Reply to did/would you put your older dog through chemo?

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[quote=Anonymous]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.[/quote]

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