A friend called me with a quandary. Her dog - one of my Sofie's puppy playmates - has chronic knee problems. The vet was predicting that expensive orthopedic surgery might be in order. My friend was wrestling with the ethics of providing one privileged pet with hundreds of dollars in medical services while millions of animals, and children, die every year from lack of food or simple medicines.
Not long thereafter, a Star Tribune Pet Central reader told me that he had started giving his aging cat subcutaneous fluids. It seemed, he thought, like a rather extreme measure. At about the same time, another friend took her 15-year-old cat in for a checkup. The cat was diagnosed with diabetes. The veterinarian described a range of treatment options with varying degrees of expense.
All of these people were facing the question that confronts most pet owners eventually: How much is too much in providing medical care for aging or ailing animals?
Many treatment options
"You make decisions based on your love for the animal and your own circumstances," says veterinarian Nancy Balto. She notes, "As vets, we are bound to tell people all their options. We can be sued for not saying that a surgery or chemotherapy is available." On the other hand, she says, "We need to keep people from feeling guilty about their decisions. `Can' doesn't necessarily mean `should.'"
Balto says her main concern is the comfort of the animal. Beyond that, people need to rely on their own value systems to make the decision. Choosing expensive care for our own pets, if we can afford it and if it offers good quality of life to the animal, isn't selfish. "We send our kids to college and not other people's kids," she points out. "On the other hand, if the animal is old and the owners can't afford the care, they don't need to feel guilty if they opt out of treatment."
Finding a balance
Sometimes, a compromise is possible. A cat belonging to a neighbor of mine had its pelvis shattered by a car. The expensive surgery was beyond the owner's financial reach. The emergency room veterinarian suggested taking the cat home and keeping it confined to see whether it would recover on its own. Within two weeks, the cat had resumed near-normal activity. "Young cats or cats with simple fractures will often recover on their own. That's just the way cats are," Balto says. She adds, "That won't always work. But if the alternative is euthanasia, it's worth a try."
