Rehoming my sister in laws springer

[largeginandtonic]

Please help me help my sister in law.

They have a springer spaniel who is just a year. He's basically has irritable bowel syndrome and requires a super specialised diet.

He's had ongoing health issues with this usually resulting in vet stays. He is insured. They pay though the nose for it but the new vets (they moved) will not accept payment from the insurance comp. they have to pay upfront.

He costs a fortune in special food a month. Insurance payments and every month something else comes up. They worry he is suffering through their lack of money and needs better care.

ATM he has a seed stuck in his ear and needs to see the vet. They won't see him without payment. She's phoned the RSPCA people and various other places but as they are not on benefits no one will see him.

They want to rehome him. Both are incredibly sad about it all but just can not support him anymore. We have spent the day on the phone trying to get him re homed and seen.

The vets are looking in to rehoming him but we have not heard back.

What else can she do?

It's a horrible situation.

The Dogs Trust on the other hand...

My friend's JRT came from them and has ataxia. When my friend adopted her the DT committed to paying her (big) vet bills. And she's a very happy (if wobbly) dog.

Rspca stands for the royal society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, not the protection of animals.

Just thought id point that out.

Its a shame the owner didnt try harder and I would never make the same decision but really theres much worse things that happen to animals every single day than a quick and painless death

Bad breeder, bad owner, bad RSPCA. Dead dog.

This.

They have rescue centres not cruelty prevention centres

Flipping heck. I just glanced back at this. Not on mn much anymore.

She'd been phoning rescue centres for about 5 weeks. No one would take him.

She could afford a dog, they even insured him well. Unfortunately when they moved the new vet wouldn't consider a payment directly from the insurance company so it was pay upfront or no treatment.

They are not in receipt of any benefits so unable to qualify for financial help.

The breeder was not interested in having him back.

What should she have done? Keep him and let him suffer as they couldn't afford to treat him? What was the other option?

The 3rd response you received suggested a raw diet. The 4th listed 7 springer rescue centres. Did sil investigate any of those?

Also she could have found a different vet .

She tried another vet. With his history it was the same response.
We both spoke to the spaniel rescue centres that day. She had spoken to them a month back too.

My dog is on the raw food diet so we had discussed it. She was told by the vet he needed to get better with the special diet first. He was basically a bag of bones for months. He'd only just started to put weight on.

She'd done all she could. It wasn't fair to have him suffer. Of course if they had an unlimited pot of money to keep him medicated and well she would have kept him.

so the special diet was working or wasn't working? because it's starting to sound like this dog was PTS because he had a seed in his ear.

Poor dog, let down badly

Christ - that poor dog! How can you say they could afford the dog if they couldn't pay the bills! Most vets will no longer take payments from the insurance companies as the insurance companies wont discuss payment with the vets and the vets then have to rely on the client chasing it up, which of course they aren't inclinded to do as they haven't had to part with the money. The insurance companies usually pay back monthly though if its an ongoing thing. I assume the diet was covered by the insurance.

I had a rottie with IBS - we fed him james well beloved, expensive, but not as expensive as the diets from the vets, was just as good - if not better. My dog was always skinny and would shit through the eye of a needle, but otherwise he was fine and lived to be 14 which is a stunning age for a rottie.

This dog was put to sleep because of a grass seed? A £100 operation?? fucking hell.

Doesn't surprise me from the RSPCA though.

Had your sister in law tried other diets? It sounds to me like she didn't want the hassle of this dog any more and breathed a big size of relief when the rspca came along and gave her permission to bump him off.

It sounds to me like the vets had trouble getting monies from your SIL in the past as they would absolutely not charge until after treatment - unless of course the person was a bad payer.

Please tell me your SIL isn't going to get another dog!

The concern was that the operation would trigger the bus off again and the dog was already in poor health and they could no longer afford it's treatment. From what I read?
I don't know them but my vet would not agree to pts a animal unless he thought it was the fair thing to do :(

Btw I am with Medivet and you have to pay half upfront, the rest before your pet can be discharged.

I used to work at a vets and i can tell you that sadly, if an owner insists on PTS is it a rare thing that a vet will refuse to do this. We would never leave a dog without treatment if it needed it, and all treatment was to be paid at discharge (officially) but if people were struggling then they would be allowed time in which to pay, some would set up standing orders.

Most of the clients who were insured, would pay by credit card and then pay the credit card back when the insurance company paid.

No vet would recommend the PTS of an animal for a grass seed though - that is ridiculous.

I do think that the Sil would have been hard-pushed to rehome this dog as its hard enough to home healthy dogs, not many people would take on a dog with known problems as the insurance would not be interchangable and he would probably be uninsurable.

It is difficult to say from the information given in the OP if the dogs condition warranted being PTS, but i guess it was better than him being put in kennels where he would have stayed for the rest of his life. I just think that the Sil needed to make further investigations into sorting the dogs tummy issues, or as i did with my rottie, living with them rather than using a grass seed as an excuse to pts. If the dogs quality of life was poor and likely not to change, then pts would also have been the best option.

Not everyone has a credit card though. I don't and have had to land the money off my mum before now. Ours really will not let you pay after lem
I am not defending their decision, I am just confirming that is what our vet practise operates like

We are an animal centred family. We've all had dogs, cats and many other species.

My current hound suffers terribly with separation anxiety. He can't be left. I have adapted my life entirely around him. To the detriment of the children a lot of the time.

We don't give up easily. She was in a desperate situation. I'm a great believer in don't judge a person till you've lived in their shoes.

I asked for advice, I got some. Thank you to those that helped.

My old dog used to get gastritis. We could only give tinned chappie which my kindle likes to change to crappie! If you gave anything else she would have a flare. She coped ok on thus though, thank goodness :)

Chappie is brilliant food - stinks like a bastard when it comes out the other side though, my rottie used to have this and managed well, apart from the nuclear bum fall-out, so we switched to JWB as there was less stink!

I can't help but worry if the Sil's vet pushed their expensive "special diets" though - may i ask what she was feeding?

Some kind of science diet?

We used to feed our dog Burns dried food. I read great things about the raw food diet so have switched.
It's brilliant! I'm sure he's calmer too.

We did talk about the diet change but their vet said best not to change. Any change affected him. My brother went to sea and he had a major relapse.

I'd always try chappie or raw on a dodgy stomached dog.

Raw sorted out my dog's guts and skin. Vets never recommend it for some reason, but it worked for us and I've heard a lot of other positive stories.

We live in a town with only three vets. We left the vets we were with for 25 years after they demanded payment up front for putting our very ill to sleep, despite assurances that they'd be paid in full within a week. They sadly explained that despute knowing us (me since birth) very well and having a very long and excellent relationship with us, they had been taken over by a big company and could no longer offer payment schemes or treat now, pay later options for regular clients.

The other vets is also a large firm so we never bothered even calling.

The third vets is an independent chain of three and had dealt with us only once or twice with our more exotic pets (this vets specialises in exotic animals), they very happily agreed to treat our lab and take payment later.

They've done it several times since. My parents cannot afford their dogs, so have an unspoken agreement with me, whereby I pay for all emergency treatment their animals need. The account from which I pay these bills is an account where I have to give notice to withdraw. The vets are always understanding about this, despite not knowing us from adam the first time we asked.

I do not believe for one second that there was not a single vets within reach OP who would not wait for the insurers.

You might be right dooin. I don't know.