[HelloWorld18]

So my mom text me this morning saying that my dog, Lily, had died last night. I'm not sad, but happy and relieved.

When I first got Lily, she was my 'baby girl' and my 'princess'. I had rescued her from going to the pound when she was a few months old. After about 6 years though, she had developed this odd itch. She would constantly itch herself to the point to where she would itch herself raw and even bleed sometimes.

My mom refused to take her to the pound, because she said it was just allergies. Well after the season changed, she blamed it on food allergies, so after we switched her food and waited another few months to see improvement, she still kept itching.

Ill put it simply, we couldn't afford the vet. So we tried many different things in replacement of the vet. Different natural and herbal remedies, and OTC medications. Nothing worked.

She had been itching herself more than she didn't itch herself. It got disgusting. It got to the point to where I couldn't stand being around her cause she'd just itch.

About 2 years ago or so, I had begun praying every night that she would die. We couldn't afford a vet (and we weren't going to go in debt trying to pay a vet tons of money that we didn't have, when their were more important priorities like my medical issues I deal with; which are, in fact, deadly). We wanted to send her to the pound, hoping that she would get proper treatment, but when we split her and her sister up, her sister would become restless.

I then, thought of the idea of putting her down, but my mom said she wasn't going to pay for that cause it was a 'sick' idea. She said if I wanted to pay for it, I can feel free too. But putting her down was going to cost $150, and I didn't have a job, therefore, no way for me to pay for it, which my mom knew.

I wish we put her down years ago. I hated seeing her itch herself to death. Suddenly, about 2 years ago, she began losing a ton a weight. So we doubled her food and constantly gave her treats and special herbal enzymes.

The only thing is, is that she didnt seem like she was in pain. Her tail would wag if I had treats or when I came home, she would go crazy jumping all over me. That was my moms main defense in not putting her down. She genuinely seemed happy and I do think that she was content with her life. Back in the day, we would always go camping with them. They loved it. We would go to a dry lake bed and ride dirt bikes, and they would be off their leashes going crazy (or we would hook them up to a very long leash so they can roam around the campsite).

I just received a text from my mom *about 1 minute ago* saying that she buried her out where we used to camp with them all the time. After reading that, I did cry a little bit. But I'm just relieved. I loved her very much. We tried everything except taking her to the vet. Im sure some animal activists will come and comment 'You deserve to die for how you treated her/avoiding treating her' or whatever, but we showed her nothing but love. We tried a lot of things, they just didn't work/work as well. We don't know why Lily turned out so bad, she had a sister who we treated the same (when it came to love, attention, and the amount of food she ate) and her sister is perfectly healthy. When we went to get them both checked out by the vet (and to ask how much it would cost to fix Lily) the vet said that Lily's health wasn't the greatest, but her sisters, for some reason was probably the definition of good health in a dog. I loved her so much, she will always be my 'baby girl'. But I'm relieved that her itching has stopped, cause I hated how she would itch herself to the point she'd bleed. Towards the end, she would itch herself every minute of the day.

Hello HelloWorld18: Thank you for sharing your story with us. Many years ago I had a dog I loved very much. As she got older, she developed a patch of skin on one side where fur no longer grew. I was still in my early teens. My parents were poor. I don't know if they didn't think it was worth taking her to the vet, or if they felt they couldn't afford it.

Over time, "Sandy" became visibly more ill. Eventually my parents decided we had to take her to the vet. So on the day we were to go, I went outside to fetch her. (It was a bright sunny summer day.) I found Sandy laying on her side in the sun beside the house... dead. We lived out in the country. And so we buried her behind the house near the woods she loved to run in. I hope she didn't suffer. I still think of her to this day.

My condolences...

[waterknob1234]

Hello HelloWorld. I offer you my condolences on the loss of your dog Lily. I understand completely how you feel. I had a dog I loved dearly. Her name was Ginger. Ginger lived to be 16 years old. In her old age she developed a chronic cough and severe arthritis in her hips. I had her on all sorts of medication but after a while it didn't help. I had to make the heartwrenching decision to have her put to sleep. I hated to lose her but I hated worse for her to suffer.

I know you loved your dog. It sounds like you took such good care of her. Do not feel guilty. Vet bills are high and it is possible they could not have fixed her itch.

You will always have the happy memories of going camping with her. My heart is with you.

[Hellion]

The vet costs are ridiculous honestly, I love animals but seriously its ridiculous. I think it would be great if there where some sort of government subsidies or like programs to help lower income people afford those bills. Honestly I don't think this sort of issue is looked at enough in this country....and I don't think any tax money goes into animal welfare, but I think it should. But sounds like aside from that she lived a decent life.

But yeah once when I was staying with some family in Minnesota there was a kitten who went missing, and I went and found her but her tail had got all messed up even had all the fur ripped off anyways it got worse so figured she was going to die of infection or something with the tail so figured it needed to be amputated. Looked up the cost to get a vet and it was far too much money so me and some other family had to cut her tail off my dad did it and I held her, got scratched pretty good but pretty sure it saved her because the tail was getting all infected and she was already chewing on it.