did/would you put your older dog through chemo?
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Anonymous
| What type of cancer does he have? I know that some cancers can be managed much more easily than others. |
Anonymous
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We did chemo for our 8yo mid-sized mutt and would not do it again. Not a good experience for him, terribly expensive, and the time would have been better spent taking him to the water and snuggling with him.
What I *would* do is switch immediately to a raw (BARF) diet - I was so angry to discover that even premium grain-heavy dog food is a prescription for cancer. We've fed out current dog BARF for five years now and she has no health problems or vet visits except for shots. |
Anonymous
| OP, I wonder what vet you're at. There are many vets who wouldn't even suggest this. There are other vets who will suggest anything you're willing to pay for. We did the second, regretted it for the pain it caused our cat, and then found a humane vet who suggested stopping and focussing on a good end of life. |
Anonymous
| No ... this happened with my cat. I regret putting him through it -- not ony the treatment itself but the ordeal of going frequently to the vet. |
Anonymous
| Definitely not. I'd love him and comfort him until you start to see signs of deterioration, then put to sleep. No point in having his last months be in that kind of discomfort. Dogs will do all they can to hide it, as well. |
Freeman
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| No, I wouldn't either, for an older or a younger dog. We had a six year old German Shepherd that developed cancer. We were told about chemo as well, but they said that it would only extend his life by 6-18 months. He would be miserable for a large part of that time, assuming the chemo even worked at all. It was a very hard decision, but the main point for us, as others have mentioned, was that he wouldn't have known why he was suffering through it. |
Anonymous
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OP, I really feel for you. When our 8ish (not sure - rescue) yr old lab developed a brain tumor and the pricetag for the radiation was 10K, the vet apologized for telling us that treatment was even possible -- she said that it's so hard being a vet when the ability of specialists to treat (not guarantee cure, though) cancer in pets has outstripped clients' ability to pay.
We ultimately did decide to treat, but when I brought him for the CT scan to make the mask for the radiation, the oncologist said that she didn't think our sweet guy would make it through the treatment. She told me she thought he might not even make it through the CT scan and advised me to put him to sleep with me there, holding him and talkng to him, rather than risking him dying on his own, afraid, not knowing why he was being "hurt" through the treatment. I was so grateful to her, as she enabled me to make a decision that I was otherwise unable to make. In the cold light of day, I can't believe I considered spending that kind of money and putting our loving boy through the hell of treatment. She said it would have been months - months - of him feeling like crap, before he felt better. OP, I volunteer in dog rescue as a foster and tend to fall in love with and adopt older dogs, so this was the second dog our family had lost in 2.5 years. We have another 11 yr old dog whom we will likely (statistically speaking) lose shortly as well. So I know what it is like to lose a loving member of your family and how wrenching these decisions are about treatment (our last dog before the lab, we spent nearly 10K on two surgeries that didn't work and he died in the OR). I agree with the others who have replied who say make your dog as comfortable as possible for as long as possible and then let him or her go gently and compassionately. I wish we had done this for our golden who died in surgery, and I am so glad we did this for our lab, even though I had decided not to go this route. Good luck. |