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?
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:
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.
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.
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.
Who are these researchers, lady? What makes it unethical to cure a dog’s illness?
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.
Your link didn’t work.
Also:
https://www.advetcc.com/cancer-care/frequently-asked-questions-about-chemotherapy/
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.