When it’s time to let Go. AKA Dog Euthanasia.

Pet owners oftentimes face the difficult decision of having to let go of their dogs. Whether you like it or not, your dog will eventually pass on due to old age, accidents, or illness.Therefore, the moment that you begin to notice your dog’s health taking a dip for the worse, more so after repeated trips to the vet for the same or related issue, it may be best to rather start the mental process of letting your go, especially if it seems to be a serious issue the pup is dealing with.

As previously implied, by all means expend all available avenues and resources to try and  get them back to good health, but just be sure to not hold on longer than is necessary for the well-being of your beloved.

Of course when it comes to “letting go,” the word euthanasia immediately comes to the fore.

Here are some of the indications you need to look out for to know if you need to consider euthanasia for your dog.

• Terminal Illness: A terminal illness is one that cannot be cured by conventional or even natural medicine. If your dog is suffering from a terminal illness, it is perhaps best not to either waste (too much) money on a prolonged treatment, or to prolong its suffering, as that is exactly what is going to happen the longer you keep him or her around.
• Persistent Pain: This may be a tricky one to deal with. Persistent and intense pain is not a nice thing to deal with, whether in humans or dogs. So if your dog is in persistent and long term pain, and your vet cannot seem to find a solution to the pain, a solution might be to “put it out of its misery.”
  
  You will often be able to tell just how much pain your dog is in by such signs as its excessive panting, limping, being restless, scratching a particular part of the body, grunting and groaning and having little to no appetite for food.
• Difficulty in Breathing: Experiencing difficulty in breathing is one of the most difficult things any animal will ever have to go through. This is probably because breathing is one of the most natural of our functions, one which would make us cease to exist immediately we stop doing it.
  
  Watching your dog go through the difficulty of not being able to breathe probably will also hit you very hard, and in fact, your desire to keep him or her around as long as possible might actually be seen as you doing so for your own “selfish” reasons. If you really love your dog, it might be time to let him or her go.
• Loss of Crucial Organ Function: Constant tiredness, being and looking sickly, being unable to carry out their normal daily functions or routines such as passing urine could be some signs of organ failure in your dog.
  
  If this happens to be the case, which of course gets confirmed by your vet, then it might be time to start to let go.
• Low Quality of life: The quality of life that a dog has will often determine how much will such a dog will have in deciding whether to fight to live or not. The more less bad days and more good days such a dog has, the more likely it is going to want to stick around.

Ultimately the decision will rest with you as to when to let go. But in the same way humans do not like to suffer, the same can be said for our dogs. So ultimately it is about doing the right thing, but more importantly, doing it at the right time.