Letters to the Editor
Geoffrey Prentice
Published Letters: 3
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Large Animal
[Read the article: What I wouldn't do for my cat]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]or Farm Vets generally do not lay the uncaring owner guilt trip on owners in my experience. It is only with small animal vets that I have come into the ordering expensive tests (which is great how far the science has advanced) or procedures.
That being said, we've adopted through basic crisis endurance a fifteen hundred dollar limit on our older animals. An otherwise healthy but older cat with a heart murmur who was in respiratory distress Thanksgiving Day two years ago was our first experience, but thanks to a relatively inexpensive combo of daily medicines (including the same 2x week buffered baby aspirin regimen I am on!) she has had no further adverse effects other than fleas brought in with the seasonal field mice invasions. A favorite older dog was the next case but after emergency treatment an ultrasound showed tumors on his spleen -- even with extraordinary measures we would have only months -- the monetary decision was easier as was the euthanasia decision. Yet that hurt extremely as he was a shelter dog who languished there for a year-and-a-half due to the fact that no one found this extraordinarily gentle hound mix attractive enough to adopt despite weekly trips to the local pet superstore.
I guess we've come to a rough measure between money and suffering, between above-average and heroic means, all while considering the age of the animal to make our decisions (both were 11 to 12 at the time). Does it hurt? Is there guilt? The loss hurts all the time as simply typing this moves me to tears and I am still given to the "what if" question. But we also take the approach that there are many unwanted animals out there who can help assuage that loss and bring a vibrancy back into our lives.
I have not, however, had to make the decisions when faced with a relatively young and healthy animal who has been in our lives a short time.
I also think of myself not as my animals' parent -- I have an 18-month-old boy -- but as their life partners for wherever and for how long that will take each of us.
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McAuliffe looks shocked
[Read the article: 50 superdelegates ready to endorse Obama?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Very interesting.