Posted on 12/30/2010 3:03:05 PM PST by moonshinner_09
DALLAS — Teresa Needham may not have loved her dog more than most. But when 10-year-old Tiffin was diagnosed with cancer, she was willing and able to do more than most to save his life.
She flew the dog to a veterinary hospital in Los Angeles specializing in a blood treatment that can cure lymphoma in dogs.
The procedure is a bone marrow transplant that uses the animal's own healthy cells and radiation to beat the cancer.
“We thought that if we don't do everything that's out there that there is to do, I don't think I could live with myself knowing that there could've been something that could've saved him,” Needham said.
At first, the doctors said the risks for Tiffin were too high for this rare procedure. They said Tiffin was too small to survive, and his other health problems — including diabetes — made it too complicated.
But the Needhams insisted. And it's a good thing, because Tiffin survived the surgery.
(Excerpt) Read more at khou.com ...
How many happy, healthy puppies can you buy for $19,000?
31, maybe 32.
Look at it another way: just about every successful human cancer treatment we have originated in canine veterinary trials. She’s paid willingly out of love and affection for something that may be of benefit to you or someone you love, eventually.
It’s her money, she can do whatever she likes with it.
I wonder what the architects of Obamacare would say about this....
"....how could we have not taxed this woman so that money would go for a Cadillac plan for Union members?"
I wonder what the architects of Obamacare would say about this....
"....how could we have not taxed this woman so that money would go for a Cadillac plan for Union members?"
Once the Gov’t distorts and ruins the market for human care, we will sadly find out how efficient, cheap and fast canine care will become, as it will remain untouched by Gov’t interference.
The "death panel" at work.
$1000 a puppy 19.. the cost of curing your beloved pet...PRICELESS! ;)
ping
I’ve pursued radiation and chemo for a dog. He endured it with good cheer, it extended his life a year past the most optimistic prognosis and he was an old fellow to begin with. He was comfortable and happy as a clam right up to the day he died, and cancer didn’t kill him. I’d do it again.
The treatments weren’t cheap by any means, but they were doable out of pocket for me at the time. It’d be tough now, my circumstance is reduced due to the O-pression. The cost certainly beat anything I could have gotten personally at a hospital, had it been me with cancer instead of my dog. He was well cared for, for considerably less than a short hospital stay for a routine surgery.
how many best friends would you spend $19,0000 to save?
and if they die, just go get another healthier friend?
My friend spent over $16,000 on her Lhasa Apso for radiation treatments for a brain tumor. This was her “child”. She drove the dog from Pittsburgh to a specialty vet hospital in Cleveland every day for a month for the treatments.
I once spent $600 trying to save an $8.00 parakeet, when I didn’t have two nickels to rub together.
I always said I would never be such a foolish pet owner, but when your animal is sick sometimes the heart takes over the brain’s functions.
Even with our livestock - a business enterprise - I spent more than the animal’s potential value to treat an injured alpaca. But hey, it was our boy Chaching.
We saved the alpaca but could not save the bird. Neither expenditure do I regret.
Tomorrow I go to pick up my Christmas present - a rescue chinchilla. At least at this point in my life, I have a sizable emergency fund for vet care. And a very understanding husband.
I don’t get too terribly upset over people who spend king’s ransoms on pioneering heroic veterinary treatments for their pets, because usually the technology will carry over into human treatments sooner or later.
Dogs are not people.
Having lost a dog to lymphoma last year who was also diabetic, this story touched me. We spent close to $10k, and after a number of failed remissions our boy crossed the Rainbow Bridge. If she can afford it then good for her and I hope her dog beats the monster.
19K isn’t really that much money.
Nooooo. They would have asked why the Vet didn't encourage 'end of life' procedures!
If that's true, then send me $19K. I could find something to do with it.
It's two semesters of College for our son.
I’m a huge dog person - I just took home a little dog from the ASPCA that is 11 years old and has health problems. She’s a darling. But since my dogs shake with fear and horror when I take them to the GROOMERS, for God’s sake, I would not have the heart to put them through chemo or more than a few doctor appointments. We just let our beautiful lab go at 12. We could have had him operated on but we opted not to put him through such a trauma.
Just me, of course.
19K is the price of about 38 abortions.
This is a sorry old world.
Spend it on what you want.
Sit on my lap and lick my face every night and we might have a deal.
So much depends on the dog. We put our Golden/Brittany through chemotherapy trying to beat her lymphoma, but she just didn’t have the ~spirit~ to fight on her own and we had to put her down after three horrible months of treatment.
Our current dog has been fighting liver disease for almost 18 months now, and she is a fighter. If dogs can set their jaws, she does, and she forges ahead on the current task at hand. She accepts her acupuncture and tea pills with good humor, and accepts us shoving food in her mouth until it connects that we’re not trying to poison her. We’ll keep fighting this dang disease as long as she wants us to.
I spent about 6,000 on my cat a few years ago. She’s doing great. I did lose one kitty to cancer - it was tough. Am not looking forward to my pups getting ill - that will be hard.
No, they aren't but some dogs are more important to me than people, any day of the week.
When my dog Bradley, a beagle, became ill with bladder cancer in 2004, I did research and found an animal hospital in the Midwest that had access to a Canadian drug that treated this type of cancer. I drove Bradley to that hospital (a 1,500 mile trip) once a month for 18 months for a week-long treatment that kept him alive and in great spirits.
In 2006 he was 17 and developed a paralysis of the spine which was not treatable and my wife and I made the tough decision to put him to sleep.
Doing some back-of-the-envelope figuring, we spent $26,000 to have Bradley treated. Don't regret a penny of it.
A then inlaw got some Central American bird for the spouse as a
present. A really nasty bird, from the stories I heard.
The spouse really didn't want it, and the bird, as I said, didn't make
itself very endearing.
Some months later, their dog died, and they got a new puppy. The
puppy got sick after a few weeks, and they took it to the vet,
who diagnosed it as some viral infection that would pass.
But the virus turned out to be fatal to the bird, who was deader than
a doornail when they got back from the vet.
The bird was not missed.
Awww, good for that family and it’s little four legged child that was saved.
If people have the money and want to spend it on save their furry children, well God Bless them!
I agree. She used her money, didn’t ask for government help, didn’t whine to the media for sympathy, she has a pet she truly loves and decided it was worth it.
How many people would even think about ripping her if it was a award winning racehorse? Top breeding bull? Another animal ‘worth’ a lot? You say, those things have worth recognized by others. Well, what about the worth of that animal to her? Love and loyalty that animal gave back to her? to her that animal is not replaceable. Think about the time she’s put into that animal. They aren’t rolexes or lexuses you just swap for another.
Further this allows vet medicine to progress for all of us.
People have become better people because of animals in their lives. They have become more caring people, more appreciative of life in general, more human. Some people just don’t get it.
Can I recommend Bach Flowers Rescue Remedy to you? The also make other flower essences that can help with anxiety and stress, even thunder anxiety, for animals. That way they might be able to handle going to the vet better.
Thank you, Mr. Science. I’ve heard water is wet, too. Oh yeah, the earth revolves around the sun.
You're right, they're not. People will screw you if it suits their purpose.........
I suppose that last sentence was a barb directed at me. But I don't care. I know that I have donated thousands of dollars to charities and to my family (not children...I have none) and I know what kind of person I am.
I also know that I am extremely appreciative of being able to live, and I didn't need a dog to teach me that.
Not everyone lives the same life you lead. Not everyone learns everything the same way or is able to have the same experiences you do.
Guess you are learning this fact out in a different way than some others do, huh?
I long ago learned that “fact” and am what I am because of my experiences. See post 37 for edification.
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