Hi all I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice.  Our 10 year old girl was turning in circles yesterday holding a front leg up and tilting her head, I took her to the vets who took a blood test and urine test gave her an anti inflammatory and antibiotic jab and sent her home.  The results are back in and they show that everything is normal so she now thinks that it could be nuerological and has advised an MRI scan to be done.  Our problem is that she is no longer insured through her age and we have no idea how much this is going to cost.  Our catch 22 is do we pay out for the MRI scan to be done or not.  If she has the scan and there is something there that cannot be cured we dont want her to go through chemotherapy as my mother had it and it is horrible for someone who understands what is happening.  Has anyone been through this sort of thing and if so what did they decide to do regarding having a scan.

Feel so helpless at the moment as she is just staring into space, walking with her head tilted and pawing at her head just above her eye.  The other dogs wont leave her side and when she is asleep they are constantly washing her and lying with their heads over her shoulder as if they know that she is poorly.  Thank you xxx

I had this discussion with my old vet a few years ago (he's sadly dead now, but was so sensible). He told me that when it came to my dog having fits, doing an MRI scan would not actually help the dog, because the sort of problem you can detect with a scan (such as brain tumours) you cannot cure anyway. The cost for MRI scans  are up to £2000 (I checked) so unless the vet is sure there is something that could be picked up that then could be cured as a direct result of the scan, I would not do it myself and this is what my vet said. I would ask the vet outright -what could the scan find, and if it finds it, can anything be done?

Fingers crossed for your girl.

Thanks Goldmali, we were back at the vets this morning and she has put her on a course of anti biotics, the prognosis is not a good one and apart from an MRI scan all we can do is monitor her.  Found this morning that her right eye is not reacting to light and the pupil is very enlarged, the vet said that this could be down to a tumour pressing on the optical nerve.  I asked the vet what she would do apart from the MRI road and although she didnt say it outloud her reply of "it not looking good" said it all, we have to watch her behaviour as this could change, and I made a comment about letting her go now whilst she had quality of life instead of waiting until she started going down hill, to which our vet nodded her head.  I think that we will be saying goodbye very soon which is heartbreaking but the best option xxx

I'm so very sorry. :( I'm a firm believer in rather a week too soon than a day too late, but I also believe dogs that we are close to will always let us know when they've had enough -one day you just KNOW the time has come. I know how hard it is, feel for you.