How do you decide to euthanize a dog?

[disneymom3]

I realize this has the potential to be a hot button thread but that is truly not my purpose. I do not have a dog but we are planning on getting a puppy in the next year. I have several friends and our neighbor who have had their dogs put to sleep and some who have not. I just don't know what to think.

My one friend has hardwood floors in her house and her dog was getting old and kept slipping and falling on the stairs. They put her to sleep. She said she was worried about her getting hurt one day when no one was home. That seemed kind of odd to me. I mean, I know she cared about this dog, but why couldn't you just like babygate the stairs?

Our neighbor had a dog who was very old, couldn't hear much etc and one day couldn't walk anymore. They had her put to sleep. That made more sense to me.

Other friend had a dog who was blind, deaf and then got to the point that he was barely eating. They waited until he died on his own.

Another friend has a dog who cannot walk. He does not bark or wag his tail or respond in any way other than he shakes when he is nervous.

I am not judging any of these people, just confused as a nondog owner. I guess it is just a pesonal decision on the part of the family. If you have gone through this and wouldn't mind answering, I would really like some insight into people's thoughts on this.

 

[mommasita]

I have done it twice...Not easy at all.

My first dog we had no option, honestly. She had a mental breakdown when my parents divorced. WE left in a hurry, for our safety. We found out later, my father had left her alone for 10 days, She ate her way out the door, literally..We moved and took her, but every time we went out she chewed something up. We tried EVERY room in the house, and she even chewed the mirror in the bathroom, which started her stomach bleeding. She was 15, and there was nothing we could do..I cried for weeks..

My second dog was 17 (two years ago)..He was healthy like a horse, and I vowed when he had ANY kind of pain, we would put him down..One day the vet told us he had a tumor pressing on his kidneys, and we had no choice, we did it for him, as we loved him.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

This is one of those subjective subjects that you'll get various opinions on, but for most loving owners it's when the quality of life becomes such that the dog is no longer enjoying life, and may even be suffering. It's not an easy decision make or process to go through.

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

This is one of those subjective subjects that you'll get various opinions on, but for most loving owners it's when the quality of life becomes such that the dog is no longer enjoying life, and may even be suffering. It's not an easy decision make or process to go through.

Excellent answer. I've had to make that decision for dogs and horses and it's never easy. But for me it is quality of life that matters. With the horses it was a little different as we had 2 that had catastrophic injuries and there was no choice. We have dog right now that is getting to the point where we will have to decide. She can't control her bladder - but she's an outside dog so that's not a huge thing. But now she has as much dry food as she wants and gets 2 big cans of dog food and is just horribly thin. She still gets around and doesn't seem to be in pain but I know that her day is coming.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

With the horses it was a little different as we had 2 that had catastrophic injuries and there was no choice.

Last time I had to put one of my dogs to sleep the vet told me the story of how she'd just put her own horse to sleep. We cried together over our respective losses. In that moment I knew she really understood how hard it was. Her sharing that with me got me through it. Seeing a horse put down must be awful.

 

[chager]

Honestly, it is the hardest decision to make. You always think, is there one more thing we can try or maybe the treatment will work this time. We struggled when it was time to let our cat, Trixie, have peace. It was so hard, but she was getting worse and not better no matter what meds we tried. I think it is a quality of life thing. Our first cat, Tubbs, became ill very suddenly. It would be way more then we could even dream to afford the surgery the vet wanted to do. Tubbs was only 5yrs old, but we made the heart wrenching decision to let him go. He had a severe heart defect and was having strokes because of it. The day he tore out all his fur and was having trouble breathing we knew it was time. I wasn't strong enough to be with him and my mom took him, after that I made a promise I would take any furbaby when it was time.
Having a pet can be very rewarding! Just remember it is a 10-20 year commitment usually. Too many people get a pet and then when life gets too busy the pet is tossed aside. Or the new wife/husband doesn't like pets, or now the children have come along and the pet is tossed out. (By no means saying you would do this. Just what I jave seen alot of lately!)

 

[Bashful2]

We just had to put our dalmatian buddy, Patch, to sleep in February. He'd been part of our family for over 14 years and we loved him dearly. What a tough decision it was. When the time finally came, though, we knew it.

More than anything, he loved to eat and to play. Even at 14, he was running through the house and playing with the puppy. He had arthritis and had trouble getting up, but once up he was still pretty frisky. He was losing weight and his stomach was more sensitive, but he still ate like a horse. He was incontinent at times, but still liked to go outside.

Then, almost all of a sudden, everything just stopped. He didn't eat, he didn't play. Sometimes, he'd just lay on the floor and shake. When he did get up, he seemed to be lost.

It was strange when we took him to the vet. DH had to pick him up and carry him to the car because he didn't want to walk outside and he couldn't get in the car by himself anymore. He would always shake when we got to the vet's office, but this time he was very calm. His usual weight was between 51 and 55 lbs. This day his weight was 38 lbs.

I stayed with him the whole time. DH couldn't do it. He had to wait outside in the parking lot. It was very, very peaceful. I just held him and talked to him until his body relaxed and he was gone.

Even though we have 2 other dogs and 6 cats and we love them all, the house seems empty without him.

 

[smartestnumber5]

I have cats, not dogs and they are young so thankfully I have not had to think too much about this. GF had a cat before we met, however, who she still talks about as the best cat ever (I think the current boys get jealous when they hear how she talks about him!). He was staying with her parents for awhile when he was diagnosed with cancer--they took him to the vet because he had lost weight and had begun acting a bit strangely. Since he already seemed to be feeling the effects of the cancer, they didn't want to wait at all in putting him to sleep, so GF's parents did it (with her consent) without her there.

I think she and I are on the same page regarding our boys that we want to spare them as much suffering as possible, so if they had a terminal illness which would act quickly and/or was negatively effecting their quality of life or if their quality of life significantly declined to the point of suffering, we'd want to act quickly.

I'm sure that's easy to say given our boys are young and perfectly healthy. Other members of my family have dogs and they have generally not found it so easy to let go when the dog became sick. One of the dogs had congestive heart failure at a fairly young age and they got her a lot of medical treatment for it. She did live almost two years after she was diagnosed, and for the most part she had a fine quality of life. In the last few months, though, she had numerous episodes of trouble breathing that landed her in the doggie ER in the middle of the night. Personally I thought they waited a bit too long as she had more and more episodes, though when she wasn't having an episode she still seemed to be quite happy. Another dog had cancer which wouldn't have given him much time, and the family decided to give him chemo. I believe they did one round, perhaps two, and he was miserable and just throwing up and totally sick after the treatment, and then decided it wasn't fair to make him suffer. GF and I do not think we would have gone the chemo route at all.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Some would think we waited too long with this dog. He was 13 and had lost his ablility to walk due to nerve degeneration from spinal arthritis. But he was otherwise happy, healthy, and not in pain, so we decided to give him more time. Fortunately, we had the time, skills and means to do so. Even the kids helped care for him. We got him some wheels and he was walking, even running, once again. People would either smile or scowl when they saw him; mostly smile. Kind of funny. But again, it's a very personal decision.

I had trouble letting this one go. When he was young he was an amazing athlete - an agility and frisbee dog. The sweetest dog to everyone - a real love. He is the dog I was putting to sleep (in the post above) when the vet shared her story with me. As circumstances would have it, I had to go alone to the vet's that day and I didn't think I'd be able to do it. But I did, his time had finally come. Sometimes you just know when the time is, and sometimes you don't.

Personally, I don't think there's harm in waiting unless the animal is suffering. But I guess suffering to one is not always suffering to another. I've relied on my vets to guide me. My vets know me and know how I am with my dogs. In three instances, they've said we're ok to wait a while if you're comfortable with that. If they say it's time, then I know it's really time. That's what happened that day. I went in with him for something else and she said it was time. I knew it in my heart but I needed to hear her say it.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

My one friend has hardwood floors in her house and her dog was getting old and kept slipping and falling on the stairs. They put her to sleep. She said she was worried about her getting hurt one day when no one was home. That seemed kind of odd to me. I mean, I know she cared about this dog, but why couldn't you just like babygate the stairs?

When I read this I was thinking of my dog above, and also his sister who had a brain tumor. Both had trouble walking. I wonder if it wasn't so much about the stairs as it was about the dog not being able to walk. There are many reasons why that happens, all being pretty serious. As a matter of fact, my dog before that had a bone tumor and he had difficulty walking, too. So a baby gate might have been just a bandaid solution to what was otherwise a serious problem with the dog. That's my take on it, anyway. Nothing broke my heart more than seeing the dog with the brain tumor actually fall over when she tried to walk.

 

[GoofyBaseballMom26]

I've had to put two dogs to sleep.

The first one had a stroke and the decision was essentially made for me. He couldn't stand, eat and obviously did not know what was going on around him. It happened one morning and the vet put him to sleep within a couple of hours. He was a good, good dog and I'm glad he didn't suffer long.

The second one was very arthritic, we had him on medication and he was doing ok but all of a sudden he couldn't walk very good at all. We would have to carry him down the stairs. I took him to the vet, they found out he had cancer, medication didn't help and a week later I had him put to sleep. It was very, very hard and everyone in the vet's office was crying with me. He was a wonderful pet. I did not want him to be in pain and suffer because I didn't want to let him go. I felt really bad when we figured out he had probably been in pain longer than we had realized but dogs don't always show signs of pain that are easily recognized according to my vet.

That's how I decided. It is a hard decision but in my opinion you owe it to them to not let them suffer.

 

[diesel]

For me the decision was based on when his bad days out numbered his good days. Our Dog who passed away last June was diagnosed with cancer at 8 years old. They gave him 4-6 weeks to live. After 3 weeks he was just going down hill so fast. Lost control of his bladder, not eating very well, having trouble getting up and panting constantly. My husband kept hoping that he would die peacefully at home but I could tell that this was not going to happen so I had to be the person to make the decision. Well I guess I had to be the one to say it out loud. I think my husband knew what needed to be done but he didn't want to be the one to say it. Also another consideration for us was that he weighed 120 lbs so when a dog that large starts falling down or loosing his bladder control its a big deal. I think people with smaller dogs choose to wait a little longer because it's easier to care for a smaller dog than a very large one.

Gus-Gus below is our new puppy that we got in Nov.

 

[luvwinnie]

My sister's friend recently went through this and their vet said this:

THink of the 3 things your dog loves to do...if he can't do them anymore, it may be time.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

all of a sudden he couldn't walk very good at all. We would have to carry him down the stairs. I took him to the vet, they found out he had cancer, medication didn't help and a week later I had him put to sleep.

Perfect illustration of my last point. I'm sorry about your dogs.

 

[LSchrow]

when the pain they are in is more important than the pain of losing them...i always remember that saying, "when you love someone enough to let them go".
most of our furbabies died of complications from old age. the most difficult was our "perfectly healthy" 5yo golden retreiver who couldn't stand up one day...over $10K & weeks of testing to find he had cancer in his spine (untreatable).
i held him in my arms, whispering to him as he left....i know we did the right thing for him; it just hurt so much that such a gentle, sweet boy was gone.

:

 

[pumba]

when our poor Jasmine was sick, and we found out she had cancer.....the last two weeks of her life made up our decision......we had her put to sleep because we loved her so much.....she was young too......
My husband wrote this to me when my dear sister was dying last year....but it also can be placed right on this thread .

"When the quality of life is good it's sad to think about the future and the
inevitable.
When the quality is gone and the real suffering begins it's sad to have it
drag on."

 

[disneymom3]

Thank you all so much for your thoughtful, heartfelt answers. Reading many of your stories brought tears to my eyes.

I just really thank you all for sharing this with me. I feel like I have a much better understanding of it now.

 

[TerriP]

Some would think we waited too long with this dog. He was 13 and had lost his ablility to walk due to nerve degeneration from spinal arthritis. But he was otherwise happy, healthy, and not in pain, so we decided to give him more time. Fortunately, we had the time, skills and means to do so. Even the kids helped care for him. We got him some wheels and he was walking, even running, once again. People would either smile or scowl when they saw him; mostly smile. Kind of funny. But again, it's a very personal decision.

Seeing him definitely makes me smile! He sounds like a very special boy. Thanks for sharing his photo and story with us!

 

[Disneydenise]

I can't believe I found this post here today. After a month of trying to get a miracle for our beloved Tinkerbelle I am waiting for my son to get home from College to take her to the vet. She has been sick for a lot longer than I think we know but she has now lost all her eye site and her ability to walk. The vet said she has a brain tumor and the only way we would know for sure is if we take her for a neurological work up at Penn Vet Hospital. Then we would have to put her down because I am not Donald Trump or even related to him. We have made her as comfortable as possible for the last 6 weeks but now it is just our own problem she is too sick to care I think now. She was such a great dog. Please pray for all of my family we are just so sad right now. I have always had dogs but I never had to do this. I guess I should be grateful for the last 12 years and how happy she has always made me feel. I swear the only kind of dog I am going to get again is a stuffed one. I know that isn't true but it is easier.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Denise As I mentioned above, my dog Kayla had a brain tumor. It sounds like not even Donald Trump (or I should say, his $$) would be able to help your dog at this point (which was the case for mine as well.) I'm sorry, it's horrible seeing your baby like that. I will post a poem that I hope will help you today.

From www.petloss.com

FROM FRIEND TO FRIEND

You're giving me a special gift,
So sorrowfully endowed,
And through these last few cherished days,
Your courage makes me proud.


But really, love is knowing
When your best friend is in pain,
And understanding earthly acts
Will only be in vain.


So looking deep into your eyes,
Beyond, into your soul,
I see in you the magic, that will
Once more make me whole.


The strength that you possess,
Is why I look to you today,
To do this thing that must be done,
For it's the only way.


That strength is why I've followed you,
And chose you as my friend,
And why I've loved you all these years...
My partner 'til the end.


Please, understand just what this gift,
You're giving, means to me,
It gives me back the strength I've lost,
And all my dignity.


You take a stand on my behalf,
For that is what friends do.
And know that what you do is right,
For I believe it too.


So one last time, I breathe your scent,
And through your hand I feel,
The courage that's within you,
To now grant me this appeal.


Cut the leash that holds me here,
Dear friend, and let me run,
Once more a strong and steady dog,
My pain and struggle done.


And don't despair my passing,
For I won't be far away,
Forever here, within your heart,
And memory I'll stay.


I'll be there watching over you,
Your ever faithful friend,
And in your memories I'll run,
...a young dog once again.


In Memory of Asta, Feb. 1997
(c) Karen Clouston