I wish there was a way to get the word out to the many people who are suddenly facing the choice between putting a beloved pet to sleep and long term home nursing care, that the home nursing care thing can actually be very positive for both the human and the pet, and is also not terribly expensive. I don’t trust most vets to get the message across because frankly most of them don’t have a clue what’s involved in effective, low-cost long term care for an animal with diminished kidney function. Most vets are selling fluids with accompanying line and way-too-big needles for $15-25 a bag. I even recently saw a report of $50!! For a large dog, this could easily run up to $1000/month.
A couple of years ago, on the feline renal failure group (the Feline-CRF-Support Yahoo Group), someone posted about their vet who’d been charging around $15/bag. The vet responded to her client’s protest by offering to match whatever price the client could find on fluids elsewhere. When the client showed the vet what fluids cost at Brico Medical Supplies ( www.bricomedicalsupplies.com ), the vet was flabbergasted and immediately stopped ordering fluids from the overpriced veterinary supplier that had been telling her the prices it was giving her were “discounted”, and switched to Brico.
I guess it’s only in fairly recent years that many pet owners have been willing to do this sort of thing for their pets, and most vets who are practicing now graduated from vet school back when it was unheard of, and most of the rest were taught by vet school professors who always regarded it as unheard of.
If you can think of any efficient ways to get the word out, please go for it, and let me know if I can help. I’m afraid there’s a short window of opportunity for the many pets whose owners assume long term nursing care would be miserable for human and pet alike.
I know what you mean about the strong the bond that develops with a pet you’re providing with intensive treatment over a long period. My current kitty is the second ancient kitty that I’ve done this with. The first one was over 15 when I adopted him from a shelter out of pity, and became seriously ill about 2 years later. When I adopted him, I never thought I’d bond with him as much as with my other cats that I’d had for a long time, especially since he was not a cuddly kitty by any means. Boy was I ever wrong about that. I got ultra-bonded and I think he did too, because he turned into a cuddle-bug and always looked happy to see me approaching him, even though it was often with a pill or a needle or, in the last few months, an enema syringe!
People on the k9kidney list are really good about explaining sub-q's and it was just discussed on our cocker list the other day... it's the people who never get on pet lists that are clueless.
Perhaps post this info on the Pet Connection blog about the recall ?