Euthanasia and Your Dog – Knowing When It’s Time

Euthanasia is an extremely difficult topic for all dog owners.  In this post, I’ll share my experiences (and mistakes) in how to know when it’s time, or not, but more importantly, making the best decision for your dog. Because bottom line, it’s about your dog, it’s not about you.  I should know – I’ve had to euthanize six dogs in the last 14 years.

Having to make the decision to euthanize a dog, or in other words putting a dog down, does not necessarily equate only to elderly, senior dogs who have lived a full life, and are now losing their mobility, or you see a cognitive decline, or the effects of a tumor or cancer.  The difficult decision to euthanize a pup can also come when you least expect it, and when the dog is a young adult or even a puppy.

As a dog owner of over 30 years, the three factors that I have used to determine when to put my dog down are 1) is my pup in pain; 2) what is its quality of life; and 3) what will the pup have to go through and endure to extend its life.

There are two kinds of euthanasia.  No choice and choice. The first kind, no choice, is when your vet tells you the dreaded words, “I can’t save him”.  Then the humane thing is to euthanize. In a way, the decision has been taken out of your hands, but no less difficult. The second kind, choice, is the hardest and most emotional.  It usually involves a lot of soul searching, tears, and making the decision/cancelling the decision, until you finally come to terms with what’s best for the pup.

Poco’s Story

Let me use my Boston Terrier Poco as an example of my mistake and what not to do.  She was 4-1/2 years old when she suffered her first cluster seizure one month to the day after I my 93-year-old mother died from dementia.  After I rushed Poco to my vet, it was recommended that I see a neurologist, which I did.  One $1200 MRI later, she was diagnosed with meningoencephalitis, an inflammatory brain disease that for the most part is incurable.

Having just lost my mom and knowing how deeply Poco loved and was bonded to my mother (and me), I embarked on a five-month journey that could be titled’ Trying to save the unsavable.” when I should have said “make her as comfortable as possible, to avoid seizures, and when the time comes…)

Poco was in and out of the hospital, placed on Prednisone and later Cytosar, a cancer drug that was also used to quell brain swelling.  She suffered one more cluster seizure, and the vet gave me two options.  Put her down or transfer her to the regional animal hospital. What I should have done was put her down. Instead, I chose the latter.  She was in emergency for two days, on a ventilator, on an IV, medications, with cotton in her ears to keep sounds down.  I came to see her at 2 in the morning and be with her during the day until the ER doc said, “I can’t save her.”  I gave the assent for euthanasia, and I held her in my arms talking to her as the doc gave the injection.

In those five months, I had spent over $12,000 in vet and hospital bills. Was she in pain? I was told no, but I could see the differences in her body, in her activity level, but I just couldn’t let go.

Moral of this story. It should never be about you, it’s about your dog.  It’s part of being an owner along with the trust and love that our dog puts in us, that we will make the decisions, the hard decisions, that in the end are best for them.

To go back for a moment to not having a choice in euthanasia, the two reasons that you don’t want to encounter are when your dog has swallowed a foreign object, or a lump/bump that you thought would go away turns out to be cancer, and in both cases, you waited too long to take your dog to the vet. Then, your dog has paid the ultimate price with its life, and you’re an emotional wreck, not to mention you’re also out hundreds of dollars if not a few thousand.

Noel and Spunky’s Stories

I lost two of my pups, Noel and Spunky, to foreign objects that they swallowed. Not everything a dog swallows will show up on an x-ray.  And when something is detected, as in Noel’s case, the severity is not always known until exploratory surgery.  

By the time that I had given assent for Noel’s surgery, he was on the operating table when the vet called me at 2am and said peritonitis had set in and he couldn’t be saved.  I held him on the operating table as he got the injection.  He had never regained consciousness. 

In Spunky’s case, he, too, had passed from the same thing, peritonitis, caused by foreign objects not being detected in time.  He was in emergency twice in six months and yet each time I was told his “bloodwork and x-rays are normal.” I told the vet I was going to have those words written on Spunky’s tombstone. The doctors were hesitant about performing exploratory surgery because all indications pointed only to gastritis, curable by antibiotics. Yet I knew, instinctively there was something wrong.

Moral of this story.  This can happen to any dog, large or small, at any age, puppy through senior. When your dog stops eating his normal amount of food, acts differently, has vomiting/diarrhea, you see a lump/bump appear out of nowhere, get the pup to the vet immediately. And advocate for your pup.  One other point, always keep count of the toys and any other missing items that you think you misplaced by accident because they could be in your dog.  Finally, we come to the senior dogs, the most difficult of decisions when it comes to euthanasia, simply because your pup has been with you for 10, 15, 20 years, and given you their love, companionship, loyalty, and a fair share of joy and laughter.

Czarina’s Story

Czarina, my German Shepherd, was 12 yrs and 3 months to the day of her birthday, when she died.  Intervertebral disc disease had rendered her incontinent in the last four months of her life, and I had to help her get to her feet so she could go lay on the deck or grass.  I bathed her and cleaned up after her because I felt she deserved that from me after a lifetime of loyalty and love.  She never left my side.  I couldn’t let her go.  Her five senses were intact, I could help her.  I used just about every rationale I could think of to not make the decision. And it was only one day, when I finally, really looked at her struggling to get to me in the kitchen from the front hallway, that I realized it was time to let her die with the dignity she deserved.  I was with her at the vet from the time she was prepped to the time the injection was given. 

Two and one-half months later, my other GSD, Olympia, developed a wound in her thigh out of nowhere.  I took her to emergency, and in one week’s time the wound had gone so deep, it had eaten into the muscle, and sepsis set in.  The dreaded words, “I can’t save her.”  Same drill as with Czarina, from prep to the end, I was with her. Olympia died in my arms.

Moral of this story:  if you are fortunate to have a pup into its senior dotage, watch their behavior, whether there’s a disease involved that eating away at them, or simply old age.  And most of all watch their eyes.  Because all the hints are there. But it’s up to you to see them and respond. When you commit to euthanasia, think of it as act of love, that you’re returning the love and loyalty that they gave you all those years.  And, if you’re like me, you know that one day, you’ll see them again.