Doggie end of life decisions
-
wrote on 8 Sept 2024, 00:55 last edited by
@George-K said in Doggie end of life decisions:
How's the doggo?
Any news from the vet?
He's doing well. Resting at home. He's energetic again and doesn't seem to be in much pain, though he is on meds for that. He had some fluid around his heart which they are keeping an eye on. I got a call about it at 6 am while he was still in the hospital recovering. They said maybe I wanted to do a $1000 test with an advanced ultrasound, or he could just suddenly die. So I spent the 1k, because those are the sorts of choices one has at the vet. The test came back as trace amounts of fluid but maybe nothing to worry about. They wanted to see him again today, so we took him back and they did that test again, this time free of charge. The ultrasound technician waved his wand at his heart for 20 seconds, pronounced him no worse than he was yesterday. I guess that's what I paid 1k for. Anyway we are happy to have him home, and we're prepared for whatever news we get from the biopsy. He's been healthy every day of his 12.3 years of life, until his spleen burst. So that was a bit of a shock. But it took him all of a day to get back to barking excitedly at any stimulus. Hard to imagine an aggressive cancer is currently ravaging his body, but I am probably delusionally optimistic.
-
@George-K said in Doggie end of life decisions:
How's the doggo?
Any news from the vet?
He's doing well. Resting at home. He's energetic again and doesn't seem to be in much pain, though he is on meds for that. He had some fluid around his heart which they are keeping an eye on. I got a call about it at 6 am while he was still in the hospital recovering. They said maybe I wanted to do a $1000 test with an advanced ultrasound, or he could just suddenly die. So I spent the 1k, because those are the sorts of choices one has at the vet. The test came back as trace amounts of fluid but maybe nothing to worry about. They wanted to see him again today, so we took him back and they did that test again, this time free of charge. The ultrasound technician waved his wand at his heart for 20 seconds, pronounced him no worse than he was yesterday. I guess that's what I paid 1k for. Anyway we are happy to have him home, and we're prepared for whatever news we get from the biopsy. He's been healthy every day of his 12.3 years of life, until his spleen burst. So that was a bit of a shock. But it took him all of a day to get back to barking excitedly at any stimulus. Hard to imagine an aggressive cancer is currently ravaging his body, but I am probably delusionally optimistic.
wrote on 8 Sept 2024, 01:04 last edited by@Horace said in Doggie end of life decisions:
He's doing well. Resting at home. He's energetic again and doesn't seem to be in much pain, though he is on meds for that. He had some fluid around his heart which they are keeping an eye on. I got a call about it at 6 am while he was still in the hospital recovering. They said maybe I wanted to do a $1000 test with an advanced ultrasound, or he could just suddenly die. So I spent the 1k, because those are the sorts of choices one has at the vet. The test came back as trace amounts of fluid but maybe nothing to worry about. They wanted to see him again today, so we took him back and they did that test again, this time free of charge. The ultrasound technician waved his wand at his heart for 20 seconds, pronounced him no worse than he was yesterday. I guess that's what I paid 1k for.
What we do for our animals...he's lucky to have you.
Sometimes, I wonder about vets...
We had a dog with Addison's disease - her adrenals didn't put out enough hormones and we have to give her medications as a supplement.
When she got funky, I took her to the local vet - I was charged $90 to check her blood pressure. I was beyond outraged.
"If we don't do this test your dog could die suddenly" is such bullshit.
I don't question your judgment based on what you were told, but that's total BS. You can get a CT scan cheaper (if you're human).
Sorry for the rant, but your comment reminded me of what a scam much of veterinary care can be.
-
wrote on 8 Sept 2024, 01:06 last edited by
Yeah, it seems to be the business model.
-
wrote on 8 Sept 2024, 02:56 last edited by
I was told by the vet who did the surgery that today's visit would be free, and then I double checked today with the technician that the visit would be free, and she verified. Now they've mailed me an invoice for $150. Eyeroll. I called and they said they'd reach out to the vet to verify my story.
-
@Horace said in Doggie end of life decisions:
He's doing well. Resting at home. He's energetic again and doesn't seem to be in much pain, though he is on meds for that. He had some fluid around his heart which they are keeping an eye on. I got a call about it at 6 am while he was still in the hospital recovering. They said maybe I wanted to do a $1000 test with an advanced ultrasound, or he could just suddenly die. So I spent the 1k, because those are the sorts of choices one has at the vet. The test came back as trace amounts of fluid but maybe nothing to worry about. They wanted to see him again today, so we took him back and they did that test again, this time free of charge. The ultrasound technician waved his wand at his heart for 20 seconds, pronounced him no worse than he was yesterday. I guess that's what I paid 1k for.
What we do for our animals...he's lucky to have you.
Sometimes, I wonder about vets...
We had a dog with Addison's disease - her adrenals didn't put out enough hormones and we have to give her medications as a supplement.
When she got funky, I took her to the local vet - I was charged $90 to check her blood pressure. I was beyond outraged.
"If we don't do this test your dog could die suddenly" is such bullshit.
I don't question your judgment based on what you were told, but that's total BS. You can get a CT scan cheaper (if you're human).
Sorry for the rant, but your comment reminded me of what a scam much of veterinary care can be.
wrote on 8 Sept 2024, 03:48 last edited by@George-K said in Doggie end of life decisions:
@Horace said in Doggie end of life decisions:
He's doing well. Resting at home. He's energetic again and doesn't seem to be in much pain, though he is on meds for that. He had some fluid around his heart which they are keeping an eye on. I got a call about it at 6 am while he was still in the hospital recovering. They said maybe I wanted to do a $1000 test with an advanced ultrasound, or he could just suddenly die. So I spent the 1k, because those are the sorts of choices one has at the vet. The test came back as trace amounts of fluid but maybe nothing to worry about. They wanted to see him again today, so we took him back and they did that test again, this time free of charge. The ultrasound technician waved his wand at his heart for 20 seconds, pronounced him no worse than he was yesterday. I guess that's what I paid 1k for.
What we do for our animals...he's lucky to have you.
Sometimes, I wonder about vets...
We had a dog with Addison's disease - her adrenals didn't put out enough hormones and we have to give her medications as a supplement.
When she got funky, I took her to the local vet - I was charged $90 to check her blood pressure. I was beyond outraged.
"If we don't do this test your dog could die suddenly" is such bullshit.
I don't question your judgment based on what you were told, but that's total BS. You can get a CT scan cheaper (if you're human).
Sorry for the rant, but your comment reminded me of what a scam much of veterinary care can be.
With Dakota’s tumor, they wanted us to have a $4500 test run that would determine the exact nature of the tumor. There were 3 possibilities. The treatment for the first two options was the same, and the third option was untreatable… We proceeded with the treatment for the first two without the test…
-
wrote on 8 Sept 2024, 05:12 last edited by
Decades ago, we adopted a 14 year old dog. I told my wife that since he did not have a long life ahead, we shouldn't think of spending money on extending his life when his health turned. Of course, we fell in love with the dog and when he became ill, we would have sold the house or knocked over a currency exchange to fund care. The day he passed was one of those days in my life I'll never forget.
-
wrote on 9 Sept 2024, 01:23 last edited by
@George-K said in Doggie end of life decisions:
How're things today, @Horace ?
They're ok, thanks George. He seems healthy and fine. His appetite is normal. Giving him his gabapentin and carprofen every day.
-
wrote on 9 Sept 2024, 02:43 last edited by
Hoping everything is ok...
Just a word about osteoarthritis management...This stuff works pretty well...
-
wrote on 9 Sept 2024, 15:40 last edited by A Former User 9 Sept 2024, 21:57
So glad to hear the pup is recovering well. Dogs seem to bounce back from major surgery much faster than we humans do.
As for the Librela...
We had a 17 year old rescue pup with really bad arthritis. Carprofen started to bother his stomach and gabapentin knocked him out completely.
He couldn't get around much at all and we were beginning to think it might be time to let him go. Right around that time Librela became available and we decided to go for it.
The first shot was a miracle. You could tell that he was feeling much less pain and started to move around better. The second shot seemed to take a lot out of him for a few days after the shot, and after the third shot it really hit him hard. Incontinence, stomach upset, and extreme fatigue. Our vet said he wasn't too surprised, as the Librela can affect dogs like vaccines do because of the effect on the immune system. It took several weeks for him to recover from it.
We held off for a couple of months and gave him a fourth shot, and that one hit him really, really hard. About three weeks after the last shot, he had a stroke and we said goodbye.
Lots of people are discussing the side effects of Librela, and any number have talked about neurological and cardiovascular effects they think they've observed. It's a new drug and data on the effects are still being gathered. Of course the dogs that get Librela are typically pretty old, but I can say from what we observed with Raffi, the shots definitely had some pretty challenging side effects. Not sure if it caused his stroke (he was as old as the hills so it might well have happened anyway), but one never knows.
We're not sorry that we tried it because he was at the end of the line before he got the shots. He got some additional good days he wouldn't have had without them. But I think I'd really do a deep dive on what people are seeing in terms of longer term effects as the drug is used more widely. And I would definitely say if the carprofen and gabapentin are working for your dog, I wouldn't switch to Librela.
Fingers crossed that you get good news from the biopsy.
-
wrote on 9 Sept 2024, 16:50 last edited by
Really sorry to hear of the surprise bad news, but am hoping for the best from here out. Sorry for the delayed reply, I haven't been online for a few days (yes I do 95% of my TNCR'ing on my desktop). The size of that... wow. My FIL woke up one day about 10 years ago with blood in urine... very long story short, the surgery removed a 15-pound tumor, it was remarkably big. (He had stage 4 cancer, but has survived... almost 10 years of dialysis, kidney transplant, etc).
Speaking of vet costs. One employer I had offered pet insurance, which I thought was great (we have no pets right now), but one could hope that could be more of a norm for employers to add to their benefits package.
-
wrote on 9 Sept 2024, 23:01 last edited by
Thanks all. He’s still doing well today.
-
wrote on 9 Sept 2024, 23:09 last edited by
-
wrote on 9 Sept 2024, 23:18 last edited by
@George-K said in Doggie end of life decisions:
@Horace said in Doggie end of life decisions:
He’s still doing well today.
No path report yet?
Probably in a week
Education is extremely important.
-
wrote on 10 Sept 2024, 00:04 last edited by
Sorry to hear about your pup's troubles. Glad to hear he is doing well. I hope the tests come back with good results.
-
@George-K said in Doggie end of life decisions:
@Horace said in Doggie end of life decisions:
He’s still doing well today.
No path report yet?
Probably in a week
wrote on 10 Sept 2024, 00:16 last edited by@Horace said in Doggie end of life decisions:
@George-K said in Doggie end of life decisions:
@Horace said in Doggie end of life decisions:
He’s still doing well today.
No path report yet?
Probably in a week
Bushwa. How busy are these guys?
Three business days. I can't think of any routine paths we did that weren't knocked out in that time span.
Maybe the animal path pipeline is slower.
-
wrote on 18 Sept 2024, 02:15 last edited by
Took them 12 days, but just got the results. No cancer!
Education is extremely important.
-
wrote on 18 Sept 2024, 02:18 last edited by
Good news, indeed!
-
wrote on 18 Sept 2024, 02:22 last edited by
Huzzah!
-
wrote on 18 Sept 2024, 02:22 last edited by
@Horace said in Doggie end of life decisions:
Took them 12 days, but just got the results. No cancer!
yay!!!!
