US pet owners paying for high-tech veterinary care

Brute, a German shepherd, lay anesthetized on an operating table, his hairy chest under a plastic cover and his powerful paws taped immobile.

"Here comes the wire up the artery!" said Dr. Chick Weisse, who infused the dog's cancerous liver with chemotherapy via a catheter at the century-old Animal Medical Center in Manhattan in an effort to "buy him some time."

Brute was home in days, the cancer at bay a while longer _ perhaps eight months. The cost: $2,000.

Around the nation, veterinarians are practicing ever more advanced medicine on the nation's 77 million dogs, 90 million cats and a myriad of other animals _ treatments that …