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I have a very good and caring vet. My Dachshund visits his Doctor every 3 months, he receives his regular vaccinations and gets a "physical" - and on several occasions, the Doctor identified potentially serious issues and took care of them right away.
Do you have your animals vaccinated?
No, just whatever they get at spay/neuter time. I keep my cats inside and my dogs inside or outside under supervision. In my lifetime I have had to go without medical care for years so animals should not get better than I did. The funny thing is that they generally live the same or longer than friend's pets who get regular vetrinary care. 100 years ago people did not waste their resources on that nonsense, so why should we be forced to? I no longer have dogs because of government regulations, but I still have a couple of cats that seem perfectly happy and healthy. Some people have money to burn, I do not. Veterinarians are expensive, and never give free estimates, just rob you blind.
It would depend. We had a very young cat (3 years old) who ate 2 feet of ribbon and had it entangled in her intestines. It cost about $1,000 for her operation. If she had been a lot older (over 10), I don't know. She is now a healthy 13 years old.
We had another cat who was almost 16. He had arthritis. He couldn't climb stairs. He couldn't jump up on the bed. He couldn't make it to his cat pan. He would howl at all hours of the night. It was heartbreaking to see him like this. However, nature intervened and he passed away very peacefully one afternoon during his nap in the sun. My daughter, who was about 8 at the time, found it. It was tramatic for the kids, but probably less so than having to make the decision ourselves to put him down.
The cats we now have are 13 and 17, so I think about this all the time.
I went until the end, when I knew there was no chance of saving him, when his blood platelets were halving each 24 hours and the Dr. told me he didn't know if my beloved Teddy would last through the night.
I spent $10K in March-April in three surgeries to save him. He pulled through. Then, two and a half months later he became deathly ill in only a few days. Took him to the best place in the state - no hope. No whole blood anywhere to even do the right kind of tranfusion. And honestly, after his three week hospitalization in March-April, I don't think I could have poked and prodded him more. Still, I wasn't going to have him put to sleep in some sterile place. Got him an Rx for pain pills and slept with him at the foot of my bed that night. The next a.m. - called the Vet and asked him to put my baby to sleep. Three hours and 45 minutes later the Vet arrived. My baby looked miserable, but was wagging his tail eating cheese snacks right up until the end. My baby died in my arms on a fluffy blanket in our living room.
Got him groomed after death. Went to the crematorium and kissed him goodbye. They put his little body in the incinerator. I waited 45 minutes to bring him home.
if my pet required major surgery to stay alive, then I would take her out back and put a 44 through their head at close range.
it does not mean I would like doing it, but spending major money on keeping an animal alive is just plain hogwash.
Oh yeah, that's real classy, to blow your pets face off !
That's illegal in Wisconsin, and it's illegal for a reason, it's a felony I believe. There is a place you can take pets to have them put down, humanely. Do you need a clue ?
Any person that would do that to any animal, especially their own pet, is wired wrong !!!
I would do what I can for Baxter, but if it is over $1000, that will be the end. I'll take him to the vet and get him put down. If he is in chronic pain and will not get better (cancer, joint disease, old age, trauma, etc) that will be the best route. Keeping a pet alive when they are in pain is just cruel to your pet and so selfish.
As for the "blowing your pet's face off", if done correctly by someone who knows how to correctly operate a firearm, it is virtually painless and much better than having your pet suffer. This is obviously a last resort (in my book). It is no worse than a prick of a needle and the pain they are already in, especially if severe trauma is involved and the vet is "too busy". In fact, in one of the horse magazines I get, (Horse and Rider, I think) there was an article about how to humanely euthanize your animal if there was severe trauma and and the vet could not get there. Done correctly, it is preferable to waiting a few hours/days while your animal is suffering and in unspeakable pain while you wait for the vet to finish whatever it was he was doing. However, if my dog was sick or had cancer or some other illness, I see no reason to use a gun. In my opinion, death by firearm should be a last last last resort, only used in the most dire of cases.
I will not take any pet to the vet more than once for the removal of the sexual parts. They get food, water and love. WHen they get sick I do my best but if they die, I have the shovel ready to bury them. I refuse to support an industry of veterinary care when so many people have no access to healthcare. Throwing money away on a lost cause is not a nice thing to do. So many unwanted animals are killed that it would be better to give one of them a chance at life than supporting some overpriced professional with no reason to practice.
While it's nice that you neuter, with an attitude like that, I don't think you should be having any pets, period.
Not every medical problem is a lost cause. My cat had a urinary tract infection when she was 2 years old. Without treatment she would have died a painful death. Cost me about $250, but I view it as money well spent. With antibiotics, she recovered and is happy and healthy 3 years later.
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