I need to put this right here, 'cause... here we go. 
From facebook:
November 8, 2014 ·
We're going to go visit the furbaby in the hospital today; Michael is really missing her. The vet determined that she has severe pancreatitis, but she has no obstructions, impactions, or perforations in her bowel, so that's good. If she would just eat and keep it down, she could come home. Monday is the planned discharge date as long as all goes well.
March 10, 2016 ·
Prayers and positive thoughts for my furry friend Beth, please. I'm afraid that she has neurological "stuff" going on - she'll see the vet at 11 this morning. Hopefully they can help her, but she is getting old - 10 1/2 years now.
2017
August 1 ·
I took my lab/setter mix doggie, Beth (12 years old), to the vet today. She'd been in to the vet about a week and a half ago w/ an infected broken nail, that they removed.
It isn't healing. Two doctors told me that it appears that there is a tumor on her toe and that we should amputate the toe.
Beth has been the most expensive FREE dog I've ever had. in the past few years,
she had pancreatitis and spent a week in the doggie hospital;
she had a neurological condition that they thought was either a stroke or cancer - she couldn't walk well & her back end didn't follow her front end very well;
it was discovered last week that her liver is having issues (markers in the blood) but the workup showed that the liver is working fine - so we don't know what is going on there;
she has musculature atrophy on her head, causing pain to eat (she only eats soft food) and making it hard to swallow and control her facial muscles (which is why she makes a huge mess all over the floor whenever she gets a drink of water).
We could do an ultrasound of her liver and a chest xray to rule out cancerous growths ($362)
We can biopsy the toe and wait for the results to come back ($253).
We can just do the amputation ($579).
Or, we can do nothing...
If we do nothing and the tumor is aggressive, we'd have about a month before we have to put her down.
If we do nothing and the tumor isn't too aggressive, we'd have about 4-6 months with her.
That is assuming it is a cancerous tumor, otherwise, it will be a pain and annoyance to her - she licks and bites it and makes it bleed.
The muscle atrophy on her head can be treated with prednisone or ibuprofen to ease the swelling and pain, and may get better, may stay the same, may get worse.
What would you all do? I am looking for answers ranging from "she is a dog & you don't spend thousands of dollars on a dog" to
"she is part of your family and you spend whatever money you need to to make sure she's okay"
and everything in between.
Okay, I started put myself into the situation:
I'm an 84 old woman. My hair is falling out by the handful. I feel like crap all of the time; they say I have a UTI and something is up with my liver. I had a stroke about a year ago, and pancreatitis that almost killed me 2 and a half years ago. I have to eat food that I hate but that is good for my pancreas, and it has to be softened up because my jaw hurts so much when I eat. I have facial weakness, and when I drink water, the water spills from my mouth and I make a mess. About a week ago, my foot hurt really bad and I was bleeding, so I went to the doctor who told me that I had an infected nail; they removed the nail, which hurt like crazy! And now it isn't healing properly and they think I have a tumor in my foot; they want to remove my toe, which is going to hurt like crazy, do crazy things to my balance (and I still have issues sometimes with my balance from my stroke) and I may not heal anyway, especially if the cancer is outside of that toe anyway. AND it may not even be a tumor, or may be a slow growing tumor... to top it all off, I fell trying to get into the van and landed on my back; today, I couldn't even get my footing getting into the car. Growing old sucks.
August 15 ·
My Bethie dog is limping on another paw today, the toe that has the tumor on it is still raw. I am pretty sure the cancer wasn't just in her one toe. Also, you already know from my other posts, her head looks dented in on the top of her head due to the musculature disease that she has... and now she is dented in on her cheeks, too.
I told Michael today that Beth is very sick, and he needs to love on her, pet her, & pat her and tell her that he loves her, because she is very sick with cancer and is going to be going to live with Jesus, Uncle Bill, and Grandma D. very soon.
I don't know what he understands about death, but I have a feeling that this is going to be traumatic for him, and since he doesn't have the words to communicate his feelings, I'm going to be offering him words to talk about his sadness, fear, and grief. Let's hope I can be guided by the Spirit to know what this boy of mine needs.
And God bless Bethie as she nears the end of her life that she can enjoy the gentle breezes, the sunshine, and feel our love for her.
Sickness and death suck.
P.S. Her limping stopped when I gave her her prescription for ibuprofen. Crossing my fingers that she can feel better a bit longer. She is lying down a lot, though, and not wanting to go outside to play as much.
October 20
Today, Beth hasn't been able to walk very well. She hurts on her foot. I've given her the prescription for Carprofen, but there hasn't been any improvement.
She has gone to each of us for extra loves today. She has gotten so thin that her ribs are so pronounced. This morning, she left half of her soft food in the bowl - I assumed that it was hurting her to eat.
This sucks.
