Cousin's greyhound is 8 nearly 9. Pain and limping on and off last few months which was put down to muscle strain on one limb. Got a lot worse before Christmas with pooch not being able to put her foot down.
Xray and initial treatment shows what they think is a piece of floating bone chip in the shoulder area which is why the pain is intermittent as vet thinks its moving. Next stage is a cat scan to determine if this is defo what it is, or bone cancer which is common in the shoulder area in greys.
Problem is the cover cousin got is only £500 annually per condition from Animal Friends. That's already been used up.
The cost for the next set of scans is quoted at £1000. That's not even looking forward to treatment, if appropriate.
No idea what to do. Pooch on pain meds now but can't walk hardly at all without limping obviously in pain, so no outside walks.
Cousin is devastated, she's never made a claim and perhaps naively felt more secure with the dogs health than she should have, even going into old age.
If cousin paid for the next set of investigations, it's unlikely she could pay for the treatment as whatever it is is likely to be extensive, whether it be chemo or amputation.
To be honest I'm thinking we are heading towards putting pooch to sleep soonish as the pain and discomfort is not improving. My only other thought was amputation but if the bone chip is moving that may not solve the problem anyway; plus pooch is 9 and may only have a year or 2 left at best.
What do people think? Second opinion from another vet? The one she uses is expensive but very good. Presume they would release the xray for another vet to look at.
Cousin is on DLA so I believe some discounted treatment is available at PDSA - any idea what the discounts are? I assume this would hinge on current vet sharing the findings so far.