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You've got to do more than just forego that expensive avocado toast! (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 7 months ago (3 children)

If you’re one of the many Americans who became a new pet owner during the pandemic, you might want to rethink those costly pet medical needs. It may sound harsh, but researchers actually don’t recommend pet chemotherapy — which can cost up to $10,000 — for ethical reasons.

Who are these researchers, lady? What makes it unethical to cure a dog's illness?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago

Actually, I stopped to think it over. I might have to agree, depending on how much the dog would feel like shit vs the likelihood of a full recovery and also depending on the age.

The dog doesn't have a say in the treatment, nor an explanation of what's happening. If the vet and I discussed and determined that the outcome might be cruel for not much hope of gain, I'd make a plan with the vet to let my pal suffer the least amount possible.

This is far from a blanket endorsement to euthanize dogs with cancer, which should go without sayin.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's absolutely ridiculous to even talk about this in the context of inflation and family budgeting. Fucking boomer bullshit is what it is.

However, to answer your question, there is a gray area for when to treat pets' illnesses. Dogs can't tell you how much it hurts, or ask for pain killers, or understand why this is happening. Chemo fucking sucks, can make your dogs lose their appetite, and won't necessarily extend the life of your pet.

Whether you treat your pet or not depends on how old they are, where the cancer is, how big they are, and another 20 or so factors your vet will discuss with you. It may or may not be in their best interest, and it may or may not be economically feasible to treat it. Those are two different questions.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Shit man, cancer drugs in general fucking suck. My wife was on tamoxifen for a year and she didn’t even have breast cancer, she’s just at very high risk. It’s played utter havoc with her hormones, causing all sorts of side effects in a systemic manner. To make matters worse, she metabolizes drugs very slowly, so it’s only now finally out of her system, months after ceasing treatment.

Now she’s saying fuck it, gonna get ‘em lopped off and replaced with fakes; as much as we both love what she has, the constant fear and agita she’s been getting from them is terrible.

This is with full knowledge and agency over what’s going on, so yeah, I get it, it’s [unintentionally] cruel to do to a pet.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Chemo is fucking awful. Had a gf survive breast cancer (before we met) and the thing traumatized her so much it came up in conversation several times a day, years after the fact. Mom just died of breast cancer. All chemo did was steal the last 2-months of her life.

Want to put your pet through that? For what will likely mean them dying miserably anyway?

Here's some more info, too fucking depressing to really read top to bottom:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6681408

Seriously weird thing to bring up in an article regarding inflation and spending. Tacky at best. The author must have suffered something to have put that in there. The editor should have yanked it for sounding callous.

tl;dr: I see it as an ethical decision, not a financial one.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Your link didn't work.

Also:

Will chemotherapy make my pet sick?

Chemotherapy is very well tolerated in most dogs and cats. Most patients experience no side effects. Around 15% will have mild side effects that will last for a few days and many will improve on their own. About 5% of patients can experience more moderate side effects and less than 1% can have more severe/fatal side effects. Cats tend to tolerate chemotherapy even better than dogs, and both tend to handle chemotherapy better than people.

https://www.advetcc.com/cancer-care/frequently-asked-questions-about-chemotherapy/

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

How do they assess how a pet tolerates chemo? Not like they express themselves as we do, let alone fill out quality-of-life questionnaires. Can’t speak to dogs, but cats tend to hide their suffering until it’s too late.