When is the right time to let a pet go?
By Pet Connection Staff
March 10, 2010
In this week’s Pet Connection newspaper feature, Dr. Marty Becker and Gina Spadafori tackle one of the toughest questions pet owners ever face:
Choosing to end a pet’s life is the hardest decision we make when it comes to our pets, and we can tell you from decades of experience that it’s a decision that never gets any easier. Your veterinarian will offer you advice and support, and friends and family can offer you sympathy, but no one can make the decision for you. When you live with an elderly or terminally ill pet, you look in your pet’s eyes every morning and wonder if you’re doing what’s best.
Everyone makes the decision a little differently. Some pet lovers do not wait until their pet’s discomfort becomes chronic, untreatable pain, and they choose euthanasia much sooner than others would. Some owners use an animal’s appetite as the guide — when an old or ill animal cannot be tempted into eating, they reason, he has lost most interest in life. And some owners wait until there’s no doubt the time is at hand — and later wonder if they delayed a bit too long.
Also from Dr. Becker, reassuring news about the safety of pet microchips:
Veterinary experts say there is no evidence that cancer is a problem in microchipped pets. More than 14 million-plus microchips have been implanted with only four cases in question.
Want more? Read the entire Pet Connection for this week! You can also download it just the way we send it to our client newspapers right here (PDF).
