How do you decide when to let go?

[LawlessMissyD]

We have five old retired horses happily living out their days in the paddock, rugged, fed and cared for as appropriate - BUT we are a business and should they require expensive vet care they will be destroyed. Horses have no concept of death and length of life, only quality of life.

Waikato Valuta you need to make your own decision but don't let anyone make you feel guilty if you cannot go on.

I totally agree... As I said above, everyone has a ceiling limit, dont feel guilty if you have reached yours...

 

[mu0ljk]

Personally, I would hate to think that I would have to pts an animal just becasue I couldn;t afford the bills. However, if God forbid I ever found myself in this situation then I would try everything but at the end of the day if I didn't have the money then I simply would not be able to give the horse the treatment he/she needed. There is a point for everyone (some further off than others!) where if you run out of money then that's it you can;t buy or pay for things anymore?

Waikato Valuta you need to make your own decision but don't let anyone make you feel guilty if you cannot go on.

I agree. Only you know the full story and the background etc, so it has to be a choice that only you can make.

xx

 

[ForestGump]

I have insurance on my horse, but it excludes colic until April 09.

He had colic in April this year. It cost me well over £1000.

I know my horse well, I would know if he was showing signs of wanted to call it a day. When he was in hospital they told me he wasn't going to survive, I took one look at him and said I thought he would. (And no I don't know better then the vets) But I looked in his eyes, yes he was in a lot of pain but he was fighting and he won. He was very lucky.

If I thought at any moment that he didn't want to fight then I would have said PTS straight away.

I do have money limits but I will do the best I can within my limits, if I couldn't afford the treatment I would rather get a loan then PTS when I could see he was still fighting.

 

[Ruskii]

Waikato Valuta you need to make your own decision but don't let anyone make you feel guilty if you cannot go on.

Absolutely, you know all the facts and totally your decision alone.

I'm fortunate enough to have a healthy account that I could take quite a bit of money as well, but fortunately the horses have never been that bad that I've ever had to consider it, if any of my animals have needed treatment, then they get it. End of story, but just for example if one of my dogs developed cancer and it was an agressive form, that wouldnt respond to chemo / couldnt be operated on, I wouldnt never put them through any treatment in the hope it would work, I would want my last memory to be of a happy bounding dog not one suffering through pain, and if for example it was my flatcoat, I know that at the first symptoms (turning away from food etc) anything that I would know, he'd be on the one way trip the vet's that day.

Same would go for the horses I'm afraid, lets say for example horse suddenly went lame, was in pain and it was an operation that could be done but would cost me £8,000 and wasnt covered by insurance but the recovery rate was 30% of him being pain free. Would I do it ? No. I wouldnt want better odds that that to spend out that amount of money, to come out with a horse who would be pain free and happy. (Forget whether or not he could be ridden again the pain free issue the most important!)

Anyway WV it is totally your decision and the best of luck and support with making it. No one has the right to tell you your doing the right or wrong thing.

Best of luck x

 

[BIrish]

Nobody can be in your shoes..only you can know when you have reached your limit.. mentally, physically and financially.

For me, financially - I have to think of my OH, Trigger and the other animals .. they all need to be considered when making a decision re expensive treatment.. I would do the best I could and go as far as I could if ... and only if.. the treatment was to be more than 60% successful..

That 60% isn't just for financial reasons.. the horses' quality of life is more important than money.. I have called it a day for a beloved friend because the prognosis wasn't good enough and I would do it again.. I could afford the treatment but I didn't want the horse to have to bear the extensive and very invasive surgery and a long and painful recovery period when there was a 50% chance the problem (a particularly aggressive type of tumour in his sinuses) would reoccur within a year.

I feel for you.. you are in a hard and lonely place with this decision.

 

[katie11]

Sorry, I'm going to get picky here

There must be a stage where you would have to turn down money for treatment because you simply wouldn't be able to afford it. If not how would would you fund it? Would you make you and your family homeless for example to get hold of the money. Surely there is a point where you would draw the line

i agree with that ^^^^



we paid £8000 out in 7 weeks with tuscan and on reflection we shouldnt have - but i loved him to bits..... almost bankrupt us......

still paying for him now,,, even thought he's not here




as for 'when you know' - you just do - its hard to explain but you have to really think about it and you just know...

 

[cinammontoast]

Between a rock and a hard place: no-one can tell you when to say 'enough'. I thought I would remortgage etc, but when it came to the crunch, I couldn't put my OH through that so I let go with the prospect of a quarter of my annual wage otherwise being needed. It has to be your decision and you can't regret it afterwards. You sound like you've been through a lot with your boy, so it's not like you're just giving up. There has to be a time when you stop or you're going to be draining your finances forever more and affecting your stability and future.