Can't afford much more treatment

[KittyCatStevens]

DDog has terminal cancer. She has been doing well since she was diagnosed and has been having regular chemo which we have funded. Since then though with the CoL and other reasons we just can't afford to fund this for much longer. Her life expectancy was cited as between 9 and 18 months and she's at 14months now. Generally she is doing well. The tumour is a little more obvious that it was previously but she's got loads of energy and eating well. If you didn't know you would have no idea she was unwell. But we know she's not going to get better and we don't know how much more we can fund it. She is costing us about £500 a month which we can't really afford these days. What do we do?

If you don't have insurance or a local pdsa that would help out there sadly isn't anything you can do. As life expectancy is only a few months I'd stop the chemo and just make sure she has painkillers she needs, I'm sorry it must be very hard but it would seem crazy to pay for chemo when she only has a few months left .

Talk to your vet explain the situation, they may suggest seeing how you go stopping treatment other than managing the pain they can see you've done your best they won't judge you if you need to stop.

My Gsd had terminal cancer we only found out right near the end so no real treatment, he was on antibiotics as the vet thought it was an infection to begin with
We said we would do pain killers and just see how it went he was great for a few days and suddenly went down hill stopped eating wouldn't get up, wetting himself which really upset him he never had accidents
We knew he didn't have long, we were told maybe two weeks

Have a few really great days planned fun walks lots of treats extra special dinners lots of pictures
I have always regretted not doing paw prints or nose prints but treasure the photos from our last great walk

So sorry to read this, but this is a life limiting illness, and I agree that painkillers may be the best approach. Their quality of life will deteriorate whatever you do, and winning the lottery tomorrow wouldn’t change that. Take comfort in planning on letting them go when they’re relatively ok, and make memories now.

Being able to afford treatment is a bit of a red herring here, you will have to chose to stop treatment some time soon, and the vet may be relieved to have a plan that is kind and reasonable. Keeping going endlessly is a hard cycle to stop, and only with hindsight can the decline be seen. We’ve all done it one way or another, I did with an elderly horse. I’m grateful it was pointed out to me that a sunny day with carrots would be a good end, and it was. Still sad though.

Tbh I'm surprised a vet is continuing to treat a terminally ill dog with chemo costing £500 a month. With only a couple of months to go it would seem completely unethical and inappropriate. Please ask about end of life care and let your poor ddog go peacefully with pain relief.