How much would you pay for a pet's surgery?

[Jstpssng]

^^^^^ Between you and your neighbors, it sounds like he was a lucky dog. When I got my pup he was 25 lbs underweight, had lungworm, and had spent the first year of his life on a chain. I literally had to teach him how to be a dog.
I finally took him to my vet this week, and somehow his knees seem solid. He's on pain meds and staying home for two weeks, then if he still is in pain will have xrays to explore further.

 

[dougtrr2]

I agree that a lot depends on cost/benefit ratio. We had a little toypoodle mutt from the pound. For what ever reason, after she was spayed she quit using her left hind leg. It didn't seem to hurt her or slow her down so we did nothing. The vet we used hired a new vet and she was trying to talk me into doing surgery on her leg. The dog was over 12 years old and still getting around fine so we still did nothing. This little dog was under 12 pounds and at full run in the snow her tracks were 3' apart.

Doug in SW IA

 

[QRTRHRS]

This past spring we had our female boxer operated on for mammary tumors. She had had at least one removed once before successfully but these were more involved and the surgery ended up costing around $1500 or so. She managed to get the "cone of shame" off and licked herself to the point where the incision opened up. She started limping on one front leg while recovering. It ended up to be bone cancer in her elbow. At that point rather than to amputate, we opted to put her down. All in all, we had about 2500 in her by then. She was one of the best boxers I ever had so yes, I would spend it again but hindsight being 20/20, I would have not had the surgery done to start with.

PS, if anyone ever has to bandage the back end of a dog after surgery, those stretchy sleeve less child's T-shirts work pretty cool. Just put the body forward, the legs through the sleeve area and the anatomy though the head area, lol!