Dogs

[go birds]

Read pages 53-56 of this thread about my dog getting hit by a car, and you will understand why I have pet insurance. I took it out almost four years ago, and after his $3.5-$4k worth of medical bills, I was only out maybe $600. If you can get a good policy with a cheap deductible right now while they're young, do it. Your rates shouldn't go up when they're older and start needing it. Mine is like $70/month, but that was because I took it out after he had some pre-existing conditions with his back legs (torn cruciate ligaments).

I pay like $70/month for him, and only about $10/month for me because I have awesome insurance at work. I just consider his premium to be part of mine, and even at $80/month I still consider myself to have excellent insurance rates.

Who do you use?

[Swirls]

Read pages 53-56 of this thread about my dog getting hit by a car, and you will understand why I have pet insurance. I took it out almost four years ago, and after his $3.5-$4k worth of medical bills, I was only out maybe $600. If you can get a good policy with a cheap deductible right now while they're young, do it. Your rates shouldn't go up when they're older and start needing it. Mine is like $70/month, but that was because I took it out after he had some pre-existing conditions with his back legs (torn cruciate ligaments).

I pay like $70/month for him, and only about $10/month for me because I have awesome insurance at work. I just consider his premium to be part of mine, and even at $80/month I still consider myself to have excellent insurance rates.

Who do you use?

Trupanion.

[Freed Roger]

Freed, take him to Manchester Vet Services. It is a million miles from my house, but SO worth it. Off 109 in Elliville.

http://www.manchesterwestvet.com/

I'm not saying this is you....I think you did the right thing for your dog.

I'm going to vent here so no need to read:
There is a segment of weird dog people out there are ga-ga hypochondriacs and spare no expense with pampering their pets. Between the dinks, and older folks with skewed pet relationships -they've created this screwed up situation in veterinary care. They drive up costs, insurance for chrissakes. Undoubtedly, catering to this crowd is where the $$ is for vets. It leaves families that love their pets as much as anyone, but have to put pet healthcare at a lower priority, in a lurch for practical affordable vet care.

We did the honorable thing - went to a vet neurologist had a MRI and all the blood work done and found out nothing, other than surgery isn't needed. I would think they'd at least know something as to why his back legs don't work. A theory would be good enough. I think this place does know what they are doing, but have botched it here. The vet neurologist we are being billed for, I never talked once to him - it was all associates and interns.

the specialist wants followup visit, probably to prescribe some [expletive] meds. but I'm so pissed at them that I won't go back. plus we don't have time now. I won't be able to go to Ellisville either. Now I'm sticking close to home dealing with our local vet, in the realm of pragmatism.

[Arthur Dent]

Anyway, I am tired of watching the little Mr. Fuzzypants struggle, and wanted to figure out if he has a tumor or something or needs a surgery or when/if we can put him down with clean conscience. The MRI didn't find anything. Blood work didn't find anything. Then they thought he may have ALS for dogs, and I was actually hopeful for this, because am told it's debilitating and fatal, but he can live for a year or so without much pain. But turns out it is not ALS for dogs.

Super frustrating. This is why I am reticent to keep pursuing this runaround, especially since in my case my dog's symptoms don't seem to have any real quality of life impact. And supposing you did determine it was ALS for dogs, I imagine the result would be the same as ALS for humans: incurable. Maybe there would be some expensive medicines or therapy or something. I dunno. I kind of wish the vet would be more willing to discus what the chances are that what they are doing will lead to some useful health outcome or therapy or something.

That said, my dog is only 8 and still has puppy energy, so if there were a reasonable and worthwhile medical intervention, I'd be inclined to do it if it would prevent a reduction in her quality of life or premature death.

[jim]

I agree with your vent freed.

[Arthur Dent]

On the pet insurance issue, I looked into it briefly, and it appeared to not be a very good deal. The premiums are significant, they are apparently aggressive about excluding pre-existing conditions, and even when it does pay, the coinsurance is high. Looking at Swirls example, which seems like something of a best case, the premiums over 4 years were $3360 plus $600 in coinsurance is already nearly $4k, about the same as the cash cost of treatment. Might be good if you prefer steady monthly bills to rare large ones, and if you do get it, it will certainly make it easier to get choose to get treatment should something happen, but in just straight dollar terms, it didn't seem like a good idea at least for me.

[Freed Roger]

Not being able to walk worth a damn has cultivated bad habits, where the dog resorts to an awful bark to get where and what he wants. Now it seems he just does it for attention. starting to pee in the house. He is probably too wore out to make the walk outside. Our kid, I'm going to have to get her to help with the dog's extra care -carry him outside a few times a day to have him pee. I figure if she is part of this extra work in keeping him going, she'll be more understandable when we have to make the tough decision.
She sure likes her dogs.





this one cracks me up. tug of war.

[slide_into_first]

One of the dachshunds we rescued had been picked up on the side of a road unable to use his hind legs. The shelter in Santa Barbara, K9 Pals, gave him acupuncture and also physical therapy where they held him in a bathtub to get him to kick. After a few months he started to use his legs. They were going to fit him for a skateboard before he started to walk. My wife read about it and had to adopt him. His legs are weak but he walks. We got him in 2010.

Freed, obviously this has no bearing on your dog but you could have your daughter try the bathtub therapy.

[jim]

Great pics freed. I've had many dogs in my life but none will come close to Dizzy, a yellow lab, who was so pretty and was such a sweetie. But mainly what sets her apart was we raised our kids with her, she grew up with them. Looks like the same kind of deal in your house.

[Freed Roger]

Freed, obviously this has no bearing on your dog but you could have your daughter try the bathtub therapy.

That may be an idea worth trying. I know my daughter would be up for it.
I don't think it fixes anything, but could get him functioning better.

the weird thing with the dog's legs is he can move them, but just lacks control -i.e. if he's laying down, he has hard time getting them back underneath himself to get moving. Or if he's sitting, they won't stay in place, they splay out sort of spread eagle. If he sees me anywhere near a leash, he still goes ape [expletive] and heads for the door, but is spinning sideways trying to get there.

I still scratch my head, how a vet couldn't figure out anything. I mean, if this were a human -and you did an MRI, ran tests - a trained eye would come up with some sort of rationale for why the legs aren't working, even if it's not definitive.

FWIW, this Dog version of ALS that was initially suspected -they ran a DNA test that confirmed he does not have it (the test can't confirm a positive though). Though the test process took almost 2 months since their lab lost their first blood sample. In other words, I don't trust this test since the symptoms sure seem to fit; especially since they say they know from MRI that there's not a tumor, herniated disk, or other physicality causing it.

[SHOW]

DM typically comes on slowly, almost imperceptibly. Symptoms generally occur as follows:
 Initial
 Loss of coordination (ataxia) in the hind limbs
 Wobbling when walking and/or rear feet knuckling over or dragging
 Mild hind end weakness such as difficulty in: walking up steps, squatting to defecate, getting into the car
 Can first occur in one hind limb and then the other
 Intermediate
 Limbs become weak; dog begins to buckle and has difficulty standing
 Weakness progresses until dog is unable to walk in the hind limbs
 Advanced
 Loss of urinary and fecal continence
 Weakness in front limbs
In general, without intervention, the dog will become paralyzed in the hind end within 6 months to 1 year.

http://www.gavetrehab.com/files/GVR-Deg ... -Sheet.pdf