Alternatively, an older Labrador retriever with arthritis can be maintained at home with adequate pain management for an extended time period. For example, a pet owner should make the decision to euthanize a Yorkshire terrier with congestive heart failure before painful symptoms, such as difficulty breathing, arise. Their response is also highly dependent on the disease process at hand, making in-depth discussions with your regular veterinarian an important part of the process.

Like humans, every pet will experience and react to changes in their body differently.

Assessing your pet’s quality of life, which is subjective, and highly dependent on your dog or cat’s disease process, their personality, and your personal beliefs, is difficult. You have probably heard the term “quality of life” in conversations with your family veterinarian or people close to you. After all, you know your pet better than anyone-including your veterinarian. Some owners need time to come to terms with their pet’s decline, while others want to prevent any unnecessary suffering at all.Įvery pet owner is different and entitled to their own thoughts and beliefs. During this subjective time, however, the family has to make whatever decision is best for them. Prior to this time, veterinarians may refuse to euthanize a pet because they still have a good quality of life, but after this period passes, we may advocate for euthanasia, because their sustained suffering is obvious. Rather, there is a subjective time period, which may be hours, days, weeks, or months, when euthanasia is the appropriate decision. There is no perfect moment to make this ultimate choice, unless the pet is truly suffering-something we are trying to prevent in the first place. The hardest part of the experience is making the actual decision, and I’m asked on a daily basis, “Doc, how will I know when it’s time?”Īs veterinarians, our job is to help a family make this difficult decision. They forget that euthanasia is a gift that, when used appropriately at the right time, prevents further physical suffering for the pet and emotional suffering for the family. Families may feel that they are letting their pet down, or that they are causing their best friend’s death. Deciding to euthanize a pet can feel gut-wrenching, murderous, and immoral. This might sound blasphemous to some, but to many, it’s the cold truth. || This website offers information on such topics as helping children through companion animal euthanasia, ideas on pet scrapbooks and keepsakes as well as help with the difficult end-of-life decision making process.We have heard from countless pet owners that the death of their pet was worse than the death of their own parents. – A terrific website to help assess pain in cats. HONORING THE BOND – Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center SAYING GOODBYE – Katherine Goldberg, DVM, MSW Pain Assessment Scales : for DOGS and CATS

TOOL TO HELP ASSESS COGNITIVE DECLINE IN DOGS QUALITY OF LIFE SCALE – Alice Villalobos, DVM, DPNAP, link to HMMM scale HOW DO I KNOW WHEN IT’S TIME? – Assessing Quality of Life for Your Companion Animal and Making End-of-Life DecisionsĪSSESSING QUALITY OF LIFE IN OUR ANIMALS – Jessica Pierce, PhD – A wonderful website for caregivers of pets with serious illness The Argus Institute offers a wide variety of information for pet owners, veterinarians and veterinary health care professionals.

The Argus Institute was established at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Colorado State University to address the unique needs that pet owners face when coping with a pet with life limiting illness and confronted with losing a companion animal. Resources for ongoing support and decision making during veterinary hospice and palliative care

Making end of life decisions for pets