the chances of a recovery is not good or that they really just don't know what the problem is and for that lack of expertise give you a financial break in an effort to do what is best for the animal. Don't vets have a creed to go by like people doctors not that they follow it either. How do you know when your beloved pet has had enough and needs to be released from the pain? I just want to know when do you know when it's time to say enough is enough and let the pet go to god or wherever you believe they go when they die?
Update: My beloved Beagle Missy became increasingly worse to the point that I had to have her put down. This was a most difficult decision as I loved her very much however, I could not make her suffer while we tried many different meds and treatments options and at her age probably still either lived a poor quality life or died in spite of all our efforts. I still ask myself if I did the right thing but believe in my heart it was best in spite of the pain I feel missing her. She was a most excellent pet and companion and I know that once again she is running through the tall grass, chasing rabbits and squirrels and retrieving squeaky toys like a puppy with the rest of the dogs in heaven.
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Added: Sep 15, 2009
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