Dogs

[Mary1966]

I think end of life care for humans also lends itself to being charged huge amounts of money for questionable treatment. So it's not just vets. I certainly do not have $1200 to spend on my cats, if they got sick and needed surgery, I would have no choice but to euthanize them.

[lukethedrifter]

Accepting death as a part of life isn't very American.

[Mary1966]

Rocky isn’t quite what you might expect of a hero.

Watching him lumber around a park, even his handler calls the 95-pound bloodhound “dopey.”

“He’s just a big oaf,” Giovanni Morella said.

But ever since arriving in 2007, Rocky has been working at the Normandy Park Police Department, where his olfactory skills are frequently called upon to aid investigations.

Rocky has special talents because bloodhounds have especially sensitive noses, allowing them to follow specific, aged scents. That means, unlike other police dogs, he isn’t limited to pursuing the smell of adrenaline, but can follow a scent from an object the person left behind.

That skill paid off last month when Rocky helped search for a 7-year-old Puyallup girl missing for several hours July 10. After 20 minutes of tracking a scent from the girl’s shoe, Rocky found her a few hundred feet away.

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/08/0 ... rylink=cpy

[thrill]

Adorable dog protects adorable master from life-threatening food allergens: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3727032? ... 03&ir=Food

[JL21]

Adorable dog protects adorable master from life-threatening food allergens: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3727032? ... 03&ir=Food

Pffft...

the dog sniffs out nuts

Every dog I know does this.

[Freed Roger]

Our friends have pet healtrance. i presume it only causes the bills to go up/scam like dental Iinsurance

[Freed Roger]

Our friends have pet healtrance. i presume it only causes the bills to go up/scam like dental Iinsurance

[jim]

To me, if my dog got to be a financial burden due to health I'd just put it down. I don't need insurance. When Dizzy tore her ACL at age 10, the vet suggested ACL reconstruction for about $1k. I suggested let's leave it alone and see how she does, and if it becomes a serious enough quality of life issue how about she just go night night for $100?

She did fine, it slowed her down and her serious rabbit chasing days were over, but it would have probably been a disservice to her to put her through that.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

We had to go through that choice recently with our dog. 3 weeks ago she collapsed like she had been shot, then slowly came to and went back to normal. We took her to the vet ER and she seemed to be alright, then it started happening again and again the following week, and our vet determined she had an auto-immune issue and put her on some medicine. The whole ordeal was several hundred bucks, but we love our dog and it wasn't a big deal.

She was improving until mid-last week, when her stool went black and she started having those fainting spells again, very frequently. Took her back to the vet ER and after she had a very bad episode at the ER(her heart briefly stopped), she needed hospitalization/intensive care if she was going to live. This was the same cost as before, just with another zero on the end. We did it, and thankfully she seems to be truly getting better so it's not all for naught, but it's very tough. I imagine age and family status play a big role in that decision(our dog is only 4, and we have no kids), but even for us I don't think we could do that again. The blow is going to sting for a while, but I'm glad we gave our dog a legit shot at having a full life. If it happens again, I'll be much more at peace with our efforts and understanding that this is an issue we can't reasonably overcome.

[docellis]

I hope she stays well, TT. I think you're right about the contributing factors. We don't have or want kids. And that plays a big role, I think.

I might have already said this, but I've spent more time with this dog over the last 14-15 years than I have with any one person.

Last night we played with her outside for a long time, she ran and ran and ran chasing her tennis ball. She is so active and happy, it just hurts me to think of "giving up" on her.

The hard part of this is that she is so healthy. Never had a single health issue all these years and still looks and acts healthy.

My boyfriend was balking at me spending another $1000, but when I found the other vet who said $500 would be the high end - the boyfriend immediately came around. If it buys her 5 more healthy months, that is $100 per month I am happy to pay.