# How money should you can you spend to save your dog's life? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 18, 2020, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059 "2020-04-18T16:23:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/21 "2020-04-20T07:21:13Z")
Many years ago we had a heeler-cross, Jack. Jack adopted us one day as a stray in the university carpark…he’d been neutered and had basic manners and was about 3 years old. Jack was the most amazing dog ever. He loved the kids and patiently allowed them to tug on his ears, nose and tail. He never barked inside the house and he was my faithful friend for many years. Then one day Jack couldn’t jump into the back of my car. His tummy was distended, and the vet diagnosed liver cancer. I was a single mum with four kids. The treatment, not likely successful, was going to cost many thousands of $$. Money I didn’t have. We had Jack put down. I still tear up today, 30 years later. But even if I did have money a’plenty, I wonder if I wouldn’t have chosen the same course? At the end of the day, despite how much we love our pets, they are lesser animals without the sense of impending death that humans have. Give your animal a good life, love it muchly, then you will know when the time is right for your pet AND yourself. Take care. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/22 "2020-04-20T10:44:33Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > 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. > [@Jackmannii](#): > > 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. Both posts are good advice that I agree with. FWIW, if only as a point of reference, I can relate two experiences, my own and that of a friend. When he grew older, approaching 10 which is quite old for a Bernese Mountain Dog, my dog starting developing a neurological problem that made it increasingly difficult for him to get up by himself without the aid of a harness, and eventually intermittently difficult for him to walk. I mention “neurological” because it was a painless condition – there was nothing wrong with his legs, but the signals from his brain just weren’t reaching them properly. I was rather financially stressed at the time but I did everything I could. My vet sent him to a specialist, who took X-rays but said that a comprehensive diagnosis would require a detailed MRI (one with a large number of images, or so-called “slices”, to allow an accurate 3D reconstruction). Needless to say, none of this was cheap – by this point we’re talking several thousand dollars just for a thorough diagnosis. I had no regrets – he was family, he was my best friend, he was irreplaceable. Sadly, the specialist concluded that a neurological operation would not be feasible. In desperation, at this point cost being the last thing on my mind, I took him and a CD containing all the MRI images to a veterinary college hoping that some new research or experimental treatment might give him a chance. After analyzing the data over a few days, they concluded that the only possible surgery would have a very poor chance of success, and that if I didn’t want to put him down the best course would be to keep him on the medication that somewhat managed the symptoms and keep him comfortable. In the end, one day he just stopped eating. Wouldn’t even touch his favorite treats. Later that afternoon I found him lying in one of his favorite spots just beside the patio door, a beam of sunlight shining down on him. He was dead. Say what you will, I believe he had just given up the will to live. I will also add that back in his puppyhood and in his doggie adolescence, under some conditions he exhibited what was diagnosed as fear-aggression. He was very shy with strangers but happy to play with them if they wanted, but he could sometimes snap at people he knew if he felt threatened, like if he had been bad and taken one of my books to gnaw on, and someone tried to take it away from him. One vet – not my regular vet, but a stand-in for him when he was out of the office – suggested that he could be dangerous and should be put down. I consider this a particularly stupid and insensitive vet, and I’m certainly glad I ignored his advice. Instead, I hired a professional trainer and the combination of training and the dog growing older and more mature solved the problem and we had many, many loving years together that are among the most memorable of my life. Lest my point go unnoticed, it’s that some vets are far too quick to suggest that a pet be put down when remedial solutions are possible. My other anecdote is about a friend who is also financially stressed. She discovered that her young dog (less than two years old at that point) had a tumor of some kind that would inevitably be fatal, but the required surgery would cost something like $15,000. She could not bear to say no, and the dog successfully recovered and is with her still. There is no moral here – just an anecdote. As the wise posters I quoted said, it’s very much an individual decision, and frankly I told her that in her financial circumstances it was a stupid decision. But she did it and is all the happier for it. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/23 "2020-04-20T11:16:45Z")
Two years ago I spent about $6,000 on chemo for my Best Cat Ever who had cancer in several organs. The chemo was supposed to work for only 1 or 2 months, but it kept him alive for 11 months, much to the amazement of the oncologist. He was happy and active throughout the 11 months, and never knew he was sick until the end. I’d do it again in a heartbeat if I could afford it, but I couldn’t now. YMMV, of course. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/53a042/32.png) [@cornflakes2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes2)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/24 "2020-04-21T07:26:36Z")
Wow! Thank you guys so much for all those replies and sharing your own experiences! I wasn’t expecting that. These were some of the best answers I’ve read anywhere on the internet. This forum is really filled with a lot of sincere and wise folks! I love the wisdom and the reasoning you all put in your answers and I agree 100% (to everything lol). She doesn’t have any other serious health issues we know of. She’s really active and loves to go out. She behaves normally when the eye isn’t bothering her. Even though she is 14, she doesn’t appear to be on the way out. If were showing lots of signs that she was failing healthwise, I think it would definitely be easier to let her go naturally and be happy we had a good 14 years with her. It seems really hard to put her down when she looks like she is really fine and could go another few years. She actually still looks like a puppy. People are always shocked when they find out she’s 14. I should post a pic but I think you can’t in this forum? I have to upload it somewhere else and provide a link? So we are going to find out on Friday what is going to happen and then make the decision. If the ultrascan(?) shows it’s not that deep and no surgery required, the eye can be saved. If it shows that it has to be removed to save her life else infection spreads, then we have to make the tough decision. I will definitely keep you guys updated on it and maybe some good thoughts/wishes/prayers would be helpful? I’m hoping for the best news but being prepared also for the worst. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/25 "2020-04-21T15:32:19Z")
I am embarrassed to admit that my family spent ~ $4k on two cats. They were both less than 1 year old. The first cat ripped her stitches out after getting spayed and we found her with her internal organs hanging out of her body. We spent around $1,500 on the surgeon who cleaned her up and put her back together. About 2 months later her sister swallowed a string that distributed itself through her intestines. Here intestines were bunched up like a hair scrunchy and she was in really bad shape. We spent ~$2,500 on the surgeon to make multiple incisions into her intestines to snip the string and pull it out. Both cats lived for another 12 years until one was eaten by a coyote and the other by a bobcat\*. Personally, I think it is pretty stupid to spend this much money on a pet. I loved those cats and it was more palatable because they were so young, but the vet in both cases gave them less than a 50% chance of surviving the surgery. The odds with the money just did not make sense to me when we had bills, retirements to fund, college funds to build, and vacations to take. My wife and daughters thought it was necessary however and it wasn’t a hill I wanted to die, or even put up much of a fight on. \*As an aside, we no longer have outdoor cats. We moved these cats from near downtown Denver out to a suburban environment at the edge of the city (Golden). The cats seemed to mostly leave the birds alone, but would hunt rabbits, mice, and rats like the little serial killers they were. This activity was mostly beneficial in my opinion; our neighborhood is fully packed with bunnies and had a rat problem for a couple of years (I never knew that rats were everywhere, but they are!). Due to the thriving bunny population, cats and small dogs don’t live long in our neighborhood due to the coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions, owls and eagles that come to feed off them. One of our neighbors had a cottonwood tree fall over that had a gigantic bald eagle nest in it and when they cleaned it up they found 14 collars. We now have another set of cats and have come to the realization that it is wrong to let them outside in this environment. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/26 "2020-04-21T21:09:44Z")
> [@cornflakes2](#): > > She doesn’t have any other serious health issues we know of. She’s really active and loves to go out. She behaves normally when the eye isn’t bothering her. Even though she is 14, she doesn’t appear to be on the way out. If were showing lots of signs that she was failing healthwise, I think it would definitely be easier to let her go naturally and be happy we had a good 14 years with her. It seems really hard to put her down when she looks like she is really fine and could go another few years. She actually still looks like a puppy. People are always shocked when they find out she’s 14. I should post a pic but I think you can’t in this forum? I have to upload it somewhere else and provide a link? > > So we are going to find out on Friday what is going to happen and then make the decision. If the ultrascan(?) shows it’s not that deep and no surgery required, the eye can be saved. If it shows that it has to be removed to save her life else infection spreads, then we have to make the tough decision. > > I will definitely keep you guys updated on it and maybe some good thoughts/wishes/prayers would be helpful? I’m hoping for the best news but being prepared also for the worst. FWIW: I had a cat with a similar eye infection issue. Medication worked. I would have paid for surgery if he’d needed to have the eye removed (again, I wouldn’t have expected it to cost anything like 10K), but it wasn’t necessary. May it not be necessary in this case either. Life spans are on average longer in smaller dogs; and vary with the individual. The cat we had when I was a child, and who was often taken for a kitten when she was around 17, made it well into her 20’s. > [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](#): > > We spent around $1,500 on the surgeon who cleaned her up and put her back together. About 2 months later her sister swallowed a string that distributed itself through her intestines. Here intestines were bunched up like a hair scrunchy and she was in really bad shape. We spent ~$2,500 on the surgeon to make multiple incisions into her intestines to snip the string and pull it out. Both cats lived for another 12 years [. . .] The odds with the money just did not make sense to me when we had [. . .] vacations to take. I’d rather have the cats, or the dog, than a vacation. Or even multiple vacations. ---
**Author:** ![ginman999](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@ginman999](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ginman999)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/27 "2020-04-23T17:19:10Z")
I had a 6 month old Bulldog that went lame in the back legs, saddest thing to see him drag himself in the snow. I put 8K on a credit card for him to have spinal surgery. 2 years latter he is fine. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/28 "2020-04-23T17:32:54Z")
Another thing you might do is call around and see if you can find another vet who will do the surgery for less. Vet pricing varies a lot, and if you can find someone out in the country that will do it for half or less the price . . . well, that’s worth a couple hours in the car. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/29 "2020-04-23T18:34:46Z")
I did a little checking into the lifespan of Pomeranians. The accepted range is 12-16 years, with 14 being the average. The oldest known Pomeranian lived to be 21. So the dog in question is already at the average lifespan, and isn’t likely to live more than a couple more years anyway, with an outside chance of maybe 4-5 more years. Hopefully this info will help one way or another. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/30 "2020-04-23T19:22:03Z")
Can we look at this another way? what if, when you acquire your pet, you are told that the cost of your pet includes complete medical care for the life of your pet. How much would you be willing to pay for that pet? ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Kearsen1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen1)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/31 "2020-04-23T20:13:07Z")
> [@cornflakes2](#): > > 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. Let’s apply that to all the older, sicker populace that need lifesaving care at extreme cost … What to do ! You do what you can of course. You hire a death panel of extremely well educated dumb people on the internet all with a wildly different viewpoints to try and calculate the cost of a person’s life, what they can accomplish with 3 days more or 3 years more. I’ll go first: No dog, no pet is worth 10,000 unless as you say. 10k is a pittance to the people forking it out. If it’s a hardship, or will create financial stress, the answer is to put the dog down OR let them live out whatever life they have comfortably in your home, surrounded by those that love them. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/32 "2020-04-23T21:06:15Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > 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 The thing is, when we have to put our dogs (pets) down it is (usually) out of love. Even pretending you had Jeff Bezos amounts of money there is simply a time when we know we are not doing our pet any favors. And, as hard as it is (and it is super hard…been there), we ease them on in the most painless way we can manage for them because we love them. Would that we did the same for humans but it gets weird because maybe moving grandma off sooner means you get her house and can sell it. But never so with our pets. We see them off because it is the right thing to do and we love them. Taking my dogs (different times) to the vet to be put down is one of the hardest things I have ever done. Tore me up. But it was the right thing to do and done out of an abundance of love for them. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/33 "2020-04-23T21:16:21Z")
> [@Kearsen1](#): > > I’ll go first: No dog, no pet is worth 10,000 unless as you say. 10k is a pittance to the people forking it out. The first and most obvious fact here is that you have absolutely no logical or moral basis for making that proclamation. The OP was looking for other people’s views and experiences and most of them – certainly the wiser ones – wrote about their experiences in a non-judgmental way and regarded it as a very personal and individual decision. I would gladly have spent $10,000 or more – much more – on a neurological operation to save my dog had it been medically feasible, and that was after I had already spent thousands just on very thorough diagnoses at the best centers of expertise I could find, and I had very little discretionary money at the time. Does that make me crazy? Apparently you think so, but I would have done it _ **because it would absolutely have been worth it me** _. The reasons for that are deeply complex and I could write an entire book about it, and indeed [such books have been written](https://www.amazon.com/Pack-Two-Intricate-Between-People-ebook/dp/B003YJEXT8/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=). If you’re not capable of understanding that, then either you’ve never had a dog or have never formed that kind of bond with it, which is unfortunate both for you and the animal. You’re entitled to your opinion, but not to proclaim it as universal guidance. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/34 "2020-04-23T21:32:27Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Taking my dogs (different times) to the vet to be put down is one of the hardest things I have ever done. Tore me up. But it was the right thing to do and done out of an abundance of love for them. Absolutely. I hope nothing I said above implies that I think this was wrong. The most painful thing is to make the judgment about when is the right time. There was a beautiful article originally published years ago in the San Diego Union-Tribune about a German Shepherd named Charka that was born with severe hip dysplasia who nevertheless lived a joyful life, until it was time for it to end. I quote this part of the article: I put these words to paper to relate what I believe to be a valid observation about animals, something that should be said to you and for your pets. A wise and compassionate vet put it best: “She will tell you when it’s time.” Animals know. And they will let you know, if you care enough to listen. To grasp straws in the name of compassion, to subject an animal to empty procedure, to let love decimate reality is wrong. Hear them. Let them make it easier for you. On the afternoon of the day she died, Charka suffered a type of spasm that had first occurred three weeks earlier. In the course of these episodes, severe lower-body contractions caused her stomach to displace laterally, resulting in a compressed spleen and rapid, trapped-air bloating of the stomach itself. On the occasion of the first attack, the attending vet said it was an extremely painful situation, one usually fatal. Charka recovered from that first episode and had partially recovered from the second by the time we got her to the emergency animal hospital on that final night. As Charka lay on her chest on the examination table, while the vet explained the surgical choices to my wife, I looked into Charka’s eyes. She looked right at me. She didn’t cock her head to one side in that inquisitive, what-do-we-do next mode that German shepherds pull on you when there is a playful choice to be made or a ball to be thrown or a new word to be fathomed. Those eyes were the eyes of the ages, of evolution, of a species that doesn’t regard death in the intellectual subjective as do we. Those eyes said it was time. She put a paw on my wrist. And I was swept to a sad but privileged place. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/35 "2020-04-23T21:37:16Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I did a little checking into the lifespan of Pomeranians. The accepted range is 12-16 years, with 14 being the average. The oldest known Pomeranian lived to be 21. > > So the dog in question is already at the average lifespan, and isn’t likely to live more than a couple more years anyway, with an outside chance of maybe 4-5 more years. Hopefully this info will help one way or another. That, presumably, is average lifespan at birth. Average lifespan of Pomeranians who have already lived to 14 is going to be longer than 14. And this particular dog is described as being in good condition other than the eye problem, which seems to have been caused by a specific injury and not by any previously existing systemic problem. It’s my experience that individual cats and dogs who are in their last couple of years often – admittedly not always – get what I call the “old cat look”; they’re visibly fading, significantly less active than they were, and so on. The ones who still look and act young are likely to have more years left than those who don’t. > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > The thing is, when we have to put our dogs (pets) down it is (usually) out of love. > > Even pretending you had Jeff Bezos amounts of money there is simply a time when we know we are not doing our pet any favors. And, as hard as it is (and it is super hard…been there), we ease them on in the most painless way we can manage for them because we love them. This is true. The question is whether this specific dog needs to go at this time. This really needs to be a matter for discussion between the dog’s humans and a trusted vet. who knows the case. As far as all the people saying nobody should spend that sort of money on a dog – people, all the time, spend 10K more for a car that they like better than they’d need to pay for a car entirely adequate to get them where they’re going. People spend 10K or considerably more redoing their kitchens, even though the kitchen as it existed was entirely adequate to cook in, or could have been made so for 10K less than they actually spent. People spend 10K on vacations – sometimes on a single vacation. Some people spend 10K on a dress, or a handbag. Not everybody can afford to do any of that, of course; and some people who can afford to don’t do it. But why should a dog be worth less than a fancier car, or a fancier kitchen, or a designer dress? ---
**Author:** ![drpepper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8baadc/32.png) [@drpepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drpepper)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/36 "2020-04-24T00:42:10Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > 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. This. This is the calculus, in my opinion. If you were diagnosed with cancer, and sat down and discussed with your doctor (and your loved ones) what the recommended course of treatment is to save your life, it may include chemo, radiation, surgery, pain, exhaustion, convalescence, and so on. You know how many treatments are on the agenda, know what the future may hold in terms of discomfort and side effects, know that all this is [likely] worth it and what your odds of survival and quality of life is / will be. You make a decision whether or not all of this is worth it. You understand that, should you undertake the journey, there is a light at the other end and it is worth it. Animals know none of this, absolutely none of it. All they know is that they are in pain and it feels like torture. In all the times I’ve had to make such decisions (usually with cats), it’s usually a pretty straightforward decision based on the time frame of pain/convalescence we’re talking about and the amount of discomfort the animal would endure. A peaceful end at the vets office with you there is _so_ much of a better alternative compared to the treatment. Usually the money aspect of it doesn’t need to enter into it. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/37 "2020-04-24T01:44:47Z")
> [@drpepper](#): > > In all the times I’ve had to make such decisions (usually with cats), it’s usually a pretty straightforward decision based on the time frame of pain/convalescence we’re talking about and the amount of discomfort the animal would endure. Yes, but I’ve never had such a conversation in which surgery was automatically ruled out just because it was surgery, even in combination with age. We discussed the cat/dog’s chances of surviving long enough to have significant good time after recovery, and the chances that they would feel good after recovery. I’ve certainly had vets make it clear that a particular operation wasn’t in their opinion worth doing, even if the alternative was euthanasia. But I’ve also had vets strongly recommend surgery on an older cat or dog who they thought would gain significant good time from it. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/38 "2020-04-24T01:51:39Z")
I guess I’m the odd one out. I wouldn’t spend much to save my pet’s life. I’ve always had dogs and/or cats. I’ve always adopted them from our local shelter. When their health has sharply declined, I’ve had them euthanized. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/53a042/32.png) [@cornflakes2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes2)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/39 "2020-04-24T17:27:47Z")
I just got off the phone with my sister a couple minutes ago. They went to the eye specialist to have her eye checkup and we got good news. The doctor said that her eye has been healing and is 75% positive that her eye will not be lost and she will be able to recover. He said that the ulcer now wasn’t as deep as they first thought or that it wasn’t getting deeper but even receding and cells have been regenerating(?) in the eye area so they will continue the meds for the next 2 weeks and keep the cone on her and check her again in 2 weeks. This is amazing news! ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059/40 "2020-04-24T19:24:14Z")
> [@cornflakes2](#): > > I just got off the phone with my sister a couple minutes ago. They went to the eye specialist to have her eye checkup and we got good news. The doctor said that her eye has been healing and is 75% positive that her eye will not be lost and she will be able to recover. He said that the ulcer now wasn’t as deep as they first thought or that it wasn’t getting deeper but even receding and cells have been regenerating(?) in the eye area so they will continue the meds for the next 2 weeks and keep the cone on her and check her again in 2 weeks. This is amazing news! Great to hear it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-money-should-you-can-you-spend-to-save-your-dogs-life/852059.md?page=3)