Euthanasia/Quality of Life
Saying goodbye to a family member is always a difficult decision. While we have always sought to provide calm and low-stress end-of-life services in our clinic, some pet parents prefer to say goodbye in their own homes. To help make this process as peaceful and comfortable as possible, Jamaica Plain Animal Clinic offers at-home euthanasia to our local community, when available. We pride ourselves on working with our pet parents to develop a preventative care and treatment protocol that is best for our patients.
Quality of Life
One of the hardest parts of having a pet in our lives is their shorter lifespan relative to ours. As a result, we are often faced with making tough decisions to say goodbye to our dearly loved pets as a way to relieve pain or prevent suffering. While this is an incredibly personal decision without a clear-cut “right” or “wrong,” our team is here to help counsel our clients, offer advice, and help make the end-of-life process even a little bit easier.
Euthanasia can help prevent further suffering, both physical and emotional, not just for the pet but for the entire family as well. Knowing “when it’s time” is an impossibly difficult and subjective question to answer, but there are some guidelines that can help aid you in determining if and when you should say goodbye to your pet. Please keep in mind that different disease processes affect pets in different ways, meaning one pet with a terminal cancer diagnosis who is still happy and comfortable has a very different quality of life than another patient with congestive heart failure who has difficulty breathing.
First and foremost, we would suggest contacting us to schedule an appointment so that we can evaluate and discuss your pet’s quality of life.
Additional resources:
The Ohio State Vet School has a great resource entitled How Do I Know When
https://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/quality-of-life-scale-helps-make-final-call/
https://veterinarypartner.vin.com/default.aspx?pid=19239&id=4951966