Pug Log #5?

Question

I'm a little disappointed in the lack of response from yesterday's log, so I'll keep it open for a bit longer.
(http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aqen7IMC1FqKfpdcFyX8QFnsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071108084802AAUIReJ)

Today I want to hear about the most serious issue you've had with your dog. By this, I mean something physical. Something that required extensive vet trips, etc.

Was it an injury or a disease? Something that required surgery or serious medication?

How did you deal with it? If you don't mind sharing this, what did it cost you in the long run? How did you deal with that, financially. More importantly, how did you deal with it emotionally.
How did your dog deal with it?

Do you have any advice for the rest of us on how to avoid these issues? Especially if it was an injury. Any advice on how to prepare yourself for something like this if it were to, god forbid, ever happen?

May seem kind of morbid, but I think it's an important topic to discuss.

Winston is so pathetic....
http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i295/rachelburns/?action=view¤t=CIMG1135-1.jpg

Tony: I guess I'm hoping to raise the bar.
You could help by contributing.

I should clarify: Winston is not actually ill. At least not physically ;-P
He just likes to act like a total hambone.

The worst health issue I've had with him was that he had an ascended testicle, so his neuter required to incisions - one of which he tore a suture out of, got it infected, had to get a cone, had to give him antibiotics, neosporin, keep him penned up for a week, etc etc. Not that bad. A $300 neuter, though. Sheeeesh.

Answer 1

Well I have a pretty incredible story and it just came to fruition about two weeks ago...
Last June, Luca, my 75lb black lab, swollowed a ball. It was a squishy/squeek ball about the size of a tennis ball and I had honestly turned my back on him for no more than 10secs to say something to my husband and it was gone. So we immediately took him to the PetER near our house where they induced vomiting ($150). They found nothing and told us to watch him for a few days, if he doesn't vomit and continues to go to the bathroom then he's fine. So watched, and we waited... Two day, a week, a month... Nothing happened. We figured the ball disolved and came out in his poop.

Two weeks ago I woke up with Luca dry heaving next to the bed. I got up and low and behold... it was the ball. No joke. Four months this ball was swishing around in his stomach. It made me pretty mad because the ER obviously didn't do much but it also amazed me because he was never in any distress.

I guess the lesson learned is, no matter how careful you are, the unexpected can happen and the important thing is to not panic.

Answer 2

When I had my 2 year old Doberman spayed, we brought her home and she started to go downhill real fast. I looked at her gums and they were pure white, so I rushed her to the vet thinking it must be dehydration.
When we got there, they told me that she had bled most of her blood supply into her gut and they were trying to stop the bleeding. Turns out she has vWD, which is a bleeding disorder where they can't clot.
Anyway, they had to transfuse her twice, they had her on oxygen and an IV for 4 days until her counts started rising. I was a mess, an absolute mess. We almost lost her and I felt terrible that I didn't do the vWD test beforehand but her parents were fine and she was the last of the litter to be fixed and all the others had no problem, so I figured she'd be just fine too.
Anyway, that spay ended up costing over two thousand bucks and I was a sobbing mess for a whole week. They were testing her counts every 4 hours, so I got no sleep calling to check on her and see what her counts were. It was awful.
Needless to say, she made a full recovery and is still my baby. When they told me she may not make it, I almost died. She is my soul dog and I would have felt terrible because I should have done the vWD test prior to her spay and I knew I would have never forgiven myself. I am just so glad she is still here.

Answer 3

Actually, I'm going through a very serious issue right now.
Today, 'Buddy' our rotti/chow mix had his eye removed due to glaucoma. :(

He looks pretty bad. I'm sure that I'll be in for a bit of a shock monday when we unwrap his head.
They have his head all taped up right now, but left his good eye exposed so that he can see.
We've moved his bed to the middle of the living room, and are spoiling him pretty rotten right now. Can you picture a 92.# baby? He deserves a bit of spoiling right now.
He's such a good dog. It was VERY hard to take him in for his surgery this morning. I felt horrible.

I believe the vet cut us a pretty big break financially though.
I've known her for a long time and use to work for her dad who was also a veterinarian.
So far its cost us around 450.00 thats the surgery, bloodwork, medications, pressure tests, and a couple of exams before the surgery. I honestly thought that it would be a bit more.

My advice? Keep a close watch on ANY eye changes.
Apparently glaucoma can happen quick and most of the time medication only slows things down temporarily.
The sooner you catch it, the better chance you have.
Dont just assume that your dogs eyes are looking a little gray just because he's aging.
Dont mess around with their eyes. The eyes are so precious.
I feel so sorry for Buddy right now.

Heres a pic of him tonight:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2176/1941784525_8ab370adeb.jpg?v=0

Answer 4

My first Newf had a LOT of health issues. He had a hip replacement, surgery on both knees for medially luxating patellas (not common in large dogs), colitis, and an allergy to the staph on his skin.
The hip replacement was $3,800.
The knee surgery was $1,200 for both
It was about $50 per month for the StaphLysate injections
We spend close to $900 over the years on Adequan injections.
Hill's Rx diet w/d $45 per month
Cosequin supplement about $45 monthly.

We were YUPPIES/DINKS at the time and clearly had nothing else to spend our money on. And that was our first "kid". We loved "Rif" and would have done anything we could for him.
He was a great dog!! Went on to get his CD,WD,WRD,CGC, and did well as a therapy dog.

This boy was purchased from a reputable breeder from parents that had all the health clearances that were needed at that time. There was no way to predict that he would have so many issues. It was just NOT a good breeding that led to him!!!!!! We had done our homework and thought everything would be fine.
This is just a good example of why people need to be prepared for ANYTHING!!! The best preparations are sometimes not enough!!

Answer 5

I had a hydrocephalus chihuahua named Honeybunch. From the start we knew her condition was life threatening, that she would probably not live past a few weeks or months. Vets wanted to euthanize her. We considered it, but we knew we had to give this precious little dog a chance at a good life. Before she was put on meds to help control her condition, she would run into walls, doors, furniture, and I was scared each time it would kill her. I told the vets that we had to do whatever we could to help her live as normal a life as possible. She did pretty well on the meds. She was a happy, lively little dog with so much love to give. She touched the hearts of everyone that knew her. In the almost four years that God blessed us with her, she only had five seizures that I am aware of. Her condition worsened very quickly and she was gone before we could even prepare for it. It broke our hearts. I would take and raise another little one like Honeybunch in a heartbeat. She has a special grave in the side yard where she loved to play each day. She lives on in our hearts and in our memories and she waits for us at the Rainbow Bridge, healthy, happy and watching over us. We miss her every day. She has been gone a little over 2 years.

As for the cost of raising a dog with a debiltating illness, it was very minimal. She had several checkups a year which the vet didn't even charge us just to look at her. Except for the hydro she was a very healthy chi. The meds were not expensive at all.

What is the story with Winston? He doesn't look so bad. He's a cute little pug. Share his story with us.

Answer 6

The most serious I can think of is when my dog, Tailor, had cancer in his toe. It all started one day when he was lifting his front foot off the floor like it hurt. I looked at it and it appeared as though his toe nail had broken at the base like he had jammed his toe resulting in a serious injury. I took him to the vet and the vet noticed his toe was the size of a large marble. He thought it was possibly an infection, so he wanted to try antibiotics for a week and have me bring him back to see if that reduced the swelling. After a few days, I noticed one night he was licking at his foot furiously. I looked at his toe and noticed the toe nail was very loose like it was going to come out of his toe. I moved it around and the toe nail literally came right out of the toe....I mean the whole toe nail. There as a huge hole in his toe. It then started bleeding like crazy....I wrapped his foot and called the vet first thing the next morning. I dropped Tailor off at the vet on my way to work. My vet called me later that morning and suspected cancer. The swelling of his toe was worse and the toe itself was larger than it was just a few days ago. He recommended we amputate his toe and the faster he did it the better he said. So, I said "do it" and they did it that day. Tailor recovered very well after surgery and his foot healed very well. He got along well with 3 toes instead of 4. You would never tell he was missing a toe. The biopsy came back malignant....so the quick decision to amputate his toe waas a good one. The cancer never came back...so we got it early enough to allow him to live 6 more years until he was 15 . That was back in the year 2001, so I can't remember the cost....but you can imagine it was expensive. Emotionally, Tailor and I dealt with it very well. He was a great patient and I had so much trust in my vet, I felt confident in how we handled it. If this happened again, I would listen to my vet and do the same. I don't think there is anything I could have done to avoid this. I listened to my dog, acted quickly, listened to my vet and did what he felt was best without dilly dallying around. I didn't worrry if I could afford it....I just did it because I knew in the long run it was the right thing to do for my pet.

BTW...you have the cutest pug I've ever seen!!

Answer 7

The worst health issue we have had with our dogs was with our Dachshund. As is all too common for the breed, he has slipped at least 3 of his discs in his back. These each happened about a year apart. The first time it happened, we had no idea why he could not get up on his back legs to walk. We immediately saw the vet to discover he had slipped a disc. In his case, we have been very lucky as the paralysis was only temporary. Some dogs can be permanently paralyzed from this.

He was put on a concoction of meds, including Prednasone to get him thru this. After a couple of days, he was finally able to walk again.

After the first one slipped, the vet informed us that this could happen up to 5 or 6 times :( Even tho the stairs on our deck are very short from one to the other, my husband and I decided it best to build a ramp for our Doxie to eliminate his need to use the stairs, as this could bring another one on.

Fortunately, he did not need surgery and meds and some visits to the vet for diagnosis were all we had to do to get him thru this.

Answer 8

The most serious issue I have had with one of my dogs was that she was diagnosed with medial luxating patellas (on both knees) 3 months ago. She was put on a glucosamine supplement, and needs to take it every day for the rest of her life. The supplement costs me about $200 per year. Once she starts showing pain in her knees, she'll need to go on pain meds as well, which will add to the cost.

Eventually, she will need surgery. I have consulted two different vets for opinions, and they both think that she will definitely need it. In my area, the surgery will cost $1,000-$2,000 per knee, depending where I go. Since my dogs are everything to me, the cost will probably be in the upper part of that range since I would get her the best care I could find.

After that, she will definitely get arthritis. The plight of a badly bred dog... heartbreaking.

Answer 9

2 1/2 years ago both of our beagles were diagnosed with lymphoma. It was discovered in our male beagle (Bogie) first and then about six month later in our female beagle (Bacall) We decided to give Bogie chemo and he responsed very well. We were lucky we caught the cancer early with him and he wen into remission almost immediately. It cost around 7,000 dollars. He is still with us and doing rather well. It has returned but his cancer is very slow growing. He is on steyriods. You really couldn't tell my looking at him that he has cancer. He is active and happy.

When we discovered Bacall had cancer hers was stage five and the vets were not sure if they coulf help. But since it worked so well with Bogie we knew we had to try. It took longer but she too went into remision. It came back again 15 months later (this past February) We did chemo again and she went into remission again. However a month after her chemo was over it came back (in August) We had her until October 17 when we had to put her down. All in all we spent about 25,000 dollars. it was worth it. It was and still is hard to handle emotionally, but at least I could help them. Thankfully my husband makes a good enough living and we don't spend much of it except on our dogs (and now our child)

My advice- if you have the means chemo is great. They handled it very well. They at have hardly ever sick from. When they do get sick, the vet has pills that always help. Bacall loved going for chemo, so it couldn't have hurt.

If you don't have the means then steriods are very cheap and can give you quality time. They cost between 10 and 40 dollars a month depending on the size of your dog.

Answer 10

2 years ago when my female lab was only 2. I had a back injury and was confined to our couch. the pain was so bad I could hardly even sit up. So my family would bring me everything I needed and put it on the coffee table so I didn't need to move. In a pharmacy bag in bottles there was vicidine, ibfrun and some muscle relaxers. When we woke up the next morning the bag and bottles had been chewed up and scattered around the room. and my lab was just bouncing off the walls and her eyes were huge. we called the vet and he told me to give her peroxide to make her throw up. we could not get her to, we loaded my baby into the car and away we went. the vet made her throw up, put her on IV's and told us she probably would not make it. I was a mess. crying and shaking. We then had to drive to the ER to try to get me more meds, needless to say they would not give me anymore, because of the drug problems in our town. so I was in pain. I did not let my baby stay at the vet's overnight because noone was going to be there with her. so she came home with an IV and I stayed up all night with her feeding her spoonfuls of water. Good news she made it and all the test on her turned out negative. it was so scary thinking I was going to lose her, she is my life. it was a $2000. bill that I had to make payments on. WELL WORTH IT. My girl is still with me today and very healthy.