For all us pet lovers

[Rich]

I just received our local paper.
It seems a local vet took her six year old Greyhound to Colorado where they replaced a heart valve. It is only the fourth dog in the world to have valve replcement surgery. The dog is home and doing just fine.
They used a tissue valve that was no longer OK for humans.
Pretty amazing stuff, it cost around $10,000+ for this surgery.
Now that's a real pet lover!
Hmm, I wonder if we can get that dog to join VR.Com.

 

[geebee]

Thanks for sharing this happy news. Although I am sure we will hear from people who think $10K is wasted money on an animal, I applaud him for his actions.

He is lucky to have the money to spend on his obviously beloved pet. I hope the dog is doing great.

 

[Debrinha GT]

I'm for it!

I'm for it!

Hi there Rich, I'm a pet lover and all in favour of a person treating his dog, cat, whatever like a human being. If he had the money to get his wee dog through surgery, he did the right thing. Animals feel the same things we do and I feel very sorry for them because they can't just go up to you and tell you what's wrong which might go unnoticed for a while. We've just got another dog, but I'm starting a new thread to tell you all bout it.
Débora

 

[Karlynn]

Many surgeries we have as humans, are actually done on animals first, as treatment as well as experimentation to see how well it works. Hip replacements were being done on dogs before they began them on humans.

 

[Yaps]

OH I love it!!!

OH I love it!!!

hat is fantastic...wish we could get the dog and owner in here, it would be nice!!!

 

[Missy]

Interesting story!
More power to him and his dog. If one can afford, go for it. I love my dog dearly even though he is still missing. If I had the money I would offer a larger reward. And if he were here and sick I would do all in my power to save him.
I would like to hear what this person has to say and follow the dog's progress. Any ideas????

 

[lance]

Dogs helping dogs

Dogs helping dogs

I just received our local paper.
It seems a local vet took her six year old Greyhound to Colorado where they replaced a heart valve. It is only the fourth dog in the world to have valve replcement surgery. The dog is home and doing just fine.
They used a tissue valve that was no longer OK for humans.
Pretty amazing stuff, it cost around $10,000+ for this surgery.
Now that's a real pet lover!
Hmm, I wonder if we can get that dog to join VR.Com.

That's great news. Thanks for sharing. I'll bet that greyhound is happy too.

All of us, including that greyhound, owe our lives to the dogs who gave their lives during the development of replacement valves. Just think of it--thousands probably and I don't think they were volunteers.

So give a thought once in awhile to what we owe the dog world and try to give a helping hand to others of their kind when they need it. There are countless ways.

Cheers

 

[catwoman]

Rich:

Was it the Colorado State University Veterinary School in Fort Collins where the vet took her dog? I have friends in Colorado who've used that vet school for unusual situations.

A vet here in TX -- who also bred Persians at the time -- took a cat to the University of California @ Davis Veterinary School for a kidney transplant. Don't know how long the cat lived after that. But, as with the heart valve replacement, the surgery wasn't cheap.

 

[Rich]

Marsha,
Yes it was done at CSU.
She mentioned that while she was there, Lance Armstrong and girlfriend Sheryl Crow called to ask about surgery for Lance's dog.

 

[Barry]

I'm an ardent pet-lover, yet have had a long talk with both my dog and my cat about how pets with extensive vet bills get to go to The Farm. But I also am an ardent defender of human foolishness, and think it's great that this guy blew $10K on his dog. Good for him!

 

[geebee]

Barry,

And - please take this with the humor it was intended - thank goodness one of your pets did not have to make the decision about whether or not you would have surgery or we might never have met you.

 

[Barry]

geebee, Pam, somewhat related anecdote: Prior to my getting my mitral valve replacement I was concerned about whether things were or were not in place to ensure health insurance coverage of the operation. The hospital's fiscal person cut through that Gordian knot and put my concerns immediately to rest: "Don't worry about it. There's absolutely no chance that they're going to do the operation without knowing for sure that they're going to get paid for it."

[geebee, glad to see you share my demented sense of humor. One of the problems with forums is that with written English the nuances of facial expression and tone get lost, so that good-natured sarcasm is so easily taken as either being mean-spirited or, even worse, as not being sarcasm at all but instead a horridly insensitive statement.]

 

[geebee]

geebee, Pam, somewhat related anecdote: Prior to my getting my mitral valve replacement I was concerned about whether things were or were not in place to ensure health insurance coverage of the operation. The hospital's fiscal person cut through that Gordian knot and put my concerns immediately to rest: "Don't worry about it. There's absolutely no chance that they're going to do the operation without knowing for sure that they're going to get paid for it."

You better believe that one. Either confirming money or asking for the rights to your first born child - joke again

[geebee, glad to see you share my demented sense of humor. One of the problems with forums is that with written English the nuances of facial expression and tone get lost, so that good-natured sarcasm is so easily taken as either being mean-spirited or, even worse, as not being sarcasm at all but instead a horridly insensitive statement.]

Boy do I know that one. I think I will be adding a lot of "Cortisms" to my posts. Cort - didn't know you had an "ism" named after you, did you?

 

[gadgetman]

This is one of those threads that I didn't plan on answering because we spent over $450 on a dog my wife rescued from the median of our 4 lane highway. No she was not hit by a car, she got to her before she was.

I was out playing with her in the field not long after we got her. She is a retriever and loves to chase balls and other thrown objects. We had a windstorm the night before and a pine limb had fallen out of a tree. I picked it up to throw it further into the woods when she came running up to grab the end of the limb. As I didn't want to "fight" the dog for the limb, I lifted it up above my shoulders. She was determined to get it and went into a leap. When she came down she let out this bloodcurdling yelp and couldn't get up. I just knew she had broken her leg. I scooped her up (just like you would with a kid) and ran into the house (the dog weighed about 40+ pounds then) YELLING at the wife that we needed to get to the vet. She called our vet to make sure she would stay and we made the 25 mile trip in record time. It turned out to be a ligament tear (which is worse than a break--wife did that to her ankle). After X-Rays, splints on the leg, a two week stay at the Vet so she could watch her and keep her confined, and even meds for the dog, we were lucky to get out only owing $450.

Don't think we once thought about how much this was going to cost. Just told the Vet to fix her.

May God Bless,

Danny