Aug 28, 2009
in one of my posts (i think it was moms fireplace) i told about finding a sore on rufus' rectum. (1-16). worried i got him into the vet the next day where
the vet thought he had a tumor in his anal glands, but just to make sure that it wasn't infection he gave rufus antibiotics, but to tell you the truth both
the vet and i didn't think it looked good as rufus is an old 13 year old dog.
we really thought that this was it for rufus and doing a biopsy and possible surgery on a dog that age would cause him extreme pain and of course anasthesia is always dangerous in old dogs.
so i was at a real dilema on what choices i would have to make.
i didn't want to worry mom, but it is her choice so i had to discuss it with her and see how she felt about it and would want to do.
mom is like me and all she said was that she never wanted him in pain or suffering that she feels it's more humane to put a dog down before they suffer.
great.
i know her wishes, but it's still my call...and on her dog not mine.
so rufus got thru his antibiotics and yesterday i had to take him to the vet for a re-check.
without much hope for rufus, yesterday (1-26) I loaded him up and off to the vet we went.
wanting more information, i quizzed my vet on all my options before i even had him check rufus out.
doc said that the surgery if we chose would be hard on rufus and that the recovery time would be extremely painful.
that made my decision that we wouldn't have surgery.
so i asked him if my decision not to do surgery why bother with a biopsy (that rufus would also have to be anesthetized for also) and doc agreed that there was the danger of anesthetizing him and if i had chosen not to do a surgery that there would be no use for a biopsy.
doc said that we could just treat the symptoms and keep rufus comfortable as long as possible and let him live out his life with quality and when he started showing pain or loss of weight that we could put him down.
that sounded like the best thing to me.
once we had made that decision, doc proceeded to check the anal glands to see where we stood.
we really thought that this was it for rufus and doing a biopsy and possible surgery on a dog that age would cause him extreme pain and of course anasthesia is always dangerous in old dogs.
so i was at a real dilema on what choices i would have to make.
i didn't want to worry mom, but it is her choice so i had to discuss it with her and see how she felt about it and would want to do.
mom is like me and all she said was that she never wanted him in pain or suffering that she feels it's more humane to put a dog down before they suffer.
great.
i know her wishes, but it's still my call...and on her dog not mine.
so rufus got thru his antibiotics and yesterday i had to take him to the vet for a re-check.
without much hope for rufus, yesterday (1-26) I loaded him up and off to the vet we went.
wanting more information, i quizzed my vet on all my options before i even had him check rufus out.
doc said that the surgery if we chose would be hard on rufus and that the recovery time would be extremely painful.
that made my decision that we wouldn't have surgery.
so i asked him if my decision not to do surgery why bother with a biopsy (that rufus would also have to be anesthetized for also) and doc agreed that there was the danger of anesthetizing him and if i had chosen not to do a surgery that there would be no use for a biopsy.
doc said that we could just treat the symptoms and keep rufus comfortable as long as possible and let him live out his life with quality and when he started showing pain or loss of weight that we could put him down.
that sounded like the best thing to me.
once we had made that decision, doc proceeded to check the anal glands to see where we stood.
well said... i've seen too many people let a dog suffer and i have always felt
that i wouldn't want to live that way...maybe because i don't fear death...but i think it is selfish and not thinking of the animal at all.
).
