[Devils'Advocate]

My cat has a swollen pad that is leaking blood and won't heal over. The vet says that it is due to a tumor on the paw. They are sending a sample to pathology to see if the tumour is cancerous. If it is cancerous, then the leg will need to be amputated and that surgery would cost $1,000.

If it is benign, it still needs surgery since it is leaking blood and could get infected. So at the least, the pad needs to come off, and that surgery isn't a whole lot less at $800.

And I DON'T have the cash flow to pay that kind of money. I'm tapped out completely solely on the tests they have done thus far.

The cat is 14 years old. I could see paying this kind of money on a cat that had it's whole life ahead of it. But I can't see justifying $800 on a cat that is in her later years.

In a way, I think it would be better on me if it WERE cancerous because I would feel like a total ass putting a cat down because I can't afford paw surgery. But on the other hand, I really, really can't afford the surgery and it would be wrong to make her walk on that tumor every day for the rest of her life.

Edit - I have had this discussion here and elsewhere before and the typical response has been "If you didn't have the money to pay for your pet's health care, you shouldn't have brought an animal into the home". But in this case, this cat was a stray that I took in 12 years ago (the vet at the time guestimated that she was 2). I think she has had a better life over those 12 years than if I left her roaming the streets. Maybe I could have put her in a shelter, but if so, she may have been put down 12 years ago.