Americans tenderly stuffing their pets with drugs
By Jeff Donn, Brisbane TImes
With aging, it’s become a routine faithfully endured by the Guffords. Each day starts with a blood sugar check and a shot of insulin. Then a couple of pills, maybe mashed into a bowl of tuna and canned carrots. Mixed with dry chow. All for their 12-year-old dog.
Brownie takes more drugs than his human companions put together. He has been medicated in recent months for diabetes, infections, high blood pressure, and his finicky gut that rebels at red meat. Since 2005, he has taken drugs for everything from anemia to a spider bite.
“He’s our baby, he’s a family member, I would want somebody to do that for me,” explains Ann Gufford.
She estimates spending $US5,000 ($A6,068) over the last two years on medicine for her baby, a mixed beagle-cocker spaniel. He has lost a couple of steps on the squirrels outside their little home near Goldsboro. His hearing is failing. Still, without some of the drugs, he’d probably be gone. “You cannot put a price on that,” says Mrs Gufford.
Land of PureGold Foundation 