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The more times families experience the loss of a pet, the sooner they make the decision to euthanize. Pet parents experiencing the decline or terminal illness of a pet for the first time will generally wait until the very end to make that difficult decision. They are fearful of doing it too soon and giving up without a good fight. Afterward, however, most regret waiting too long. They reflect back on the past days, weeks, or months, and feel guilty for putting their pet through those numerous trips to the vet or uncomfortable medical procedures that did not improve their pet’s quality of life. The next time they witness the decline of a pet, they are much more likely to make the decision at the beginning of the decline instead of the end.

Yes, there are those pets that peacefully fall asleep and pass naturally on their own, but just as in humans, this type of peaceful death is rare. Many owners fear their pet passing alone while others do not. Occasionally we are asked to help families through the natural dying process with their pet. For different reasons, these families are against euthanasia. We explain everything we possibly can, from how a natural death may look, how long it may take, what their pet may experience, etc. Inevitably, almost all of these families regret doing this. Most of them comment afterward “I wish I would not have done that, I wish she didn’t have to suffer.” A natural death can be difficult to watch, especially for non-medically oriented people. Most people can watch a human family member in pain much more easily than they can their pet. To an extent, we can talk to other humans through physical pain or discomfort, but there is no comforting a pet that is suffering. Families take this guilt difficultly and we do our very best to not only readily suggest euthanasia when appropriate, but prepare families for a “worst-case” scenario should they chose to wait. (Of course, death is nothing to be fearful of and if your pet does happen to pass on his or her own, it is certainly not a bad thing; it happens in nature frequently!)

If the most important thing to you is waiting until the last possible minute to say goodbye to your baby, you will most likely be facing an emergency, stress-filled, suffering condition for your pet. It may not be peaceful and you may regret waiting too long. If a peaceful, calm, loving, family-oriented end of life experience is what you wish for your pet, then you will probably need to make the decision a little sooner than you want. Making that decision should not be about ceasing any suffering that has already occurred, but about preventing suffering from occurring in the first place. Above all, our pets do not deserve to hurt.

We are here to help make this time a bit easier on everyone. We are aimed at maintaining comfort, quality of life, and the human-animal bond for as long as needed; we are here for you!

We like to use the HHHHHMM scale as an evaluation of your pet’s quality of life. It looks at a number of factors – hurt, hunger, hydration, hygiene, happiness, mobility and more good days than bad – and asks you to give a value to each category.