Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a basset hound who got out and twisted and broke a leg, the leg had to be taken off and then she was a tri-pawed for several years. No problem.

But then at about 9 she was trying to chase another dog up and down stair and slipped and broke the other leg. I didn't see how the recovery process would go with no front legs in our house and our other dogs and I just had to let her go. I cried and didn't want to, but I did.

Jesus over broken leg? It would have healed in weeks

You're a bit slow, aren't you? TWO legs involved, one already removed. How does the dog exist for the (minimum of) "weeks" it would take to heal with no use of the entire front of its body?

Anonymous wrote:I would euthanize if I could not afford the medical care for my elderly pet. Perhaps you could make a "gofundme" page and all of these generous PPs can donate to the cause.

Excellent idea! OP, please post your gofundme here, so that the previous posters can put their money where their mouths are.

Anonymous wrote:No, you don’t murder your pet because they need medication and occasional vet visits as they age.

Okay, continue beyond your judgment then: what, exactly, do you do when you can't afford the care your pet needs?

I would euthanize if I could not afford the medical care for my elderly pet. Perhaps you could make a "gofundme" page and all of these generous PPs can donate to the cause.

Anonymous wrote:The expense would have to be astronomical before I would ever consider it. I have pet insurance so hopefully I won't be in this position. I would give up a lot of things before I'd euthanize my pets for financial reasons.

I mean, if you don't have the money to pay for pet insurance (that doesn't suck), most long-term illness vet bills ARE astronomical.

Clearly you're not in the same financial situation OP is describing. Lucky you.

Yes, I would. While we love pets like people (and sometimes more than people) they are not people.

Anonymous wrote:Only if you would do the same for parents or your children or spouse. You'd do that, right?

Pets. Are. Not. People.

Please get a grip.

Anonymous wrote:Without providing more information it just sounds like OP doesn’t want to spend money on the pet and doesn’t want to care for them any longer and is looking for permission to feel less guilty

Or doesn't have the money to spend. I ask again... where in a tight budget would the money come from? 30% interest credit cards? Kids' extra curricular fees? Prescriptions for people?

It can be hard to be brave, and do the right thing for an animal that doesn't have any autonomy.

Please ignore the posts comparing dogs to human children. They are probably bots bought and paid for by the private equity veterinary industry. Which is only interested in extracting as much money from you as possible, and actively plays on your guilt. This industry does NOT have the best interest of pet animals in mind. Only profit. And it uses some pretty insidious techniques to separate you from increasingly eye-popping sums.

There's a reason pets have gotten so expensive. Sure, there are think-pieces galore about increasing isolation and the crisis of loneliness, but the pets piece is at least partially by design. All that *content*, all those "cute" clothes (clothes! for animals!), the damp-eyed emotional messaging... it's a con. Or at the very least, a marketing strategy. It is deployed to change your thinking around animals, and to increase your spending. f

Short answer: love your pets, be kind to all animals, know that the time to say goodbye might be before the last breath.

Anonymous wrote:Without providing more information it just sounds like OP doesn’t want to spend money on the pet and doesn’t want to care for them any longer and is looking for permission to feel less guilty

Everyone's budgets has limits-whether it's health care for a human or a pet. If you're wealthy and choosing not to care for a pet because you want to go to Fiji, that's one thing. If you are making tradeoffs between your kid's college tuition and Fido's surgery, that's another.

We paid a fortune in a risky surgery for a beloved youngish pet, and regret doing so because the health outcomes weren't what the private equity owned vet hospital said we would "almost certainly" have and the followup treatment costs have also been higher than the vet hospital disclosed when we chose the surgery.

Anonymous wrote:Only if you would do the same for parents or your children or spouse. You'd do that, right?

FFS, you can’t seriously be equating a dog to humans? You f@cking moron.

Anonymous wrote:I had a basset hound who got out and twisted and broke a leg, the leg had to be taken off and then she was a tri-pawed for several years. No problem.

But then at about 9 she was trying to chase another dog up and down stair and slipped and broke the other leg. I didn't see how the recovery process would go with no front legs in our house and our other dogs and I just had to let her go. I cried and didn't want to, but I did.

Jesus over broken leg? It would have healed in weeks

So I'm the OP of this thread: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1299635.page

Basically the same issue, though in my case it's the time/energy more than the money that is the problem.

We got the UTI treated. She's had another issue since then.

What I've decided for all this little stuff is five strikes. Once the fifth issue pops up, then it's time to call Lap of Love. Obviously, any bigger issue may end this sooner, but my concern, like you, is the never ending small stuff once they reach old age (my girl is 15). If she has a stretch of a year or so with no issues, I'd start the count over again, but that seems unlikely at this point. Cats, like people, start to deteriorate as they get older.

Maybe that's not fair to the cat - I'm sure there are people who will think I'm awful. But she doesn't like all these vet visits and medicines and pokes and prodding either. She's lived a good life, she's still living a good life, but five is my limit. It's also made these issues more manageable, knowing it's not never-ending and there's no way I'm doing this once a month for a year.

Maybe your limit is more of a dollar figure? But having a limit helps. You've done will by this cat - you don't need to go into debt to help your cat.

Without providing more information it just sounds like OP doesn’t want to spend money on the pet and doesn’t want to care for them any longer and is looking for permission to feel less guilty

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the pet has a low quality of life because of those medical issues, then yes.

+1 its about quality of life.

Dealing with this now as our dog is almost completely blind. I’m trying to determine if they can settle into a new blind life or will forever be confused and scared.

This. I've had 2 dogs with non terminal but serious long term health issues. One adapted fine and still had a quality, but costly, quality of life. The other, their quality of life when significantly downhill. The poor thing seemed miserable. It was the humane thing to do to let the dog go peacefully and not force it to suffer.

Then again, having witnessed many people suffer from horrible illnesses, I'm a big believer in physician assisted suicide.

If the options are euthanization or put the animal in a shelter because you can't afford it, the dog is MUCH better off being euthanized.