How Do I Know When it’s Time?

Assessing Quality of Life for Your Companion Animal and Making End-of-Life Decisions

Our treasured friends bring us so much joy, and more love than we can ever imagine. Making the decision to euthanise your much-loved pet may be one of the most difficult decisions you ever make.

Often, we make the decision to put our pets to sleep when they no longer have the quality of life we know they deserve. Their quality of life is based on their physical and mental wellbeing, not just one factor. This chart is aimed to help you put all these pieces together. It is important to remember that all pets are different. What may be considered a good or poor quality of life for one may be different for another.

Using this chart, you can assess each factor on a scale of all the time to never. Higher scores equal a better quality of life. In some cases, even one or two factors being on the left-hand side may indicate a poor quality of life (i.e. uncontrolled pain or inability to ambulate) even if many factors are still positive.

Some items or symptoms on the list may be expected side effects of the treatments that your pet is undergoing. It is important to discuss these symptoms and side effects with your veterinarian.

Important questions for you to consider:

What has my pet always looked forward to? Perhaps playing at the park, swimming or food. Are they still eager and able to enjoy these activities?
How did my pet look prior to becoming unwell? It can be difficult to appreciate gradual changes when we are always with them, but looking at photos or videos when they were healthy may help.