How money should you can you spend to save your dog's life?

Great Debates
1

oops, I really messed up the title and couldn’t edit it.
The title is supposed to read: How much money should you or can you spend to save your dog’s life?

My sister’s dog is a cute and amazing little pomeranian…everyone loves her around the town, community, and she’s a survivor…she nearly died at 3 years old when she hospitalized for a couple days with a very low or high? white blood cell count…and doctor’s thought she’d die but she somehow miraculously made it through.

She’s now 14 and still so sweet and wonderful. But a few weeks ago she apparently had an injury to her eye. It was not noticed by anyone in our family until a little glaucoma or something appeared in her cornea? She went to the vets several times over the next few weeks and it seemed to help but recently her eye has gotten worse and painful and she just sleeps now and her attitude is down…the eye is whitish, and I think vision is impaired…the eye specialist gave her $500 worth of meds to take and if it doesn’t improve after 6 days, she’ll need to have it surgically removed to save her life. If we don’t do the surgery, the infection will spread to her brain or something and basically kill her. So it’s either pay up and do the surgery and remove the eye or don’t pay and just call it her time.

Most poms can live up to 14-20 years. But 14 is old even though she has nothing else wrong with her and is usually still very active and loves to go outside. She always wakes my sister or parents up at 4 am or 5 am to go outside…

So the big question now is, what to do. The eye surgery costs $7,000 dollars. With hospitalization and medication, it could run up to $10,000.

Now if you are filthy rich, this is nothing and a no brainer. But for the average middle to low income family like us, $10k is a lot of money. Do we love her? OF COURSE like a family member. But can we afford 10K? Not really. My parents are retired, my sister works only part time…she can’t handle the cost. I told her I would pitch in and help but this really makes me think on a moral/ethical debate…when is too much too much? Of course we love her, but she’s also just a pet/dog. She’s 14 already and nobody knows how much longer she’ll live. She may live 5 more years or she may live 1 or 2 more years. We also don’t know if she will survive the operation. It’s possible after paying 7k for the surgery, that she doesn’t make it out of it and dies and we are left with a hefty bill to pay.

To me, my parents and sister’s well-being and financial security is more important than our lovely pet dog. I don’t want them to put themselves in major financial stress out of their love for the dog.

But not paying for the surgery almost makes us feel guilty and very awful like we are letting her die or choosing to let her die and it almost seems like we’d be at fault and negligent…somehow responsible for her death. So I’m trying to figure out what the morality or ethics is behind these kinds of decisions as I’m sure millions of families who have beloved pets like dogs who they consider as family…

I know there are thousands of these cases and stories out there…I just wonder how many actually decided to let their pet go and not pay even if they could pay…when is too much too much? I’m pretty sure (90%) that we will still pay for the surgery if it is required. They love her too much, but I also see how stressful and difficult it’s going to be and it may affect my family’s health in the long run…I don’t know.

I need some advice and help on this.

2

Nobody can answer this question but the dog’s owner.

3

Of course, the final decision is always with the dog owner.
But I guess the same could be said for a dying human / family loved one.

I’m trying to get at the moral or ethical part.

For example, if you had, $100,000 saved up as your life savings and your mom or dad
was 70 years old and got sick and needed some treatment that would cost $100,000,
of course you can pay it and get them saved…but is this something even the parent would want?
I’d imagine most parents would think this is wrong. They would tell their kid not to blow all their money
just to save them because they are old and don’t want to burden their own child’s future and would tell
them, let me just go and I will be in peace knowing you will have a secure future.

This kind of thing.

What is the right thing to do? Who is right and who is wrong? If you don’t spend all your money to save
your parent, are you guilty for letting them die while you had the money to save them? Is the parent
right to sacrifice themselves and say since I’m already old, just let me die and don’t spend your money
because it will only burden the rest of your life because of me…etc. I can’t see what people actually do
in this case? Obviously millions have done this already but for some reason, I never hear about it or know
any stories of what people did? Is it expected that you are supposed to save them despite putting yourself
in great financial ruin for the rest of your life? Or is it cowardly or selfish to not even save your own parent
despite the financial costs and burden? I mean, I guess if they were only 40 or 50, that’s a different story…
I dunno…

I know that for a parent to save their child, they’d easily be willing to go 500k in debt and pay back the money
for the rest of their lives or ANYTHING to save their child. No amount of money would ever be right or responsibile
to say that you will let your child die because you can’t afford it or willing to spend the next 40 years of your life
working your ass off 3 jobs, 16 hours a day to pay it back til you are 90 years old.

4

I think you have established that no matter how much a pet is loved, it’s not “like one of the family.” No one would do this for a dog.

Personally, I have really loved several dogs throughout my life, but when they’re ready to go they’re ready to go. I could afford $10,000 to save my dog, and I might consider it for a 3 year old, but never for a 14 year old. 14 years is a good run for a dog. In my view, a family with limited resources should not spend a large amount keeping an old dog alive. I don’t care if they do, but since you’re asking for opinions, that’s mine

5

What do you want, a formula?

Some simple way to calculate the maximum amount to spend? It’s not going to happen. Everyone is different.
We don’t have kids, so we probably spend more on our pets than other people would. Still, I would not spend $10K to prolong a 14 year old dog’s life. But, I might spend $3K.

It all comes down to how much the pet means to you, and how much $10K does.

6

I love our dog, but we simply can’t afford the surgery. It would be too much of a hardship. She is 14 years old. As heartbreaking as it is, we will put her down humanely.

I love our dog and even though she is 14, I’m not ready to give up. We’ll pay for the surgery even if it means sacrificing some things this year.

I love our dog, but she is 14, and 7k is too much to spend on an elderly dog, even though we can easily afford it. There are too many people suffering in the world to justify it. We will put her down humanely and donate the money to Doctors without Borders. It’s heartbreaking but it’s the right thing to do.
All these answers are correct.

7

All I can say is what I would do. I have owned dogs all my life. We have two right now.

14 years is already around the natural lifespan of your dog. You’ll be lucky if she lives another 2-4 years even if she were perfectly healthy now. You are putting the dog through scary surgery, probably a long convalescence, and the dog may not fully recover. If she doss, she will have to learn to live with one eye, and probably won’t be around much longer anyway. I would not do it. I would not do any major surgery on an old dog.

You said you aren’t wealthy, and this money would hurt. That $10,000 would make a lot of difference to you or your loved ones when they become sick and infirm. Put the money in a fund in rememberence of your dog, and some day you’ll be able to use it more effectively for someone you love.

8

You should also consider the welfare of the dog. She can either go peacefully at 14, having lived a normal full dog life, or you can take increasingly heroic measures to keep her alive, at the expense of putting the dog through a series of painful and frightening events followed by a convalescence, only to maybe give the dog a couple more years.

9

Call me cold-hearted, but I would certainly never spend $7,000 - $10,000 on a dog’s eye surgery, especially a dog that is already almost a hundred years old in dog-to-human years. I would hesitate to spend even a small fraction of that.
It’s not that I don’t like animals, but in the list of financial priorities, it ranks very low, IMHO, especially during the many pressing needs that come up during a pandemic + recession.

10

Yes, good point.

11

Start by assessing the dog’s overall health and happiness before this happened. Next, discuss the prognosis. Will this procedure solve the problem, or is it risky with a low likelihood of success. As a first option, if she’s otherwise healthy and the procedure will solve the problem, then see where else you can go for the eye surgery. We recently had both eyes surgically removed from our Pomeranian (long story, which I will share if anyone wants to hear it). It cost $3000, so you’re paying too much. (I live in the Bay Area, so it’s not like vets are cheap here.) You might try calling your nearest veterinary college. They might either recommend a better choice, or have you bring her there. Costs should be lower and there’s a wider range of experts there.

You should also look into other ways to pay for this, if your sister absolutely wants to proceed. There are services that specialize in veterinary loans for emergencies, which would allow payments over time. Your sister may be able to afford these on her own.

My personal opinion is that if you adopt a pet, then you are signing up for all their expenses including medical. A pet is not a toy that you can get rid of lightly. You are responsible for their care. If you can provide appropriate medical care to your pet, you should do so. Note that thought for their quality of life for that pet is also the owner’s responsibility.

12

Yes, this. Unlike a person, your dog doesn’t understand what is happening to her. She doesn’t understand that you are putting her through a scary and painful experience in order to save her life. And she’ll never understand. If you put her through the surgery and he lives, she won’t understand that the alternative would’ve been death. She’ll never understand why you did that to her.

It sounds like she may be in pain now, or at least a lot of discomfort. I think putting her down is the compassionate choice.

13

Some questions have no good answers. You’ll have to choose one of the bad ones. I don’t think anybody else can solve this for you.

I agree that the dog’s chances of having significant good time left after the surgery has to be one of the factors. If you trust your vet., talk to the vet. about that; it’s going to depend on the condition of the particular creature, not just the age.

I will add that 10K sounds awfully high to me also. You might well want to look into other estimates.

14

A cousin spent $2000 to save a (to me) undistinguished cat who died anyway. :smack: MrsRico and I had to seek drastic help for two dogs, but in both cases, their long-term vets provided much care for free, so neither cost us more than a couple hundred bucks.

Our HILF (Highly Intelligent Life Form) supercat was obviously failing at 15 years. We sorrowfully had to put her down. The vet consoled us: “You do everything right, and this is how it ends.” That’s our guidance. Do what’s needed for health and comfort, and know when to say goodbye.

15

If you own a pet I believe your responsible for some reasonable amount health care costs at the end of its life but $7,000 dollars? I’d be looking at a second opinion,I’m in a different country however below are some basic costs.
https://www.finder.com.au/pet-surgery-cost

16

Yeah - IIRC, it cost us around 270 to put Buster down in January - including the cremation. He was 11. The was better spent on our new pup - Lincoln.

But every pet owner makes their own decision. 2 dogs ago, w/ Daisy, we were nickled and dimed into more than I thought I would spend on an old dog. After I approved one final surgery, during the prep, they found pervasive cancer. So we cancelled the surgery, took her home, gave her pain pills, and put her down when we felt appropriate.

As with many - if I were stupid rich, I MIGHT pay $10k on a young dog - in certain circumstances. I would be very shocked if I paid it for a 14 yr old.

17

I had an Uncle who paid for surgery for his pet turtle that had some kind of cancerous tumor, I guess he really loved that turtle.

If I was a millionaire I still wouldn’t spend $10,000 to save a one year old dog. Probably anything under a grand I would consider ok.

18

I wouldn’t do it again for a 14 year old dog. My dog was about 14 when he had a growth of some sort removed. The wound didn’t heal properly and he ended up with a sort of pressure sore. Some special wound healing treatment that involved hospitalization for a week or so cost about $6000 and he was fine for a month or two afterwards. Then one day, he couldn’t get up. Back to the vet- apparently it was because of arthritis so we got a lifting harness to help him get up and walk. We also found out at this point that he had a tumor ( I forget where). The harness worked for a couple of weeks - and then another sore developed because he was spending too much time lying down. At that point, we put him to sleep. I was unwilling to spend another $6000 because it only would have happened again and if I had known the first time that he would only get a couple of good months out of it , I wouldn’t have put him through it at all.

19

Deciding what care for a pet is enough/too much is a painful individual decision.

We agreed to one round of chemotherapy for our Lab diagnosed with lymphoma. She came through it pretty well and followed by inexpensive steroid treatment was with us for about another year and a half. We didn’t want to go another round of chemo after the first remission ended. That was based on the potential for only around 3 months of extra life, putting the dog through treatment again and expense.

There are people who would be up for unlimited spending to save a beloved pet. I wouldn’t argue with them, as long as the animal isn’t miserable.

20

First, I’m very sorry to hear it. I know a woman who told me that when she thinks of God, she always thinks of a dog because that’s unconditional love. They bring out the best in a lot of people.

All that said, I’m always fearful of a sort of a domino effect or a Dr. Frankenstein scenario or a Las Vegas moment.

domino: They’re operating and discover other problems. “Well, if you fix this then you better fix that while your at it. That costs $$$ over and above.”

Frankenstein: Heroic lifesaving measures may go too far, and remember to factor convalescence into that. It’s harder and harder to bounce back as we (and dogs) age

Las Vegas: You’ve already lost (spent) this much…you can’t walk away from the table now or that money was just wasted.

And of course there are no guarantees in any of it.

We coughed up $3700 to get or lab’s stomach fixed (it “flipped”) a few years ago. The first thing the vet said to us in the E.R. was, “If you put her down, it doesn’t make you bad pet parents.” We asked, “What would you do if she were your dog?” He said he thought she had more years in her and if we could afford it, ok. But until we got pup home I was holding my breath for something like, “Now she needs six months of this medication that costs, ah, $1000 per month.” Anyway it went well…no further problem and she’s snoring on the couch as I type this.

Mrs. L had some dogs before we met and spent some money she didn’t have. She generally regretted the pain she put them through more than the money it cost. So OP, I know it’s hard to lose a fur baby but I think you should let Mother Nature reclaim her own. You got 14 years—not bad. Some get more, but some get less and it would never be enough in any case. What’s the quote? Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened?