Three years ago we fell prey to the cute puppy syndrome. Our neighbour brought over their new puppy and somehow a few days later we found ourselves the family to his litter mate/sister. We had talked about a pet dog for a number of years so it was not completely spur of the moment decision. Both Chris and I had dogs as children and wanted the kids to experience that connection as well. We knew dogs were expensive and a big responsibility. One of my 'pet' peeves ; ) is when people do not take pet ownership seriously enough and have animals coming in and out of their home on a revovling basis. If you are going to buy a dog it is a lifetime commitment. Of course there are circumstances where life happenings mean you have to move a dog to a different family but inconvenience shouldn't be one of them. Know what you are doing when you buy a dog!
As much as we love our dog Willow, a shiny black lab, we also still see her as a dog and understand that we will have to make decisions for her health and possibly her death that we would never have to make for a family member. That doesn't make it easy though. We know that the pocket book is not magically without a bottom. There is a bottom line for us with our pet.
This past year seems to be stretching that bottom line some. Last winter she suddenly fell ill and we had to utilize the vet services. She was vomitting blood and generally unwell. Many hundreds of dollars later we find out no reason behind it but she gets better. Can you really put a dog down for a week of vomitting blood? We couldn't. Not long after she somehow injures her leg and it is bck to the vet to figure it out. Many more hundreds of dollars later we find out she may have hip dysplasia. Now this was a case of a vet who just didn't listen as I expressed loudly that I doubted it was the hips since she was only lifting the one leg. When we have to go back a month or so later because she was still limping we pay more hundreds of dollars to find out that no it was not the hips but rather a common lab injury where they tear the ligament in their knee. We were referred to a big city vet surgeon and the surgery would be about $4000???????? Yes that is crazy.
I read up on a more conservative method of healing, aptly called conservative management. We could not see sinking $4000 more than we already had into a dog. Conservative Management entailed very very restricted movement for at least 8 weeks and likely more closer to a year. She did well on that and lived pain free, but was not healing to the point of being able to run ever again. She is an active or was an active 3 year old lab, who adored running in the water at the beach and playing with her incredibly active brother next door. We came across some info on a vet we used to take her to. He performs the surgery we need at a lower cost than the big city vets. Why didn't our new vet recommend this local vet??? Good question and I would love an answer to that one day. After talking it over we decided to give her a life of activity. In part I must admit I wasn't too keen on taking her out to pee on a leash for the next 10 years.
We are now just passing the first week post surgery and I think she is doing well. She looks like she has a punk hairdo, has an 8 " incision and is quite sedate but happy.
The cost of the surgery was a big stretch for us even if it was much lower than the original plan and I don't know if we would have done it if she were older and moving on in years but we made the decision to put the investment into our dog. Now the challenge is to keep that investment safe and making sure she doesn't damage herself during the long recovery period.
The things we do for our animals :D
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| Willow the happy lab |
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| Willow the punk lab |
WARNING GRAPHIC INSICION SHOT
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