Should I feel guilty euthanizing my old dog with enlarged spleen?

Question

I'm struggling with guilt. I took my boy a 13 1/2 old English Springer Spaniel to the vet last week and they found an extremely enlarged spleen that had numerous nodules on it and which I saw the x-rays. For the previous 24 hours he was becoming weaker and would not eat and if he drank anything he vomited bile. I keep struggling with whether he could have been saved with surgery or whether I did the most humane thing for him.

Sara Farmer, DVM · Accepted Answer

This is always such a difficult decision to make, and it is very normal to have second thoughts when you have to decide quickly about proceeding with invasive procedures vs. euthanasia in an older dog. While it's impossible to know for certain, I have seen many dogs during my career who have had splenectomy surgery and either have extensive metastatic cancer found during the surgery, or succumb to the disease a couple of months afterwards. I honestly don't know if I would go forward with surgery for my own 12 year old dog in a similar situation. There are many pet loss support groups that can be very helpful: this website lists a few that may be near you https://aplb.org/support/groups/michigan.html

Should I feel guilty euthanizing my old dog with enlarged spleen?

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