What is you pet worth to you?

[My Wife Hates CIV]

than you agree with me. no surprise there.

[My Hubby Loves Civ]

I love pets, think of them as family! So I can empathize with you and your family. It isn't so much the cost at this time, it is the age of tHe animal and needing to avoid its suffering and my family having to watch. It's best to have a celebration of its life with you and pull the plug and euthanize it. It won't be any easier in the near future when it's natural time has come. If the cat was half it's age, I would be torn. Chemo at this age, will be hard on your cat and the guarantees of another year will be low.

[My Wife Hates CIV]

20g cheese hole

[rah]

I didn't make the decision. A couple of hundred probably would have been my limit. The wife just did it. *****ing about it after the fact would have done nothing.

The sad thing is that it was sudden. One day normal the next everything was different. If it helps the family handle it better, I'll keep my mouth shut.

Fortunately at this point, money isn't an issue.

[kentonio]

Keep the cat, euthanize the family. You'll save a fortune!

[rah]

When I was 30 years younger, that would have been great advice.

[DinoDoc]

And for the record, there's no way I'll agree to a couple more grand worth of surgery.

I can already see where this is going and it ends with you saying, "Yes, Dear."

[rah]

God, I hope not.

I must stay strong.

But I'm sure there will be a discussion. I will be hard pressed to keep a straight face.

[DinoDoc]

Honestly at the age of your cat and given the income you have, your main considerations are 1) the likelihood of a full recovery and 2) the happiness of your wife. You might not like it but I'd get a 2nd opinion to make sure that your wife's happiness isn't causing the animal needless suffering in pursuit of a full recovery that isn't going to happen.

[NICE MOBIUS]

You say the cat isn't in pain, but cats are very good at hiding pain...

I fear that the most merciful thing would be to put the pet down, after a short period of 'saying goodbye properly'...

[rah]

I've given up all hope of a full recovery. And I've seen cats in pain, I don't think she's that bad yet, but you're right that they can hide it.
And she was the one that made the decision on our last cat to put it down, so I don't think she will be TOO unrealistic.
And yeah, that money could have probably been put to better use, but fortunately it was from her slush fund. Traditionally I have no say on how she chooses to spend that.

[NICE MOBIUS]

Well, if there's no chance of a full recovery, then it might be better to see the cat go out on a relative high than watch it progressively deteriorate, which can happen really fast...

Just my personal opinion.

[rah]

Well I'm not a vet so my opinion on no chance of full recovery is just my opinion.

We'll see what the vet says after the latest test results are complete.

But yeah, if she gets much worse I'm sure the decision will be easier.

But for now she just seems weak but no real pain. That's the hardest since as you said, you can't really tell on the pain.

[Jon Miller]

I had a cat. He got hit by a car when he was very young (2?). My parents ended up treating him for >1k USD although if they had known that was what it would cost they wouldn't have done so (we were not well off). He was a wonderful cat. Later, when he was ~7 he drank a little antifreeze, and the vet said he had 6 months to live. We couldn't put him down, although he was sickly after that. He ended up living until he was 12, when we found his still warm body in our shared driveway upon returning from Christmas holidays (our neighbours had hit him).

Still the best cat I have ever known. It saddens me that he had discomfort due to bad kidneys for so many years though.

JM

[pchang]

I thought this thread was about ISIS expanding to kidnapping pets for ransom.