16 years old yorkshire with kidney faillure and heart murmure

11 years ago

My 16 years old yorkshire is sick. We did blood test, x-rays. The vet detected a kidney faillure (really bad she said) and heart murmur.

I paid 600 in total (with a little small treatment for the weekend)
She want us to do a sonogram wich cost a lot (2 one of 400$ one of 245$).
They keep try to make me do more exam to determine how much more it will cost to treat my dog and how bad his the heart and kidney... Now they told me that it will cost me 1400 ( sonograme and 2 days treatment at the pet hospital included)
I don't know what to do. I want to treat my dog but is the sonogram that important? I rather pay the treatment Im tired of those expensive exam (also Im not rich and famous to be able to pay that)
Im thinking to go see another clinic to see if there they can do something...
He is throwing up right now and shaking :s Im about to jump into the car and go to the pet emergency room Im scared he don't make it till the morning that the vet open

Comments (4)

dzyg
11 years ago
SO sorry you are going through this. From my experience with kidney failure (3 different people 3 different dogs) even with treatment they didn't make it. One of the dogs was only 4 years old too. Kidney failure of course is different than kidney problems which can be treated. I am not sure what I would do in your case...16 years is old...I am sure he had a great life. I would do anything for my dogs of course as I am sure you would but if money is an issue and you know you may spend alot and still have your dog pass away...I think it is time for you to decide if it is time.....it is a very very hard thing to do. I had to do it for my 16.7 yr old dog, six years ago....
I guess before I shelled out the money I would want to know what chance of survival they can give you, especially with an elderly dog, a young dog would be different. Most vets know with kidney issues if it is life threatening or not. The last person I know that had kidney failure in their dog...they treated it but the vet said, it probably won't work....they ended up having him put down. I don't have any personal experience with heart murmurs and problems though....((hugs))
alfazebra
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you dzyg.
Max is now at the hospital for the day. I changed the hospital so in the new one the vet told me straight that she will try to maintain his quality of life good till she see he is too much suffering and if he don't pass out by himself she will help him do it :s
TOOOOO HARD FOR ME TO IMAGINE THIS!!!! I love him so much! But here the treatment is a bit cheaper (hope they did not add too much on it) its like 300-360 each time he will go there well I will restrain everything in my spending to be able to do his treatment. I rather eat pasta every days and keep him alive as soon as he is not too much suffering. Im just crying to write down here but I really do hope he will fight and stay with me a lil more. I feel so bad... I wish I did every 6 months check up Im sure it would have save him its really no excuses for me even if except unforgivable mistake we did gave him the best quality of life possible he is a member of the family
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sylviatexas1
11 years ago
I'm so sorry.

Please don't beat yourself up about not being able to save him;
Nobody can save a pet, or a person, with terminal kidney or heart problems.
& I don't think there's any way to predict kidney or heart problems so you could prevent them, or any way to treat them without a lot of discomfort to the dog or cat.

& the end result would be the same.

Your guy has lived a long life with someone who adores him.

"she will try to maintain his quality of life good till she see he is too much suffering and if he don't pass out by himself she will help him do it"

You need to have a straightforward, hard discussion with your vet about what she thinks of as "too much suffering".

For my own beloved pets, I think that any suffering beyond the occasional "normal" kind of thing is too much.

Dogs & cats aren't burdened with the knowledge of mortality with which we humans are burdened.

All they know is how it feels right now.

If it's horrible right now, & you, the human, know it will never ever be healed, then I think you need to do some hard thinking about why you're keeping him here.

I've had to make hard decisions in the past, & I finally developed a sort of rule of thumb that it's better to let them go a little too early than to wait a little too late.

Again, I'm very sorry, & I wish you & your dog peace.
jannie
11 years ago
I think it's time to discuss finances with your vet. Not to ask for a discount, or deferred payments or anything, but to alert him/her you don't want to pay for a lot of testing. My vet charges a lot. She once took a small wart off my dog's leg and it cost over $2000 because she sent a piece of the wart for a pathology report. The dog was 15, I didn't want to know if it had cancer, I just wanted her to stop biting the wart and getting blood everywhere. Once I brought a different dog in for a bath and she kept it overnight and cleaned its teeth costing $1200. Well, I told her I don't want anything done without my consent ever again. She is a great vet and I trust her judgement. My current dog has 2 "lumps", one on her cheek and one on top of her head. Vet said, leave them alone.