File :-(, x, )
Anonymous
/an/,

I have a male, uncut, Boxer - nearly ten years old. He has had one serious tumors removed that hung from his leg. At first the vets didn't want to mess with it due to it's location, but it got so big we finally went for it. At the time he had a few small lumps elsewhere on his body, but I couldn't afford to have all of them removed - most skin tumors are benign on Boxers, supposedly. Once we remove the leg tumor, one of the small tumors on his back (between the front shoulder blades) started to grow. Recently, in the past two months, it's expanded rapidly. This weekend it started to oooze a bit. Over the past couple of days, the tumor has swelled rapidly and it is now bleeding rather consistently. Yesterday, I noticed he hadn't eaten Tuesday's kibble. He soiled the carpet, which he hasn't done in years, and then he started vomitting everytime he tried to drink water. He's always happy to see me, of course, but he's been hiding a lot and sleeping.

I'm not working at the moment, so I had been putting off having the tumor removed, but now I have to do something. I'm embarrassed that this thing has gotten so bid recently. I have a vet appointment tomorrow at 7 AM.

My question is, how do you know when it's time to put a dog down. I can't afford my own health insurance, much less a series of expensive surgeries. I'll go out on a limb and do one round of surgery, but when it comes time I'll probably have to borrow my dad's .22 revolver and put him down myself.

This sucks.

Picture related... it's him as a puppy.
>> Anonymous
>>but when it comes time I'll probably have to borrow my dad's .22 revolver and put him down myself

If it's going to come to this, I'd have to go with putting the dog down instead of going for surgery.

But not just because of that, either.

You've got to consider his quality of life. Sure, you might get one surgery done, but when he starts getting really sick again, how long are you going to prolong his passing? Not to mention you might fuck it up if you do, in fact, try to shoot him to put him down. Certainly not going to be a clean or peaceful death at any rate.

If humane euthanization is either tomorrow or never, I'd opt for tomorrow.
>> tigerfeather !CrwtTbFNxQ
If the dog is already that affected, one surgery is not going to make him better.

You should probably save the money you would use for that "out on a limb" surgery and use it to put him down before it gets worse.
>> Anonymous
>>277649
>>277650

Things to think about. Thanks.

I suppose I'll have to see what the vet has to say tomorrow. Although, I'm wary of him because after the last surgery he made a big deal over the fact that once he got into the procedure he realized he had underbid the cost (it was more complex then they had thought, apparently). He's a good vet and the clinic has always done me right, but I suspect they'd try to cost average out another surgery. Half tempted to find a vet in the country or in a less prosperous part of town.

For some reason, I abandoned my plans to be a vet in college. Looking back on it, it's the sweetest racket on the planet. You're not likely to be sued, you can charge out the ass for things that people should be able to do for themselves (heartworm meds/treatment), and there's always the sympathy gambit to get a person to spend ungodly amounts on money on their animals.

Then again, maybe that's the reason I didn't want to become a vet.
>> Anonymous
My last dog had the same problem with the tumor on the leg I believe. When we took her to the vet we were advised that;
1. It was reasonably expensive to get worked on (and we weren't in a position to pay either)
2. There were a few uncertainties, along with the likelihood of growth elsewhere, which was kinda obvious when she shown how sick she was (can't stress how much she hid her pain and such, we thought she had a stomach infection, I wish I knew earlier, like we all do) due to her having blood in her business in a few of her recent trips to the carpet.
It made her stop eating (which is usually the sign of something serious) unless we really coached her with steaks/chops, she also soiled the carpet and such. But she also had crippling arthitis.

Thing is she never ever showed how much pain she was in to us until she couldn't walk down or especially up the stairs, we had to carry her and she HATED it. It all became obvious within a single week when it all became too much for her, was pretty shocking to us, really.

As much as I hated losing her, she lived a good life of 14 years (she looked 5, the vet was astonished, I think it was the Dingo in her, Dingo x Aussie Cattle Dog), her quality of life was really bad by then and when I look back on it, I know it was the right thing to do.

We gave her the green dream, you will cry if ya love him and don't convince yourself otherwise, I watched the light fade in my girl's eyes as the stuff shut her down, saddest day of my life to date.
>> Anonymous
Put the poor thing down before he gets even more fucked up and go get a job.
>> Anonymous
>>277643

Jesus Christ, just have the dog put down. It seems like you've let it go for long enough.
>> Anonymous
>You're not likely to be sued, you can charge out the ass for things that people should be able to do for themselves (heartworm meds/treatment), and there's always the sympathy gambit to get a person to spend ungodly amounts on money on their animals.

Fuck, and I thought vets got into the profession because they cared about animals. Not because they want to make a pretty penny.
>> Anonymous
Uh, no. Don't but the dog down yourself, that's ridiculous. Have the doctors do it. There won't be any pain and he can go peacefully.
Also, as horrible as it is, I think it may be time. One of my dogs had lymphoma at the age of 4. The glands in his neck swelled up so large, and one day he couldn't swallow his dog food. That's when we put him down because we didn't want him to suffer.
It was so hard, but sometimes, these things are for the best.
Your dog is adorable by the way. He looks very sweet.
>> tigerfeather !CrwtTbFNxQ
>>277762
You forgot to mention all the injured dogs that get left at your clinic, tied to your door by people who can't/don't want to afford to fix them, people who start expensive treatments only to decide halfway through that they don't want to and aren't going to pay for the rest of it, and dealing with angry people every single damned day because they think that you are overcharging them for your services.

Also, vets DO get sued, and have to buy insurance, especially emergency vets (you know, the ones who tend to really need to be there?).
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
So, we went to the vet this morning. Vet was shocked by how much the tumor had grown since he had last seen him. He had a benign cyst (we think) in this location for a few years, but the mass below the cyst is what has really started to grow in the past few months and is no seeping blood. I relayed all the symptoms and the vet was pretty glum about the lack of appetite and the peeing. They took him back and shaved the wound, cleaned it up, took blood and urine samples and tried to bandage the seep. We're waiting on the test results, but the vet is already talking about "shrinking" the tumor (which I assumed meant radiation) before we tried removing the mass. I'm not one to pay several grand for radiation therapy on a pet, even one as awesome as my Boxer, so I asked what the options might be short of chemo. He wants the test results back first, but suggested it's possible to remove as much as possible while leaving as much skin behind necessary to attempt to stitch up the wound.

Yesterday, the dog started eating a bit, stopped vomitting water, but still peed on the carpet without warning. He seemed a lot more chipper than the day before, but he's clearly uncomfortable. He's sleeping now after an exciting morning riding in the car and going to the vet. I've managed to create a better bandage than the vet now that they have it shaved and cleaned.

From what I gather at this point, it may be possible to surgically remove a large part of the mass and hope for the best. Maybe that gives him another year of life? Like I said, he's nearly 10 years old. Just last week he was running ruts in the back yard and "boxing" with my friends, so he seems too lively to put down at this point.

I've never been in a situation like this, so I have no idea what to expect.
>> Anonymous
>>278000
By the way, the whole bill was $366 this morning.

$39.50 for 40x 500mg of cephalexin
$45 for the exam
$129.50 for "SuperChem, CBC" ???
$40 for urinalysis
$90 for aspirate cytology
$22 to shave/clean wound
>> Anonymous
>>278000
if he is suffering it may be time if there is nothing you can do about the tumor. if it can be treated to where he can live without pain or suffering then sure go ahead.
>> Anonymous
>>278001

Superchem is the chemical test for stuff like levels of calcium, chloride and whatnot in the blood, and CBC means complete blood count.

So basically, your vet did two blood tests - one for the blood cells, and the other for the minerals in the plasma.
>> Anonymous
>>278001

I'd say paying $45 for the exam and another $22 to shave/clean wound is a case of double-dipping. Average vet exams go for about $25 in my experience.
>> Anonymous
If he suffers for much longer, I'd suggest going to the vet to put him to sleep. It would be painless, they call it putting a dog to sleep for a reason. Don't try to put him down yourself, you might mess up and then you'd have to live with knowing you caused your dog unnecessary pain. Not worth it.
>> Anonymous
>>278007

I work at a vet, and 45 + 22 is remarkably close to what we charge there.

@OP - don't put the dog down yourself - go to the vet. It's something hard to describe, but it's the right thing. Also, you really should try to do your best to care for the dog before you make a decision the dog can't make on it's own.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
>>278040

I've read that radiation treatments can run $2000. I know the surgery will probably run me $700 or more. What's a generally accepted cost for euthanizing a dog?
>> lol
>>278007

thats pretty cheap for it, im in sydney, australia so vets are a complete bitch. If it comes down to it, you are going to have to decide, am i going to fork out $1k~ to let it live in a painful situation for a few more months, maybe even weeks?. This happened to my teacher, (family friend as well) he had liver cancer and he had 3 weeks to live, or 3 months in pain.


Most sincerity, Jaeger
>> Anonymous
eat da toomerz off