Sorry, Alan, this is probably a sore spot right now, but it is something I've been wondering about for a while. You often hear about people having their dogs and cats put to sleep when they get to be old and sick, it seems you don't hear much about just letting them die at home...whether one is more humane than the other in that the pain ends earlier, I'm not sure...but if you had a choice, which would you do?

I've said before we had one of each, the first dog had a large tumor on her stomach that ruptured and she had to be put down, the other dog had tumors, they ruptured, he had surgery, he was sick, he was getting to the point he couldn't walk, but we kept him here and he died at home I guess as peacefully as he could. The vet had only been out the day before to look at him and he never suggested putting him to sleep...so I guess it was kind of sudden, but given a choice I'd rather die at home and I think when it's possible, that pets should have that same option.

I had a dog who grew old and in his last year became very ill. His heart was beating erratically, he had a very nasty hack and he ballooned up in size. The vet gave me the option of having him put to sleep, or putting him on medication. Being attached, I chose the latter and it helped. His heart continued beating fasting than it should and his hack sustained, but the water he was retaining drained. It bought us a few more months with him; but eventually his condition began to worsen once more and he had a mild seizure. Later, I took him to the vet again and told them that I thought it was time to go ahead and put him down. They agreed. That was hard.

But no, if they're sick, then I don't think that they should be made to die by inches at home (which is what my dog probably would have done very shortly thereafter if I didn't go ahead and reconcile the truth.) I don't believe in letting animals suffer when there's no hope, and the effects of their illness makes their day to day living akin to torture. It's selfish and inhumane, IMO. I feel the same way about people losing their battles with terminal illnesses as well.

I say put them down when the situation is untreatable....don't make them suffer to death.

Marc™ wrote:

I say put them down when the situation is untreatable....don't make them suffer to death.

I put down three pets. I did so only after pain meds stopped working. I had no choice. I had a friend who waited til the last minute to put her dog down and he died in the backseat of her car on the way to the vet.... no way was that happening to my baby girl!!!! She was going to be on my lap, and she was.

Unfortunately, you have to make that decision for you pet--they don't just die, they linger, and why prolong their suffering?

You have to ask yourself if you're keeping them alive for them, or for you, based on their quality of life at that point.

That's true but there's another thing to consider, vets will recommend putting animals to sleep but it's not always for the right reasons and it's not always necessary. I have a friend in Canada who has a cat that the vet recommended putting to sleep because of her anger issues; but they refused and it's made a very nice pet for them.

If I had a severely ill pet, I would put him down.