When Do You Call It Quits?

This is a bit of a touchy subject for me and maybe to others too. With geriatric dogs, high up there in double digits in age, when do you feel it's best to let them go? Do you feel it's best when their health declines and suffering is very apparent, or when overall quality of life is not as good as when younger? The later I mean the dog being stiff and not doing all that much other than pacing around, sleeping, organ systems begin to fail but not to the point of pain yet. Do you think it's best to let them go peacefully before they start to really suffer and are in chronic pain so they don't need to endure pain?

I like to think about how I'd like to be treated. If I was stiff oftentimes, and wasn't able to move as much and under the care of my loved ones, I'd love to be kept alive as long as I could see their loving faces and be with my family for as long as possible. I'd not prefer death only because I was getting old.

Now on the other hand, if I was in horrible pain... making my family suffer, and they were saddened by my existence, I wouldn't be happy and I'd want them to let me go so we could all find peace.

Same with the dogs, when the dogs are obviously so old and in pain, sick etc. that they are no longer happy, I'll let them go. My Brownie got a tumor in his nose that was closing off his nasal passages, it got hard for him to breathe and he could no longer sleep, so I let him go.

You can live with pain and still be happy, trust me... people do it once they get old all the time. Most of them don't wish for death. I don't think you should put down an old dog because he's in pain sometimes.

I believe in the quality over the quantity of life for dogs and humans both. Two situations when we knew "it was time"...

My husband's family had a dog we inherited named Jackie. At first she would leave a small puddle in the kitchen sometimes. A few months later it was a lake, every morning. Besides being increasingly lethargic she had lost bladder control. She was perhaps 12-14 years old.

We had a rat. Don't shudder, they're actually very friendly intelligent creatures if rodents don't spook you. Anyway, it was a rat I was fond of, perhaps three and old for a rat. As is common she had developed a tumor under her front paw. It gradually grew until it was difficult for her to walk.

In both cases they were old, surgery wasn't possible due to their ages and they had lived good lives. I cried over both of them. It's hard to say goodbye, but perhaps you know it's time.

Give yourself time to mourn and eventually you'll know when it's time to let another dog into your heart. Hugs to you at this difficult time.

For me it is quality of life over quantity of life but I have never had a geriatric dog both mine were young dogs but with diseases which were not only incurable but they let me know when it was time and they had had enough of life and were beginning to suffer. Each time different vets opinions were better the dog can walk in than have to be carried or us to come too the car or them brought in on a gurney.
I am hoping Dillon makes it to an elderly dog and for me if it is age it will be down to the severity of loss of the bladder or bowel or both and just how difficult they actually find it getting around.
I think somehow instinct tells us and our dogs and they seem to let us know. For me its the eyes when they lose that shine and they look dull and sad that's for me a sign.

When do you call it quits? I am not the one to answer having done just that on 11 June - but my vet told me to sleep on it and call him again in the morning. And in between my first call and the one in the morning I realised that it was not time. The fact that I was concussed and having CT scans and 20 stitches beside my eye did not make me change my mind. Just made me realise that it was not time for either my beloved or me to call it quits.

Because she is not old. She is only 5½ years old, and just happens to be epileptic. Not old. Not ill. Just epileptic.

When do you know to call it quits? I can give you links to many wonderful site and this is just one...

http://www.hilstvet.com/quality-of-life-scale-pets/

But no matter how many things you read - only you will know, and your dog will tell you when it is time.

Pereg told me it was NOT time for her. She knew more than I did. But I made her a promise that I would never let her suffer, and I think that should the day come, she will let me know that it is time.

Such a heart wrenching and difficult decision that only you can make I'm afraid.
One of my dogs I had PTS because of a terminal illness, one took the decision from me and quietly slipped away. The others I agonised over for weeks

There is a saying I have read on here which sums it up I think, "better a minute too soon than a minute too late"

I've had to go through it with a few dogs and a few cats however on each occasion there were very sudden catastrophic health issues meaning there wasn't really a choice.

In the case of choosing 'the time' for an elderly dog, I guess I'll be thinking about quality of life.

My Skye is 16 and whilst he's not the young dog he used to be he still trots about and enjoys to play. Yes he has days when he's a bit stiff yet despite being deaf, he still seems happy enough in himself.

I hope that I'll know when the time is right or that he'll somehow let me know.

Who knows, perhaps something will suddenly happen so the choice is made for me or perhaps he may just go one day of his own accord.

Oh dear, does it ever get any harder than this when it comes to our faithful friends?

We had our old girl pts in November aged 17. She was a GSD cross and naturally at that kind of age was much less active than in her youth.

Her back legs became stiff but she never appeared to be in pain or even uncomfortable - just slower.

She started to leave puddles around 11 months before we lost her and that did bother her as she had always been a very clean dog.
We worried about this and wondered if it was her time but found, through a friend, some incontinence pants and gave them a try.
She was a much happier pooch. She wore them overnight and on car journeys and they did a smashing job right up until the end.
Inevitably one morning she just could not get up and then we knew.
Up until that day she had been interested in her toys, walks, had a very good appetite and seemed to be enjoying life.

Every case is different and it goes without saying that you must try to do what is best for the dog and not for yourself.

I am learning from collie and from family.. collie goes down every few months. Three days you think she is at deaths door, and I keep her mobile and hydrated. Then she picks up and lives again.. even now that she is blind she has life and energy, even though I know she has arthritis she loves life and me. Loves her food except on very rare days.
Seems as if often we act on impressions from bad episodes. Or thinking we know when life is not worth it?
When collie went blind, folk hinted that that was it for her..Far from it and they would say the same re me of course, disabled as I am.
I think that the day collie decides enough she will simply stop living. In a long life, mostly because I had no access to vets, I have always nursed my critters to the end and only twice have I regretted I could not help them. Else it has been gentle and loving to cuddle them. Natural.. and with collie who ha lived all her last years alone with me it would be a torment and a cruelty to get a vet in at the end. A hard ending for her.
Wish there was a way to do it at home, I really do. A gentle way...

Just my thoughts and I think this is one of the threads I will not return to; am too old and sick this week for debate, but this is something I have thought about a lot and have made my peace with it

Euthanasia is in my opinion too common and premature. Ageing and weakening is a natural part of life

No debates here Rosebud, at least that is not my intention at all. Sorry if I accidentally offended you.

I just wanted some insight from other dog lovers. It's easier to find valuable opinions from other people who feel the same as you about their pets. I can't talk about it with family as they are not on the same level as I am with my pets. I'm not saying that they don't like animals, it's just simply that I have a deeper passion for them.

Sometimes i'm not sure if it's time. He doesn't yelp out, he can walk but getting more rickety now. He's not incontinent but his kidneys are shot, he basically drinks water and almost immediately pees it out. I'm not sure if he's hurting or not by his declining kidney failure, so hard to tell sometimes. He's pacing very often now, especially during the evening. Sometimes when I let him out to relieve himself, I find him just standing, staring off at who knows what. When I call out to him it looks like he snaps out of whatever trance he's in.

Sometimes I think to let him go naturally, then other times I feel sad and don't want him to get to the point where he is suffering and let him go so he doesn't have to ever experience the pain associated with the last stages of life.