My Dog Tucker
 

He's 10 years old, a black cocker spaniel who used to have orange brown eyebrows, paws and butt as a puppy, but are now fading to grey black. That's a pretty good life for a dog, 10 years but I think he can live to be 17 or so; he's really muscular, healthy and active.

That is until last month. Tucker has had seizure attacks in the past that required medication. So a month ago when he started limping my family thought it might be that. So the doctor reactivated his old meds but for the last 2 weeks he still has been limping really bad; it was getting worse. My mom took him into the vet again to be rechecked because the medication wasn't working and now they tell us he has a torn ligament. He will need medication for a long while and surgery. My family has to decide what to do----put him to sleep or go through the healing process. Of course we'd like to revive him, but personally and financially this complication comes at bad time for us, my sister almost died due to a horrible incident of Montezuma's revenge last Christmas break, my uncle won't stop smoking and his diabetes is beating him, and worse last week my grandmother has fallen on her hip and is recovering in the hospital. But this thread is on my dog Tucker.

It might be cheaper to put him down than keep up with his health problems for the remainder of his life. See, in Filipino families the animal is part of the family, sort of. Kind of. But not too much. The outlook on animals is that they were put on earth for our use, such as food and work, i.e. eat chickens and use carabaugh (like a Filipino water buffalo) for farming. I myself, call Tucker rarely by his name and mostly by "Dog." It's a very different perspective on animals that animal rights activists would probably be disgusted with. But that's how we see animals, put on earth by God to be man's utility.

But I don't want Tucker to go. I'm torn in what decision should be made. The thing is, we named him Tucker because when we visited his litter to pick out a pet he tucked himself right under my legs whre I was sitting.

That's tough, fresh. I wish I could say something to help, but everyone feels differently on these kinds of things. I am one of those crazies who would do just about anything to keep my pets with me. If he doesn't get surgery, what will happen? What will his quality of life be, either way?

Hang in there.

No, I completely understand. I have mixed feelings myself as to the appropriateness and practicality of spending thousands of dollars on animal care when there are millions of unwanted animals in shelters.

but then I think of my beloved kitty bois, and don't know what I'd do in such a situation.

I come from farm people so the friend v food or pet v tool thing is alive in me as well. Good luck man, it's okay to be attached to critters. Consider his pain when making the decision.

Shawnee if he doesn't get surgery his leg will never heal correctly and he'll just have to limp around, possibly forever.

Cloud I know what you mean, the surgery is already costing $1.5K not costing the medications for x amount of years.

Griff you probably know my dilemma well, ever had to decide on putting a horse down?

My parents brought us up to love and care for our animals, but not to view them with any real sentimentality. This is probably because they both grew up in families who kept animals for food, and also lived through London during WWII. With arbitrary death and destruction as close as the house next door you got along as well as you could, and you fed your family. Those attitudes definitely filtered down.

For example:
Our dog stopped eating and appeared listless and constantly tired - she was about 6. They took her to the vet and paid a lot of money for a full battery of tests only to find she was diabetic and had a serious heart complaint. Now this was a very easily spooked dog. She'd been the runt of the litter and although she was fine with us she was terrified of other dogs, strangers, the vet - just about everything. My parents weighed up the cost of her daily medication and the fact that visits to the vet (which made her shiver in fear and wet herself) could only become more frequent. They could have kept her alive if the whole family made sacrifices but they felt a quiet end was best for her and for us. The vet agreed incidentally.

I don't want to come across as callous, but if it's financially and emotionally difficult for your family to handle the complication of a sick pet I think their welfare should come first.

I see what you're saying, but I wonder if it will be painful, as well. Animals are incredibly adaptive, and a painless limp probably really wouldn't bother him. It's hard to know, though.

We never had horses but I've had to kill a lot of different animals. It seems like a horse would be really tough to do. Just try to figure out what's best for Tucker. Usually the vet is a good resource for advice.

Horses aren't hard to kill, it's what comes before and after that's difficult.

Time to get the backhoe.

When my kitty Pern broke his leg last month(THeres a post about it here) I wasn't sure what to do. I really could not afford the surgery that he needed. Two things thankfully came up. One: we found a vet that would take payments, and 2: my former roommate who lived with me when Pern was little paid part of the cost. Okay most of it.

On the other hand I don't know what I would have had he not helped. Ofcourse I have put down a wide assortment of pets and animals over the years. Sometimes it is just a quality of life issue.

Fresh, did Tucker get the torn ligament from one of his seizures?

I've not the faintest clue. Just started limping suddenly.

Good luck with your furbuddy, fresh.

Well...hopefully your vet can give you a good idea of what Tucker needs. If it does end up that it's too overwhelming for him, it might be the best thing to put him down.

But if it's just a matter of fixing his leg, and your family is not able to bear the emotional strain and cost, it's possible that someone might be found who could. Maybe there's a local, independent pet store in your area that could take him in, and adopt him out to someone with more resources...I know in my neighborhood, this sort of thing comes up, and with good results.

Best wishes to you, fresh.