Treating a Life-Limiting Illness

[Cameleongirl]

Our dog (8) has recently undergone tests as he's been having some health issues and unfortunately, the vet has concluded that he has a life-limiting condition. We're not sure how advanced it is yet, he's having further tests this week. Regardless, he's unlikely to live more than two years.

DH and I have discussed the situation and decided that our priority is to keep our dog comfortable. If the vet suggests surgery (which means the disease is advanced), we'll decline it. We'll consider medication, but we also can't spend vast sums of money trying to keep him alive. We've witnessed our SIL do this with her dog, and it was awful, the poor animal was stuffed with medication but still in pain, and she couldn't really afford it.

How do I explain to the vet that we have to be mindful of costs when treating our dog, without seeming callous? I want to do what we can for him, but the diagnostic tests alone have been so expensive. It's horrible. 🙁

I am so so sorry you are facing this.
I recently went through lengthy diagnostics with my dog and the vets were brilliant at being very diplomatic about when it came to talk about cost/approach. I think its a conversation they are very used to having so please don't worry about sounding callousness on top of the worry you already have.
Im my situation i was lucky that my insurance would have covered the surgery but i wasn't prepared to put my dog through the stress of what they were suggesting. Luckily for my dog it does not seem to be life limiting, but if they are good vets they will be very open to discussion of what is fair to put an animal through and also any costs involved.
Best of luck

Just be upfront with the vet, you don’t have bottomless pockets and you don’t want to put the dog through unnecessary treatment. You just want him to be comfortable and have a peaceful end.

Thanks to you both. I’m a first-time dog owner so I’ve never had to think about this before. I suppose I’ll have to be upfront and say something like how much will it cost to keep him comfortable and go from there. But it seems awful to say that he’ll have to be put down when it gets too expensive.

Very sorry about your dog.
I'm a vet nurse , please be assured that what you are choosing to do will be totally respected , most of us in the vet world tend to feel the same in lots of circumstances- believe it or not!
It is absolutely fine and understandable for costs to be considered ,certainly not callous.
As a dog owner myself i have quite set ideas about how far i would go with my dogs in the same situation , i too would go for palliative only , and only so far.
I feel quite sad for some of the poor souls who have been kept going for far too long when to be put to sleep would have been the most peaceful ,dignified act of kindness that all animals deserve when their time comes.
Speak frankly to your vet , who will then help set out a plan for your precious dog.

Thanks, @tsmainsqueeze , that’s reassuring. SIL’s dog could hardly move and was incontinent by the end, it was pitiful and we don’t want that for DDog. Finances aside, we’d prefer him to go to sleep while he’s still himself, IYSWIM.

Just hopping back on to say thank you for the good advice. DDog had another checkup today and more tests. I explained our position to the vet and she was really nice about it, totally understood that DDog's quality of life was our primary concern and that we didn't want to prolong things if he's going to be in pain or have to be massively drugged up. We'll know more when the new test results come back so we're just going to enjoy the time we have left with him, however long that is.