Million Dollar Dog

[pdub]

All those years ago, .....Spankie the Dog.....he's a mighty good dog.....

We fed him table scraps and everything else he wanted and he got so big he broke his leg chasing a ball. Rotund. Porky. Fat. Tore a ligament in his leg.

The surgery was gonna cost a thousand dollars. To me, it was a no brainer. Yeah, do it - he's a member of rthe family. Never mind we didn't "have" a thousand dollars at the time....just do it. No question about it.

Has anybody here put big bucks into a pet? Been there, done that, and I'd do it again if I have to.

[HEMI]

Re: Million Dollar Dog

If loving my pets were $,then I've got big bucks invested.

[BlackoutSteve]

Re: Million Dollar Dog

Narelle just bought a pup and there's nothing wrong with it, but I can see it being a million dollar dog the way it goes around and destroys everything.. :-\

Putting a contract on this dog will a lot cheaper. :P

[truckpuller]

Re: Million Dollar Dog

July 4th, 2005 we come home from the fireworks at our local town, there is my red heeler laying in the middle of the road, i get out of the car scoop her up and call the vet. (at 2 am). We get there and he starts looking at her and taking xrays, she is bleeding out the ears and has a boken pelvis, I asked the vet if there was any use trying, he said we should give her a chance. I said ok, I dont know how ill pay for it, he said you have always payed before, we will make it work. I show up the next day to see her and she is out of it, i called her name and she wagged her tail once or twice and that was it, i left and told them to keep me updated, i go in the next day to check on her and they told me she had passed, i about broke down there. $1200 later and i still would have spent 5x that much to have that dog back, she was amazing. Best damn cowdog i have ever seen to this day.

[kyhunter89]

Re: Million Dollar Dog

the older one is twelve, my little 70lb pup there is a year and 3 months. there priceless. you'll notice there in almost every picture of any car i have.

[pdub]

Re: Million Dollar Dog

Oh my....Truck, that's. awful ........well, that's what I'm talking about - it aint about money at all. It's about family. Pets are family,too. They sure are.

[seanm]

Re: Million Dollar Dog

Our dogs are family to us too. I know not everyone thinks that way and would just as soon let their pet die than spend a few bucks on them. Thats just the way it is.

Never take the advice for surgery lightly, do a lot of research and decide for yourself if you have time. We have went round and round with a few vets about procedures they suggested. I was amazed at the high pressure BS they tried to get us to go along with their suggestions. Find vets you can trust not to push procedures just for the money. If the pet really needs it then go for it.

One of our dogs also tore a ligament in his leg, surgery was an option we declined. He is a dog that has not tolerated anesthesia well in the past. Crating and restraint on the dog's activity, medication and proper nutrition eventually took care of the problem.

[pdub]

Re: Million Dollar Dog

In Spankie's case, the failure was horrific. A total tear. He was 75 pounds, should've been fifty (and he is now), and running like a puppy chasing the ball. We saw it on x-ray, he was not going to walk ever again without surgery. No choice, had to have surgery. Major surgery.

$1K out of pocket. I don't regret it at all. Interesting, we insure ourselves and our kids but .... the pets, you don't figure that in. But it happens. If you take good care of them.

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Million Dollar Dog

Sean there are always those surgeons who can't wait to get to cutting. They include vets too. Sometimes it's the right thing to do.

I've never had a dog long enough to get too attached. They were mostly my parents dogs. Since I've been out on my own; I've lived in rentals that don't like pets. My current job as a limo driver gives me irratic hours. Not good for a dog. I have my lil kitty. I certainly understand the attachment people have with their pets.

My Mother called me one day crying terribly. I instantly went into cardiac arrest because my 40 y/o sister was pregnant for the first time since losing her first at 20 y/o. It turns out that she had to put her 15 y/o shih szu to sleep. He had an enlarged heart and would pass out if he got excited, like when my Aunt came over. Mom wasn't this bad when she told me Dad died. I was angry at Mom for scaring me half to death and sighing relief it was the dog and not my sister. I felt bad that Mom lost her companion since Dad died.

[pdub]

Re: Million Dollar Dog

Sue Unit lost her mom and her dad both in the past two years, and that was bad enough. But I am VERY VERY worried about what it will be like when Spankie the Dog checks out. He's old. He can't last forever. I think that will be the worst. I don't think she'll be able to cope with that. That's how "big" a pet can be - everything.

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Million Dollar Dog

I understand. Be ready with the hugs.

[Mike-Casella]

Re: Million Dollar Dog

My wife and I are big Yorkshire Terrier fans. Maybe that should say "little". We have two right now, both are toy breeds with one being 4lbs and the other almost 10lbs. We've had the smallest one for a while and she needed a playmate so we picked up "Max". One month after we got him, the two of them were playing on the livingroom chair. I hear the most ungodly yelping coming from the livingroom one morning at about 5am. Turns out Max tumbled off the chair and broke his front leg in two places. Long story short, $3200.00 later he is as good as new. The Vet's have you by the short hairs when it comes to these little creatures. The choices were; Put him down. Put it in a cast and let it heal on it's own, maybe. Fix it. He's still a little gun-shy about jumping down from anything higher than knee height. We brought them to the track a few times last season, neither one of them like drag bikes and bark constantly, but are oddly quiet when we'd start up the BelAir.

[milner351]

Re: Million Dollar Dog

We certainly love our shepherd like a member of the family. Fortunately or Unfortunately - Rhonda's last dog had cancer and we never new it. One morning I fed her and let her out like I always did - but by the time I got home after work and helping a friend move - Rhonda had her to the vet and had to make the heart wrenching decision to put her down after finding she was bleeding internally and the doc didn't have any good news - surgery would like have killed her.

In that case we had to let her go, and I for one am happy that she didn't go through a lengthy illness where she had to endure allot of pain.

Our current shepherd has her faults - separation anxiety being the worst - but we all have faults, and she's firmly in our hearts now. So far she's been pretty healthy - but I'm sure we'd spend a thousand or more to keep her healthy if we need to.

I think dogs really do help us live healthier lives - I can see Rhonda's stress melt away when she plays with the dog and I know we walk more with her than we would on our own.

[DanStokes]

Re: Million Dollar Dog

I posted about Kingsford and Beaux the Wonder Dog is semi-famous. King seems insanely healthy (as is the norm for standard Poodles) but Beaux has a heart murmur that's getting worse - and he's a Senior Citizen. Our vet comes to the house (can you believe it?) and is, among other things, a human cardiologist - and a great lady. She says Beaux probably couldn't stand anesthesia so the best thing is to keep him happy and monitor him carefully, which we do. He's also on a heart med, administered with peanut butter and love. He takes it with no hassle at all. So when the time comes we'll be a wreck but we won't do any heroic intervention - he deserves better than that. For now he's doing well and mouth wrestles vigorously with his little brother, which is probably good for both.

That said, we'd spend the money if we needed to. I like having a vet that tells us the truth and lets us make the tough calls.

Dan

[JOES66FURY]

Re: Million Dollar Dog

We lost our black lab Bogart this year. He was a huge lumbering lummox, dumb as a box of rocks and as sweet a dog as anyone could ask for. He had seizures, really bad ones, I had to take him to the vet a number of times, one trip cost me 2 grand, I would safely estimate that I had 6 grand into his medical care over the years. and I would pay the 6K to have him back in asecond