{"id":2390,"date":"2015-05-10T11:26:30","date_gmt":"2015-05-10T11:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aercmn.com\/?p=2390"},"modified":"2015-05-10T11:26:30","modified_gmt":"2015-05-10T11:26:30","slug":"when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/","title":{"rendered":"When Is It the Right Time to Euthanize a Pet?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Have you ever faced having to decide whether or not to euthanize a pet? Is there a worse decision to have to make? Probably, but it definitely ranks right up there. How do you know when it\u2019s the right time?<\/p>\n

There are many ways to gauge whether or not it\u2019s the \u201cright time\u201d to euthanize a pet. Some people use a pet\u2019s daily activity level to help determine whether or not they\u2019re enjoying any quality of life. Are they eating and drinking, or do you have to take measures to ensure that eating and drinking occurs, like hand-feeding or adding tasty treats? Do they enjoy their usual activities\u2014like playing with toys or going on walks? If it\u2019s a cat, is he using the litterbox, or is he too painful to climb into it? Is he grooming himself? Is your pet interacting with family, or does she spend all her time hiding under the bed or in the basement?<\/p>\n

Lapoflove.com<\/a>\u00a0offers a\u00a0quality of life scale<\/a>\u00a0that can help you assign points to these and other questions and rate your pet\u2019s current quality of life. You can also write notes about your pet\u2019s condition in a daily diary and track his disease progression so that ultimately, you can make a decision in which you feel confident. For other people, the decision has to be made at more of a gut level than an objective one; the owner just intuitively knows that the pet isn\u2019t enjoying life anymore.<\/p>\n

Many people say that they \u201cjust want their pet to die at home.\u201d Rarely, our pets will die at home on\u00a0\"\"their own, unassisted. Know that a \u201cnatural\u201d death, while it sounds ideal, can often be difficult and painful to watch. While it\u2019s nice to think that we might be relieved of having to make the decision to euthanize by a pet dying on its own, we must remember that death can also be prolonged and agonizing for animals that are not euthanized. Often, owners who witness \u201cnatural\u201d deaths come away from the experience traumatized because they wish they had taken steps to prevent the suffering that was involved.<\/p>\n

I created an account on Lapoflove.com last week for my cat, Mickey. Please indulge me while I share a little bit about Mickey. He came to live with our family when he was 15 because he found himself suddenly homeless. At the time, I remember thinking, \u201cI can\u2019t let an old cat be euthanized just because there\u2019s no place for him to go,\u201d as well as, \u201cAw, how long can he possibly live?!\u201d<\/p>\n

Mickey has hung in there for a surprising five years, which makes him an elderly 20 years old now. He\u2019s adjusted beautifully to both of my children, two other cats, and two dogs over that time. He\u2019s always seemed grateful for the home he was given so late in life, and other than being very demanding at mealtimes, he\u2019s been a perfect gentleman.<\/p>\n

Mickey, like most other kitties of his advanced age, has kidney disease. He weighs in at a slight 4.8 pounds\u2014all skin and bony bone. All of this was fine, until he started vomiting, eating less, and having very loose stools. Upon ultrasound, it was found that Mickey had very thick intestines. He underwent a course of antibiotics, but the diarrhea quickly returned. It is likely that Mickey has cancer in his intestines.<\/p>\n

\"\"We are now giving Mickey steroids to help his appetite and make him feel better. It is fair to say that this is a last-ditch effort to make Mickey comfortable in his remaining days until he just can\u2019t be comfortable anymore.<\/p>\n

Only having owned Mickey five years, I didn\u2019t really think the decision to end his life would cause me such an internal struggle. He\u2019s very old. He\u2019s very tiny. He hardly eats. He sleeps a lot. The last thing I want is for Mickey to suffer. But somehow, despite the fact that he scored a 10 out of 19 on the quality of life scale, (rating, \u201cconsider euthanasia\u201d) I haven\u2019t take action yet.<\/p>\n

Ending a life is something we all should take seriously. Yet it is also a gift that we can give our animal companions so that they don\u2019t have to struggle and suffer.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t made my decision yet. Right now, Mickey is in front of the heat register, enjoying the blowing air. Tonight, he ate some cheese, and I brushed him, and he purred. That\u2019s all I have to go on for now, but tonight is not Mickey\u2019s night. I think it\u2019s soon, though–very soon.<\/p>\n

For those of you who have lost pets, know that at AERC, we offer a\u00a0Pet Loss Support Group<\/a>\u00a0the fourth Tuesday of every month so that you can talk to others who understand what you\u2019re feeling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever faced having to decide whether or not to euthanize a pet? Is there a worse decision to have to make? Probably, but it definitely ranks right up there. How do you know when it\u2019s the right time? There are many ways to gauge whether or not it\u2019s the \u201cright time\u201d to euthanize […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Is It the Right Time to Euthanize a Pet? | Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Is It the Right Time to Euthanize a Pet? | Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you ever faced having to decide whether or not to euthanize a pet? Is there a worse decision to have to make? Probably, but it definitely ranks right up there. How do you know when it\u2019s the right time? There are many ways to gauge whether or not it\u2019s the \u201cright time\u201d to euthanize […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-10T11:26:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/50bbf04df56a8f8be5d5d9d637cb827f\"},\"headline\":\"When Is It the Right Time to Euthanize a Pet?\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-10T11:26:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/\"},\"wordCount\":833,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/\",\"name\":\"When Is It the Right Time to Euthanize a Pet? | Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-10T11:26:30+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"When Is It the Right Time to Euthanize a Pet?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota\",\"description\":\"Our Veterinary Blog | Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota (AERC)\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/cropped-ms-tile.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/cropped-ms-tile.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/50bbf04df56a8f8be5d5d9d637cb827f\",\"name\":\"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f46ceaad3df4fa231de22989fe6a3cefb1b0420f2f1a7da4b76fd429428bdf5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f46ceaad3df4fa231de22989fe6a3cefb1b0420f2f1a7da4b76fd429428bdf5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/author\/beyond\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When Is It the Right Time to Euthanize a Pet? | Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When Is It the Right Time to Euthanize a Pet? | Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota","og_description":"Have you ever faced having to decide whether or not to euthanize a pet? Is there a worse decision to have to make? Probably, but it definitely ranks right up there. How do you know when it\u2019s the right time? There are many ways to gauge whether or not it\u2019s the \u201cright time\u201d to euthanize […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/","og_site_name":"Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota","article_published_time":"2015-05-10T11:26:30+00:00","author":"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/"},"author":{"name":"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/50bbf04df56a8f8be5d5d9d637cb827f"},"headline":"When Is It the Right Time to Euthanize a Pet?","datePublished":"2015-05-10T11:26:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/"},"wordCount":833,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Blog"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/","name":"When Is It the Right Time to Euthanize a Pet? | Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-05-10T11:26:30+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/when-is-it-the-right-time-to-euthanize-a-pet\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When Is It the Right Time to Euthanize a Pet?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/","name":"Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota","description":"Our Veterinary Blog | Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota (AERC)","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota","url":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/cropped-ms-tile.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/cropped-ms-tile.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/50bbf04df56a8f8be5d5d9d637cb827f","name":"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f46ceaad3df4fa231de22989fe6a3cefb1b0420f2f1a7da4b76fd429428bdf5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f46ceaad3df4fa231de22989fe6a3cefb1b0420f2f1a7da4b76fd429428bdf5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog"],"url":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/author\/beyond\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}