new dog in..her name was Dog..ok that had to go so the staff named her Ruby which is much more personal. apparently she is 3 years old, an unspayed female who started seizuring about a year and a half ago. today she ended up at our vets after a seizure last night and a 5 minute long one this morning but her family could not afford any vet care. the vets called to see if we could help. i asked to speak to her owner, he has had her since she was a tiny pup that fit into his hand, she has never seen a vet for her seizures, he thought they would go away on their own.
funny thing about seizures..every time they seizure the brain creates more seizure pathways. this means their seizure threshold lowers and they seizure more and more frequently. ignoring them doesn't help them at all..just makes it worse but medical treatment can usually help them quite a bit.
so i asked the gentleman what he was looking for, he said someone to pay the vet bill today. i said this was a lifelong condition and what about the ongoing costs of anti-seizure meds, blood work every 6 months or so for the rest of her life to check not only her therapeutic medication levels so she is not getting too much or too little but also her kidney and liver functions because phenobarb is hard on both. he said he couldn't afford that, which didn't surprise me because she has been seizuring for a year and a half without seeing a vet.
i said he had a few options..he could re-home her to someone who could afford her medical care, he could somehow save up his money so he could pay for her ongoing much needed vet care, or he could sign her over to rescue. he chose rescue.
the clinic staff told me he was a really nice man who really loved his dog. but as i have said again and again..loving someone is not enough.
animals deserve to have medical care when they need it. so here is my bottom line take on this...if even $10 a month had been put away for her when she first started to seizure to eventually get her some help..today when she really needed it, there would have been $180 available for some bloodwork and a couple of months worth of meds.
i know that sometimes folks think i am hard and uncaring but truly i am not. i do however advocate for common sense, esp concerning having and owning pets. Pets cost money, pets sometimes need to see a vet. If families live on a limited income and they want to have pets, then i do believe they should be willing to without fail invest $50 a month, every month for the life of the pet in pet medical insurence so their pet does get medical care when it needs.
if the $50 a month is too much to financially bear, then is not a good time to be aquiring a pet.
to me it is that simple. end of story.
we see dogs and cats severely anemic..their blood is sucked dry because families cannot afford a decent and regular flea treatment.
we see dogs, most of their hair gone, their bodies covered in bacteria and yeast and the dogs out of their minds with unbearable itchiness...and it all started with a simple but untreated long term flea infestation.
we have heard every story, every excuse known to man on why it is not someones fault that their animal suffers from lack of care.
and i am so tired, i no longer care.
so i am tired..bone weary tired of living in the rescue world, watching all around me, every day, year after year, the lengths that people go to not to accept responsibility for the choice they do or don't make.... lets try forgoing the illusions, the deceptions, the poor me tales of woe...and accepting responsibility for their unnecessarily suffering animal.
animals are living, breathing, feeling creatures and they need more than love..they need care.
we can be their problem or we can be their solution.
it is our choice to make.
my choice is..be part of the animal's solution..and... i really believe that love means giving them proper care.
Such a sweet girl. I have an 18 1/2 yr old diabetic cat who did not qualify for pet insurance because of his condition. Few months after he started treatment became very ill and between vet & emerg clinic was $3,600. That was just about 5 yrs ago and now his meds and supplies are approx 150 month. But when you obtain an animal you need to make sure there needs are met even if you go without yourself.