Quality of life?

zaksmum

Horrible question to have to ask...but if the vet comes to the house to do the deed, what will happen afterwards?

Will the vet take her away with him?

splishsplash

zaksmum wrote: »

Thanks for the input. The vet made his PTS recommendation two months ago and Lucy has had some good times since.

The idea of her walking into the vet's to be PTS just kills me. I lost my last dog like this 7 years ago and it still chokes me up to think about it.

I just don't know what to do. I love her to bits.

My little dog died last November. I'm a bit different to others who have posted. I couldn't have brought her to be pts a minute too soon. I would have felt like I was robbing her of life.

As it turned out, she became very unwell in the last couple of days. She still had periods where she was good, but she was clearly no longer enjoying anything.
We decided to try surgery on the understanding that she would be pts if the vet felt it was the better option. That's exactly what happened.
We had a chance to say our goodbyes, we knew we didn't take her a moment too soon, she enjoyed every minute possible and was ready to go when the time came. That comforts me greatly.

There really is no right answer - it's whatever you feel is best, and whatever will help you most afterwards.

FWIW, my vets held on to our little lady, they arranged for her to be cremated and we now have her cremains in a lovely little wooden box. We will pick a day in the summer to bring them to the beach and sprinkle them in a place we spent many happy hours together.

Iain_L

zaksmum wrote: »

Horrible question to have to ask...but if the vet comes to the house to do the deed, what will happen afterwards?

Will the vet take her away with him?

We had to do this with our 19 year old FIV+ cat a couple of years ago, and I have have to say our vet when he came up to the house was so sensitive to the situation, and it was as good a way of doing it as you can ever imagine. As we wanted Fudge cremated, he then took her away with him.

Iain

Ilona

zaksmum wrote: »

Horrible question to have to ask...but if the vet comes to the house to do the deed, what will happen afterwards?

Will the vet take her away with him?

Hi. The vet can take her away and arrange for cremation and you will get the ashes back. Or you can arrange cremation yourself, there are pet crematoriums. Or you can bury her in your garden, make sure the hole is very deep and put a heavy rock onto to prevent predators digging up the body.

I will have to make this decision myself, not sure when, my dog is elderly. I can't decide what to do yet. People have said to me that the animal tells you when it is ready to go. Look very closely at it's face, into it's eyes, they know when they have had enough.
Ilona

suki1964

Talk to your vet about what you want to happen afterwards. Our vet at that time offered a cremation service but also gave leaflets of a private cremation company who would come to collect and then arrange a service and had a garden of rememberance

zaksmum

Ilona wrote: »

Hi. The vet can take her away and arrange for cremation and you will get the ashes back. Or you can arrange cremation yourself, there are pet crematoriums. Or you can bury her in your garden, make sure the hole is very deep and put a heavy rock onto to prevent predators digging up the body.

I will have to make this decision myself, not sure when, my dog is elderly. I can't decide what to do yet. People have said to me that the animal tells you when it is ready to go. Look very closely at it's face, into it's eyes, they know when they have had enough.
Ilona

I couldn't possibly bury her in the garden. I'd be absolutely haunted by the idea of her down there. It would send me mad!

suki1964

zaksmum wrote: »

I couldn't possibly bury her in the garden. I'd be absolutely haunted by the idea of her down there. It would send me mad!

I found it to be very comforting to have my lad buried in the garden. I sat cuddling him until he became cold and then we buried him with his favourite toy. The lads who worked with my husband who knew my lad so well made a grave marker for him. We have moved now and I do sometimes think I should have cremated him but at that time I just couldn't bear letting him go

I have the same decision to make soon enough. Alfie is coming to the end of his time with us. He's near blind, he's deaf, we are certain he's had a stroke and he getting stiffer by the day. He also has times when he's not aware, like I can be the other side of the room and he's running around crying for me, he can't find me However he still has his playful moments and still takes an interest in things so we are holding out. He will be cremated but once again I will arrange for the vet to come to us.

Mrs_Z

I would also second a vet to do a home visit. We had this with our elderly cat and it is the most dignified way to go as far as I'm concerned. Once we had exhausted all other options, and the only one remained, we made the appointment with our vet for a home visit for Friday (to give ourselves the weekend to get over the worst). The vet said she would be around lunch time and on the day, the surgery phoned us when the vet was on her way which was a great touch even if we were expecting her and the surgery is only 5 minutes away.

The whole thing took no more than 15min for the vet arriving and leaving. The cat was given a premed, then after a couple of minutes I sat down on the sofa and she was given the final injection (on my lap) and she just slipped away seconds after. The vet took her body to be cremated as this is what we wanted.

I had googled 'natural death' on the internet beforehand and I happened to see a u-tube video diary of an elderly cat dying and it was not pretty. It took about 24hrs. No way did I want mine to go that way and I now fully agree with people here who say 'better a week early than a day too late'.

It is the hardest decision to make. However, The vet was so professional and no tears were shed at the time. It really is the last favour you can do for your pet when the time has come.

gettingready

pawsies wrote: »

At least now she can walk to the vets office to be pts.

I am really sorry but the mere thought of walking my dog to be PTS is not something I could even comprehend...

Zaksmum - my cat had to be PTS few years ago, I called the vet to come to the house so my cat did not have to stress in his last moment and be PTS in a strange place.

He was PTS with my and my daughter (and Zara) in the room, in his favourite place. It was very peaceful. Vet took him away as I opted for individual cremation. About a week later I collected his ashes from the same vet and Tiger resides on the shelf in the room in his house since then.

I could not possibly do it any other way - only home visit.

You will know when the time is right xxx

elsien

It's such a hard call to make when they're having good days. Mutt was pottering around happily one morning with the neighbour commenting on how well she was doing, and in the emergency vet being PTS that evening.
I can remember the vet saying as part of an earlier discussion that the day she stopped putting up a fight on arriving at the vets was the day she'd stopped caring and it would be time to go.
As it happened the decision was out of my hands, but for Lucy, are the good days outweighing bad days? And how bad are the bad days? That has to be your starting point.
My sympathies, it's a horrible decision to have to make.

(I couldn't have mutt buried in the garden either. The practicalities of how big a hole and what if I didn't go deep enough were enough to make that a non-starter without really having to think about it.)