Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikko
...my personal limit would be somewhere +$8k if the dog has as much as 10 years left. Hell, I might even sell my car for a dog. 
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And I think that is OK, if you can afford it. It's your money I say go for it.
For me though, its just too much. If a dog needs that much medical attention, it is in some serious kind of hurt. I'd be just as afraid I was spending it to heal my hurt and not considering the dog's suffering.
You got to know when enough is enough, but that is an individual decision.
My father-in-law (FiL), for example, lost a miniature poodle recently that had been with him for over 15 years, and had been his constant companion through some very bad health issues. He literally loved that dog as much as any of his children.
The poor dog could barely move, was half-blind, and received about $300 a month in various medications (including insulin). It finally took his Vet saying that he was doing the dog no favors to let it go when it had a seizure. Afterwards, we found out that they had spent almost $20,000 on the dog during the last 5 years of its life, one ailment at a time.
I would never say this to him (actually I did say this to him every time he asked my opinion on it), but my FiL basically kept that dog alive for selfish interests, and he spent a good chuck of money he didn't have in the process of doing it. You could see the pain in the face of the poor guy (the dog, not my FiL).
My FiL would tell you it was worth every penny, and that's OK. It's just not a choice I would make. At the end of the day, the puppy had a nonexistent quality of life for at least 1/3 of his life, and my FiL still had to go through the pain of losing the dog after $20,000 or more.