Looking for advise

[Trevor]

I posted a while back about getting married and my wife's 10 year old goodle coming with her and I'm excited to say that that all went really well.

But starting about about a month ago we noticed that our goodle 'honey' having issues on the hard wood floors(she grew up with hard floors so it was weird) and as the month has gone on she has gotten worse and worse and now she can barely walk nor hunch up to use the bathroom. We took her to our normal vet a few times of the last week and they just kept giving us the run around so I found another vet from a friend and within a few min of looking at her after we described what he had been dealing with he felt her back and found 2 spots, one at her next and the other near her hips that were bothering her. So we got X-rays and found the back to be due to her age some with some calcium deposits and her neck seems to be either a bulged disk or a tumor. The vet have us some steroids that may help her but he said they won't know is exactly wrong unless we get her an MRI which will cost 2000$ and then of they find anything another 2500$ for the surgery. We don't have that kind of money laying around being a young married couple but we do want the best for our dog.
So basically we are looking for advise on what we could do and if anyone else has had this happen before what they did.

Thanks for your help,
Trevor, Shelby, and honey

[Karen and Jackdoodle]

Jack is almost 10 years old and has a ruptured disc in his lower spine. We know this because we did do an MRI. Surgery would have fixed it, but he has other health issues which would make the surgery and recovery very complicated and difficult for both of us. (His surgery would also have cost $7000, but that was not a factor for me.) 

His specialist felt that as long as he had decent mobility and didn't seem to be in much pain, we could manage it with laser treatments, acupuncture, and chiropractic plus the meds he is already taking for his other health issues, which includes a low dose of prednisone. If at any point he became paralyzed, we would have to do the surgery, or euthanize him. 

That was almost two years ago. At this point, I have already paid more than half the cost of the surgery for the ongoing laser, acupuncture and chiropractic treatments. He is no better than he was when he was diagnosed, but he is two years older, and lately I can see that it sometimes bothers him. He cannot run at all any more, and there are days when he doesn;t even really want to walk.

I have second guessed myself on the decision not to do the surgery quite a bit. To know that he lives with some degree of constant pain and that I could have completely eliminated it is very hard. At this point, the surgery & recovery would be even more difficult than it would have been two years ago. 

But the one thing that I do not regret one bit is doing the MRI, because otherwise there is no way for you to know what you are dealing with, and therefore is no way to make a decision on how to help her or treat her at all. So my advice would be to have the MRI done, because without it, you really can't do anything. There are payment plans like Care Credit to help you pay for the diagnostics. Once you have a firm diagnosis, you will be better equipped to do right by your dog, and you will at least have the peace of mind of knowing that you did do your best for her. 

I hope this helps.

[Trevor]

Thanks for your help. We just don't get how in June she was acting like her normal puppy self then in July it's like she aged 10 years. She's not ok any pain that we know of or she shows. But I just took her for a walk and I basically held her up by her harness the whole time while she leaned against my leg. She has minimal at best movement with out assistance.

Thanks again,
Trevor, Shelby, and Honey

[Karen and Jackdoodle]

It happens very suddenly. And dogs are masters at hiding pain, it's a survival instinct. 

[Ned, Clancy, Charlie, Jinkxy]

I am so sorry for you and Honey, Trevor. I am sure you will make the best decision you can for her.  Our Springer tore a CCL and needed surgery.  We were able to get a credit card that was designed for pet wellness.  There were several plans one could choose from depending upon what might work best for the budget. We did this through the vet surgeon's office.