Hardest thing about owning a pet

We put a dog down a few years ago. he had a good check up in July. A couple weeks later he started eating less and just continued to decline. My husband brought him in at the beginning of September. He was thinner and was not moving around as well. He had a fast growing cancer. My husband asked what would happen if he brought him home and the vet said within a week or so he would probably not be able to walk. My husband opted to put him down that day. It wouldn't have been a good week for the dog and he was a big dog. Getting him back to the vet would have been a struggle. It was the right time to do it. We have two dogs now. I hope that when their time comes we'll know the right time for them too.

It's the hardest thing ever to put a beloved pet down.

My DS has a lab we gave him 15 years ago. She is the sweetest thing, can't see much, can't hear, moves slowly but eats/drinks well. I told DS he would know when it was time. It's hard to see them get old.

As a parent it was one of the hardest things to do. we brought our lab in together and held her as she passed. It was so hard seeing the kids lose the only pet they had. The oldest was four, middle one and youngest not even born yet. We still tear up and it has been two years. We make it a tradition to go out for ice cream to celebrate her life. Corny I know. But it is the one time all five of us get together without skipping out. We tell stories and laugh.

We're struggling with this right now with my little guy. He's 14.5 years old, has bad teeth, a big tumor thing on his leg (that doesn't hamper his mobility or seem to cause any pain), and he is getting kind of blind and a lot deaf. Still eats and drinks fine, loves his treats, chases stuff outside on occasion, likes to be around us.

But he also has a bunch of exterior mast cell tumors that he's been scratching at, pukes on the bed or on the carpeted floor, and more problematic he has been going totally nuts barking at blank walls (we call it his "I see dead people!" thing), whines to go in and out constantly all day long for no reason (like 4 times in 20 minutes), and very lately has peed on the beds three times in less than two months requiring everything to be laundered. Ugh.

Like DH says, the dog himself has no problem whatsoever with his quality of life but he's making OUR quality of life pretty miserable! He peed on our king size bed a couple nights ago after he'd been let out for the night beforehand, and after I had gone to bed myself. He didn't make any noise at all alerting me that he needed to go out, and I'm a super light sleeper so I would have woke up if he had. DH noticed it when he went to get in bed. It sucks having to strip your bed completely down to the mattress and remake it at 1:00 am when you're already dead tired.

that paragraph resonates with me too.  I remember when we took our dog in for the last time.  he walked into the vet's office on his own four paws, like he was just going in for a check up.  at that moment, he was strong and almost youthful even if his internal pain and age said otherwise.  it may have been a week too long but we believe at least it was not a week too late.  we are good with that.  It definitely is the worst thing about owning a pet but that is why we must be good puppy parents and make those kind of decisions. 

Thanks. He's been awake every time he's done it, and in fact has peed on the floor in the same way several times. Didn't make any sound or move to go to the door, just stood up, stretched in the middle of the room and let go on the floor right in front of DH.

I'm thinking it has something to do with the big mass on his hind leg, like maybe it is growing inside his abdomen too and crowding his bladder or something. He had a chest x-Ray about a month or so ago and the vet said it wasn't in his bones. It really is time, I'm just having difficulty letting him go when he can seem so normal and aware. DH was done with all his crazy barking a year ago. It still stinks even when you know it's time.

One of my cats will be 19 next month. I know we are at the tail end of our time with her and we try to appreciate her as much as we can while we can. She's doing ok. She doesn't hear as well as she used to, she's lost some muscle mass, she isn't as springy as she used to be and sometimes needs help getting up on the bed and couch. She also has some kidney issues but is doing well on the prescription renal diet. As long as she's doing ok, doing her regular cat things, being social with us like usual and eating and drinking normally we are good. When it gets bad, I'm not about to put her through any painful or traumatizing treatments; we will send her off surrounded by people who love her.

I put down my furry baby last month. It was a horrible decision to have to make and our vet was so kind and really helped us weigh our options. The only consolation was that we knew he was likely suffering. Losing a pet is a very different type of grief than losing a human loved one. I wish he could have told us what he needed.

We have lost 5 dogs over 27 years. Four of those dogs we had to make that terrible decision. The fifth one died on May 4th of this year suddenly and unexpectedly. He was even at the vet that morning for his annual checkup and was fine. He died then at 3 a.m. It was the most horrific death of any of our dogs. I still cry and can't look at his pictures yet because of all that happened for a few hours before his death. He suffered horribly and the images I have in my mind haunt me. Had he been put down, I would have felt much more at peace but this was sudden and unexpected.

The article was helpful to me. Did anyone notice this thread is almost a year old and 3 posts above me we have a one post wonder bumping it trying to sell something? Or increase blog traffic...

Oh dear. Didn't notice that. I have got to get better at watching that! Thanks for pointing it out.

Patter yes 😔

I had to have a cat put to sleep about a year ago. He had gotten very sick and I took him to specialists and was having to force feed him. I kept hoping he would get better. I waited to late to make the decision. He went so fast though. He was fine and two weeks later I hate to make that decision. It was much harder to go through it with him than when we had our dog put to sleep.

I have a feeling we are nearing that decision in our house - certainly not in the immediate future, but within the next year or two.

We have unconfirmed Cushings (the vet assured us it was not wrong to do the expensive confirmation tests & treat it, that it would progress anyway) and a serious heart murmur.

In May she had a series of seizures over two days, each shorter than the one before. And hadn't had one since, so we chalked it up to the possibility that she ate some lawn fertilizer bits that were at the edge of the garden. But Monday she had two short ones, both around a minute long. So we are keeping an extra close eye on her.

Other than that, she is mostly happy go lucky - always under foot, looking for treats any time you enter the kitchen. So the idea of putting her to sleep right now seems silly since 98% of the time she seems totally fine.

But I can't help but think that the end is nearing for her in the next while. She's 11, so not a young thing either.