Blasted dog!

[cristina47454]

Our 11 yo Jack Russell Terrier got into something 3 weeks ago and we had to take him to the vet...it cost us almost $400, but I was glad he was ok. Phew!

Well, he's done it again! . I'm not even feeling bad for him this time. I'm just ticked off. Why must he eat every nasty thing he can get his mouth on?? Now he's in the corner shaking and looking miserable and I really don't want to take him to the vet again. I called them and they said I could try giving him hydrogen peroxide. I got him to throw up a little, but he still looks miserable.

DH is out of town until tonight. I'm tempted to wait until tomorrow to see if he's okay...or am I tempting Death if I don't rush him to the vet with my three kids in tow when I'm trying to get ready for my dds bday party tomorrow? I feel like a crappy dog owner for not falling all over myself and making him my number one priority today, but I'm just so irritated by his stupidity.:

(And I posted this here bcs if I'm honest w/ myself it's about the money)

[2cutiekitties]

I didnt get my cat to the vet soon enough and he died in my arms.

[cristeen]

Any idea what he got into?

[rebeccalynn]

This is why we only have cheap fish. My parents grew up on farms and their families were very practical about pets. They did not do anything "cruel" to an animal but they were not people and would not spend significant money to save one or even significant money to buy one. We had a dog growing up and she had all of her shots up to date, but when she got sick we did not spend money to "extend" her life.

[AlbertaJes]

My DH didn't want to rush our dog to the vet one morning after we'd taken a block of rat poison out of her mouth, because he didn't think she'd gotten enough to hurt her. I put my foot down and when they pumped her stomach, it appeared that she'd eaten 3 blocks, and had we waited another hour we couldn't have saved her. We don't take chances.

[cristina47454]

Originally Posted by 2cutiekitties

I didnt get my cat to the vet soon enough and he died in my arms.

What happened? Maybe I need to just suck it up and take him

[cristina47454]

Originally Posted by cristeen

Any idea what he got into?

Don't know...I let him out to go to the bathroom and he came back all droopy and shaky. We leave near corn fields, but he came from the other direction, where the woods are...I put some mosquito dunks in some standing water, but those are apparently safe for animals..

Mushrooms? Animal carcass? Who knows? I hate this!!!

Last time they did xrays, blood tests, a shot of antibiotics and some IV fluid. Probably would be the same this time. Symptoms are all the same.

[Bluegoat]

Not to be mean, but unless you tie him or pen him, I think you need to take him to the vet when he gets into stuff. That's what dogs do, owners have to make sure they can't.

[fek&fuzz]

Take him to the vet, and then find him a home that wants to provide medical care for him when it is needed.

[kittynurse]

Vet tech here. Sounds like he is getting into a toxin. I hope that you decided to take him in.

You might want to search your property for what he is getting into. For his sake and also for your children's sake.

Originally Posted by cristina47454

Why must he eat every nasty thing he can get his mouth on??

Because he's a dog and he's doing what dogs do. It's our job as their human companions to protect them from harmful *normal* dog behaviour or to take care of them when we are unable to protect them.

[Ola_]

I hope you made the vet trip and he's fine now. It sounds like you need to have a safe area to let him out into or to supervise him while he is outside. It would save you a lot of money and would be much less dangerous to him.

[p1gg1e]

Ugh I hear you! We spent about $500 on a broken toe and stitches last fall. Id take him to the vet have a price cap in mind..humans come first :P

[Longhairedbeauty]

To the OP-

I can empathize with what you are going through. I, too, have problems with my dogs at times and have 'rushed' him to the vet. Twice, I've taken him to the vet thinking something was seriously wrong, and as soon as we get there, he acts like everything's fine!! I was flabbergasted.

Example- a few weeks ago, he began moping around, staying immobile after I placed him down on the grass to pee (he's a 10 pound Pomeranian), tilting his head, keeping his head down low, even yelping when I petted him which he never does. He also refused to eat for a day or so. So I took off work with very short (as in a few hours') notice and rushed him to the vet. Once there, he held his head up high, wagged his tail, ate treats out of their hands, and basically acted completely normal. They could fine nothing wrong with him, although they said it may be related to the cause of his seizures (which would cost $1500 for an MRI and they are reasonable to understand I cannot afford that- he's on meds for seizures, we just don't know the cause of them).

The vet explained that just like humans, their bodies release endorphins during periods of high stress/excitement. Just as athletes can have a serious injury and still play in a game due to these endorphins, animals can appear completely normal at the vet due to stress/excitement, yet at home exhibit the symptoms the owner is describing.

And that visit cost me $80...only a week or so after taking both my pets for their annual exams and required rabies shots and stuff that cost me $220.

Needless to say, I was not happy (not b/c nothing was wrong, but the fact he was able to act completely fine once there, therefore whatever it was, it couldn't have been that serious and I wasted money).

I ended up googling his symptoms and I think he had something called vestibular syndrome, thus explaining his swaying side to side and appearing 'seasick' and not being able to eat. I had to hand- feed him. He's back to normal now.

As for you, I can't say whether or not I think you should go to the vet, but I can definitely relate to your frustration. I feel it even more now b/c money is especially tight due o my new, lower paying job (not that I made much before, but now I'm pretty much earning what I was at a high school job, and I have 2 Bachelor's degrees and a teaching license....but that's a whole other story.)

I joked to the vet staff that next time my dog starts acting weird, I 'll just come to the vet and hang out without getting an appointment. The endorphins will kick in and I'll see that he's perfectly fine.

[mom0810]

I second the opinion that it's a toxin. I'm also a vet tech and he could have gotten in to some rat poison or it could be the mosquito dunks... he could have eaten a mouse that had eaten poison... just too many scary possibilities.

I hope you took him in, I know it's hard to pay for things like this, but perhaps get him a tie out or fence him in somewhere? It's better than getting poisoned... I don't like tie outs, but compared to the alternative...

At any rate, I'm sorry this is happening to you. Bad timing, too, it sounds like.

[Smithie]

"Take him to the vet, and then find him a home that wants to provide medical care for him when it is needed."

Or, alternatively, recognize that he is 11 years old and he is going to die of something in the foreseeable future, regardless of whether or not you bust your budget trying to save him. Yeah, it's probably a good idea to control his environment as much as possible so he doesn't get into stuff. But he will have episodes of illness from this point forward No Matter What You Do, and you'll have to decide whether or not to spend money trying to extend his life the way you would for a human.

I got socked for $700 at the vet's last month, just for what most people would consider "routine" stuff that occurs annually - exam, shots, deworming, supply of Frontline/Revolution/etc., tooth clean with extraction for the dog, etc. If I had done everything they recommended, it would have been over 1k.

So besides the obvious - I need a new vet who doesn't think that 1k in annual costs is acceptable for two healthy animals - this really brought home to me that while I love my animals dearly (7 y.o. dog and 8 y.o. cat) and I don't regret the $$ and time I've spent to gives them happy lives, I am also not interested in diverting resources away from my children towards my pets. For now, that just means getting a vet that doesn't think all her clients are Hilton family members. Sometime in the next several years, it's going to mean refusing extensive testing and ongoing treatment for some age-related disease and accepting that the animal's life will end. It was actually a big relief for me to be forced to confront this issue and come to a decision BEFORE that "final illness" point.

[mom0810]

Originally Posted by fek&fuzz

Take him to the vet, and then find him a home that wants to provide medical care for him when it is needed.

That is just really unfair and unnecessary.

We all have the right to question medical treatment for our dogs and the OP had an honest question. Geez...

[Free Thinker]

I agree that that is uncalled for. Hope your dog is okay, OP.

[cristina47454]

Thanks you for the support. I was going to do it myself but thought better of it.

The dog is back to himself today, thankfully. By yesterday afternoon, I was determined to call the vet but they were gone for the day and the ER that covers for them are over an hour away.My mom had offered to pay the cost of the vet, which I appreciate, but also hate (that she feels the need to do it). But I did call the ER and the doctor talked to me for about 1/2 hour and walked me through a bunch of stuff. She said not to feed him but to keep him hydrated. He had been treated last time for lyme, anaplasmosis and potentially pancreatitis...if that means anything to anyone, apparently, his GI trac is still extremely sensitive, and the shaking (indicative of pain) could just as easily have been from the brisket table scraps as any toxin (rich food is like a toxin to him in his condition).

They offered to do several more rounds of testing, but he IS an 11 yo old dog. And like another poster said, diverting funds from the kids summer to pay for testing doesn't seem right. So bland diet it is. And yes, we need to fence him He's been enjoying his freedom (we're on 40 acres) and he will be moping around now that he is back to confinement, but I just don't know any way to figure out where his "stash" is.

And for the record, I know that dogs will be dogs. It's just frustrating. I think of him as being so smart, and then he gets himself into the same pickle again. His annual care is a line item in the budget, but spending potentially $1500 on vet bills this year, when we've been having such a hard time making ends meet seems like my priorities are not right. this is the first time it has ever occurred to me that i can't afford a dog, but it's also the first time he's gotten sick back to back like this.

[mom0810]

So glad that you called, and I agree with your vet. Didn't know he had pancreatitis, that can cause a lot of stomach pain and upset. And yes, you have to take into account that he's 11. Not a young dog. Do not take money away from your kids if you can help it.

Hope all is well. Don't pay attention to negative posts.

[jen in co]

It's so Hard

Our dog has had an $1100 week -- it included everything from chest x-rays, bloodwork, ultrasounds, exams, prescriptions, etc. This is our last hurrah with our beloved Sherman. He's a nine year old husky -- we lovingly call him our $10,000 dog. If we add up everything we've spent on him (including neurosurgery at age 4 for a spinal issue at $6K total, an emergency vet trip for a severly cut paw from a day at the doggie beach at $1K and countless appointments for knee and hip problems) it easily reaches that $10K mark. He was a rescue dog and we got him when he was 6-7 months old.

My husband and I both grew up with more farm-based views on pets -- we had dogs and cats growing up and both lived on farms where animals were kept more at arms distance. That all changed with Sherman -- we treated him like our first child and we were lucky that we both had high paying jobs and could afford to do what he needed done.

Now, I'm a SAHM and we don't have the same financial reserves we once had. This week is going to hurt financially. We've decided to put him on a number of medications and see if anything helps improve the myriad of problems we identified at this appointment. The initial symptoms we went in for were basically breathing related -- he was a wheezing a little bit. His weight had gone up dramatically, so she encouraged us to check him for Hypothyroidism. That blood test came back positive, but also indicated extremely elevated liver levels -- after the abdominal ultrasound, it became clear that the problem was not only some small (probably benign) growths on his liver, but also some severe gall bladder problems. So, we're hitting him with a whole variety of medications (to the tune of several hundred dollars) to deal with the Hypothyrodism (Thyroxin), Breathing (a Steroid), Liver issues (Denosyl) and finally a drug specifically for his Gall Bladder issues. The ongoing costs for these medications will be $100-120 per month...we're willing to do it for a while if we see a marked improvement, but honestly if his blood work (which will cost $100+) doesn't come back showing significant improvement in 6 weeks, we'll probably stop all the medications and wait until he becomes uncomfortable. This has been so hard for me...I feel a similar obligation to him that I do of anything I care for, but the reality is that for a large husky, 9 years is a realistic lifespan. I've cried a lot this week, but I know we're doing what we can (which is way more than my parents or most folks I know would do for a dog this age with no guarantees of a good prognosis).

You can only do what you can do...if I were insanely wealthy, I would do everything I could to keep him with us so long as he wasn't uncomfortable, but I'm not going to do $2000 surgery on my 9 year old dog. I see this as making a choice based on financial realities in the same way I make choices about my own out of pocket health costs. I have lots of dental work I need to have done over the next year or two, but I'm selective about what I'm doing first and there are some things (e.g. invisalign to correct some crowding problems with my lower front teeth) that will have to wait and may or may not ever happen