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We went to vets tonight following his course of steroids and as he has been fine and shown no known recurrences, the options are:
- £1000 for MRI which may or may not prove a brain tumour which may or may not be operable
- Leave him alone and see what happens

Bugger - what to do!

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aka
Suzie

Blimey; what a decision. Not nice either way is it?

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Andrea :wavehello

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...logs/zazen999/

moon trials completed:
tomatoes
[46% increase in crop per seed sown and 10% increase in crop per plant]

currently underway:
calabrese
garlic

http://linearlegume.blogspot.com/

oh piskie what a hard decision, i wouldnt want the choice you have to make, i am sorry charlie is poorly xx

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Gardening - A labour of love that begins with daybreak and ends with backache!
http://clarkiesveggieblog.blogspot.com/

Having spent the last 30 yrs in health care...I'd leave well alone , and wait and see.
I've learned the hard way with 2 bunnies - total £700 ...flipping waste IMHO..and yes - I loved them both- but having spent that money , and put them through a lot of pain and stress of the unknown, they both had to be put down.

All the best Piskie...x

Is he insured? I cant remember if you said or not

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Taking it one day at a time and still smiling...

Sorry to hear Charlie still might need further treatment piskie. A very difficult decision to make. I'm not sure if you've seen some of my other postings about My Basst Hound, Molly. I recently spent £2700.00 on different scans and tests only to be told that she had terminal cancer.

It is not my intention to influence your decision in any way but I consider that money, well spent. My one consolation is that I did all that I could.

Our pets have us permenantly 'over a barrel'. We see in them the qualities we would like to see more often in our own species. As a result, decisions we are forced to make on their behalf are made with the heart and not the brain. In the end you must do what you think is best. Whatever you decide, good luck .

Thinking of you and Charlie.

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It is the doom of man, that they forget.

One of our cats has sometimes got a bad mouth the vets want to take a tooth out and as it doesnt seem to bother him, he eats and drinks ok why should we spend £100 plus to have it put right, we did this with our rabbit costing £135 and he died a few months later. Whilst we love the cat he his 14 yrs old and if he was in pain we would be there like a shot does he need to go through being put under to have this done.
Only you can make this decision piskie. If our vets gave us the true price when the rabbit was ill we would probably have had him put down even though he was very loved.

thanks all so much

The vet's opinion was 'I would have the scan for a six-month old kitten but not an 11 year old cat' - I know how she meant it and she said it much kinder than it relays here in type.

He is calm and seems fine - for the moment I will leave him to see how he goes. He isn't in any pain at all, he is eating, drinking and pooing (!) well

A friend said 'you realise he only did it to try and stop you going on hols to Scarey's dont you' ....

Thanks again
(hugs)

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aka
Suzie

Hope things will be more peaceful for you now Piskie at least you know he is not in pain.
Love and hugs to you all
HF
x

Aw, poor Charlie. Sounds like you've made your decision, so best wishes and hugs for you and Charlie. xx ((()))

Haha, didn't work though did it

Is he still on the steroids? that'l make him pee a lot too. I'm sure that you will do the best for him whatever you decide.

Sending lots of love and hugs to you all.

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A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! (Thomas Edward Brown)

I was faced with the same sort of dilemma about 10 years ago with my dog, he put his back out, and couldn't walk and the short story is, it would cost me a minimum of £650 to find out and operate to give him a 25% chance of being able to potter around afterwards ....... he was a 12 year old collie cross retriever and a complete nutter ...... he wouldn't have coped with pottering ....... the odds were not good enough, so i made the decision to have him put to sleep ...... it broke my heart.

what i'm getting at though, is if it did happen to be a brain tumour, they wouldn't operate, and you would be faced with that decision .... as he seems ok now, i would be inclined to see how things go, what good will it do you to know whether he has a tumour or not, will it change the outcome? no not really as they wont treat it anyway, and without a definitive diagnosis you will treat him as charlie, and you will know if he gets poorly again and what to do as the time comes.

big huggles for you and charlie, xxxx

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What Lynda said.
If he's fine, leave him be. Sometimes not knowing is better.

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Sarah

“Tell me one last thing,” said Harry. “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?”
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

Put the money towards enjoying your time with him Piskie - enjoy the odd salmon fillet together for maximum value. Hope he continues to stay well.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

It truly does not matter to an animal when it dies, be it two years or twenty two years. It only matters to it's owner and if that owner knows that they have given that animal a loving and happy life then they have done their bit.
Cats have no foresight of death, they live for the minute and if that minute is stressful and painful then life is not happy.
I am thinking now of my Welsh Border collie, Taff. A dog in a million, a dog in a lifetime!
I bullied him into keeping going even when I knew he was pleading with me to let him go.
I have never forgiven myself for that and vowed I would not do that again to any animal.
I think too of my Oriental Black cat,Tobias who was an ambassador amongst cats. Even cat-hating people who once met him would say "Well. If I had a cat like that......"
He was diagnosed with kidney disease and I was told that within a very short time he would be in pain. He spent his last minutes on Earth walking round the vet's waiting room, on and off peoples laps, kissing their dogs and passed away purring. I don't feel one bit bad about him, just remember him with a smile.
Money is not an important issue here. If you feel that it is then , if the worst comes send a donation to the Cat's Protection League and feel your money has done some good instead of lining the vets pocket.
I do hope it won't come to this decision and that Charlie is with you for years to come.
The scan won't cure anything by the way. Let be what will be.

I think I'd be inclined to leave him be & see how he goes on & just take him back to the vet's if he gets poorly again. It's not the amount of money that would worry me but the suffering both of you would have to go through if he had to have an operation & was in pain & then it still didn't work.

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

you lot are truly wonderful - thank you again

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aka
Suzie

I think I would leave him alone too.
My cat crazy aged 16 had been ill for a while. In the past 8 months he`d had 2 strokes. The vet gave him steroid injections each time and said while his quality of life is good leave him alone. The day before we went on holiday he had another stroke. My mum was looking after the pets while we were away and when she went to see him on the Sunday morning he was hardly breathing, so she rang my sister who was going to take him to the vet but by the time she got round to take him he had died.
He died peacefully in his sleep on his favourite part of the landing. I`m glad he didn`t go to the vet as he died in familar surroundings and I think the car ride would of been stressful to him. He is now buried under the conker tree that I planted in my parents back garden when I was 5.

Poor Piskie, it's always difficult but I am always one for seeing what comes out in the wash with the animals unless they are in pain. You've definitely done the right thing. Our Alf has cost us a fortune in the last couple of years he's 18 and has colon problems - too many mice blocking him up too often in the past and needing enemas and so on - he now something where his colon doesn't work efficiently and has to be carefully monitored and managed with liquid paraffin and katalax to make sure he doesn't end up costing us more.

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Hayley B

OH is competing in the Macmillan 4x4 challenge (in aid of Macmillan Nurses) partnering Julia Bradbury (Watchdog presenter) in March 2009 http://www.justgiving.com/mac4x4juliabradbury