Making decision about treating cat's jaw cancer

rosered55
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 17:34:28 +0000

With my Aussie, I think all the vets agreed that palliative care was fine. No one pushed me to have her be treated more aggressively. But in the final few weeks of her life, one of the vets did seem to hesitate supporting me in making the euthanasia decision. She said that I should wait until my dog couldn’t eat anymore because that would mean the dog was about to die. I did not want to wait until the dog was in such bad condition. I decided that this vet’s advice perhaps reflected that she still hasn’t become comfortable with euthanasia in practice, even if she accepts it in theory.

My current dog (pictured) also has cancer. I did decide to have him undergo amputation of the diseased leg because it was causing him severe pain and because it could have fractured at any time; if it had broken, I probably would have had to have him euthanized immediately. He has survived six months since then (amputation but no other anti-cancer treatment) so I’m glad I chose the surgery.