Medical Care for My Dog?

[Luna_Lovecraft]

I do imagine that there may be places in the world where cheap or free euthanasia is unavailable, in which case DIY euthanasia might be the better option, but that’s a bit too icky to talk about and I doubt many people would actually go and do it.

When I lived in Bangkok I rescued a kitten that had been hit by a motorcycle, leaving it with paralyzed back legs and no bowl or bladder control. She wasn’t mine, I found her one day on my way back from work, but I couldn’t allow her to huddle in an alley until she either starved to death or was eaten by stray dogs.

It took me a couple of weeks to find a vet who was willing to euthanize her. Buddhists - of which almost all vets in Thailand are - believe that all killing is immoral, suffering is for a purpose, and the animal is suffering for a reason even if we don’t know what that reason is. A couple told me to just stop feeding her and giving her water and let her die on her own. That, apparently, wasn’t sinful.

I finally was put in touch with a Christian professor of veterinary medicine at Thammasat University who euthanized her. While I was searching for a willing vet I made the kitten as comfortable and clean as I could, mopped by floors twice a day - remember, no bowel/bladder control and no kitten diapers in developing countries. She ate; she drank; she even pulled herself around at a pretty good pace chasing string and such. But there was no way, given my circumstances and the medical care and equipment available to me at the time, that I could have taken care of her long-term.

So even in developing countries there are ways to responsibly care for ill, diseased, or injured pets.

I agree with you. However there are different levels to providing medical care. My 13 year old cat has kidney failure. To treat this I give him a quarter of a pepcid per day, fish oil, and canned food. We were giving him the special low protein stuff but he wouldn’t eat it. I figured that keeping his weight up is as important as doing what we can for his kidneys. He is expected to be around 8-12 more months.

So my plan for him is when he stops eating We will let the guy go. Now, it is actually possible to give him a treatment at that pont that would mean 3 days in the vet hospital and would possibly extend his life a few more months. Some folks even take their cats to dialysis.

Just this morning I dropped my 15-year-old Siamese off at the vet’s for a dental. She’s in stage three renal failure. She eats her low-protein food, isn’t losing weight, and her urine density and blood work came back pretty good considering, so we decided to go ahead and have her teeth cleaned and gingivitis taken care of. If nothing else she’ll be more comfortable and her breath will smell better.

My husband and I already have a renal failure care plan for her mapped out, which mainly revolves around what we aren’t going to do. No sub-cutaneous fluids. No dialysis. No IV fluid pushes. And certainly no kidney transplants, which we could have done at UC Davis. When we notice a substantial weight drop (she typically eats at night when we’re sleeping), we’ll go as far as putting her on an appetite stimulant. If her weight continues to drop, that’s it. I won’t have her at the end of her life, when she’s already weak, being frightened of us because we’re sticking her with needles and/or dragging her to the vet twice a week for interventions she can’t understand. For us, and for our cat, that just seems cruel.

Luna

 

[ringil]

When I lived in Bangkok I rescued a kitten that had been hit by a motorcycle, leaving it with paralyzed back legs and no bowl or bladder control. She wasn’t mine, I found her one day on my way back from work, but I couldn’t allow her to huddle in an alley until she either starved to death or was eaten by stray dogs.

It took me a couple of weeks to find a vet who was willing to euthanize her. Buddhists - of which almost all vets in Thailand are - believe that all killing is immoral, suffering is for a purpose, and the animal is suffering for a reason even if we don’t know what that reason is. A couple told me to just stop feeding her and giving her water and let her die on her own. That, apparently, wasn’t sinful.

I finally was put in touch with a Christian professor of veterinary medicine at Thammasat University who euthanized her. While I was searching for a willing vet I made the kitten as comfortable and clean as I could, mopped by floors twice a day - remember, no bowel/bladder control and no kitten diapers in developing countries. She ate; she drank; she even pulled herself around at a pretty good pace chasing string and such. But there was no way, given my circumstances and the medical care and equipment available to me at the time, that I could have taken care of her long-term.

So even in developing countries there are ways to responsibly care for ill, diseased, or injured pets.

Just this morning I dropped my 15-year-old Siamese off at the vet’s for a dental. She’s in stage three renal failure. She eats her low-protein food, isn’t losing weight, and her urine density and blood work came back pretty good considering, so we decided to go ahead and have her teeth cleaned and gingivitis taken care of. If nothing else she’ll be more comfortable and her breath will smell better.

My husband and I already have a renal failure care plan for her mapped out, which mainly revolves around what we aren’t going to do. No sub-cutaneous fluids. No dialysis. No IV fluid pushes. And certainly no kidney transplants, which we could have done at UC Davis. When we notice a substantial weight drop (she typically eats at night when we’re sleeping), we’ll go as far as putting her on an appetite stimulant. If her weight continues to drop, that’s it. I won’t have her at the end of her life, when she’s already weak, being frightened of us because we’re sticking her with needles and/or dragging her to the vet twice a week for interventions she can’t understand. For us, and for our cat, that just seems cruel.

Luna

Appetite stimulant. That’s a good idea. I’ll check with the vet on that.

WOW, they do kidney transplants!

I bet vets love the folks who are willing to spend the big bucks as it gives them a chance to practice the more complex stuff.

 

[white_sheep]

I didn’t say it was limitless. But you cannot say what my limit would be anymore than I can make the decision for you.

Yes, I can. If you spend $20k, you’ve spent too much.

 

[xzereus]

I agree with the majority of posters that you can’t claim paying to care for an animal is morally wrong. I don’t think God will judge us because we helped out an animal but not a human. Rather, I think he’ll simply judge us for not helping out a fellow human.

We should never consider our lack of action to help others a sin only because we spent that money on something else. If I knew that $100 could save a man’s life, does it really matter whether I kept that money in my savings or spent it to save my cat? I’d argue it doesn’t, at least in God’s eyes. So instead of judging the morality of what you have put your money toward (unless, of course, you’ve put your money toward things which are inherently and unarguably wrong), judge the morality of what you are not putting money toward.