How do you Know when to…you know…

How do you know when to, you know…?              

The ending of that sentence is still hard to even think without getting the lump in my throat. How do you know its time to euthanize your pet?  It’s the hardest part of being a responsible and loving caretaker for your animals.

In the back of my mind, I knew the day would come that Gwen would pass. I suppose I’d always hoped it would be this sweet moment where she was cuddled with me on the couch, snoring as she did, and she would go without ever being in any pain or feeling the least bit sick.  But that’s not how it goes.  Her age was showing, we had several other health events throughout 2019 and 2020 and I remember calling my husband down to my home office so that I could try to have this dreaded conversation with him.  When I get sad, I tend to get angry – so I sat there stifling tears – cussing about having to call our vet. I think I even referred to it as “killing my dog”. I know better – I know that’s not what euthanasia is, but I was so mad that this was the stage of life we were in. I pulled myself together and got on the phone and let me tell you what, that phone call helped us tremendously.

The doctor spent some time on the phone with me, we talked about Gwen’s age, her health, and her behavior.  She helped me to put some key factors to Gwen’s quality of life into perspective and so began the surveillance.  It was this added attention that drew us to identify some of the symptoms, which led to a few more doctor visits which identified her cancer before things got bad.  Planning and having conversations about death helped us to make sure Gwen’s final moments were comfortable and that we got to spend every moment with her.

Talking about death is not always pleasant – but its going to happen.  The only thing that will make this end-of-life stage better is taking the time to discuss and plan.  

The Order of the Good Death is a death acceptance organization, their primary focus being on human mortality. However, they have prepared a plethora of resources for end-of-life planning and have been gracious enough to share some with us, including this great article “What veterinarians wished you knew before euthanizing your pet.”

Thanks to The Order of The Good Death for sharing your resources with us.

Until next time,

C. O