On our website, you will find very useful ways of assessing your pet's Quality of Life on your own. Despite these tools, it is sometimes difficult for a family to rely on their own judgement and evaluation in order to feel comfortable making a life or death decision for their End of Life pet and best friend. And in some cases, examining a pet in a veterinarian's office is not sufficient to get a full picture of the pet's Quality of Life and a simple in-office exam can be misleading. Some pets act completely differently in their home than they do in the hospital. Therefore, symptoms of pain can be missed and life quality can be misjudged in either direction.
For these reasons, Home Pet Euthanasia offers In-Home Quality of Life Assessments. In the course of such an assessment, the doctor will sit down with you and get a detailed history of your pet's medical history, activities, interests, nutrition, medications, etc... It is imperative to obtain a full and accurate history in order to make a valid Quality of Life evaluation, especially for those "border line" cases. We will also take into consideration your family's wherewithal in terms of finance and time. Being able to provide adequate care for your dying pet is a major factor of Quality of Life for your pet.
Our sole purpose in the course of a Quality of Life Assessment is to help you make the right decision for your pet and for your family. There are as many situations as there are different families and pets. For example, a family who has a frail and immuno-compromised elderly family member living in the home and who has an End of Life pet who is incontinent with frequent UTIs would be in a different situation than a family having a pet with a similar illness but who is able to provide adequate care and hygiene for the pet which will not endanger anyone in the family.
As a Quality of Life assessment leads to a life or death decision, our doctors do not take this lightly. Occasionally, a family will ask us to tell them if it's time and expect the doctor to be able to make that assessment with minimal information and without dedicating a full visit to that assessment. This is an unreasonable request. We would never give you an assessment of life or death without knowing all that is important to know prior to making that decision. This is why a QoL visit is scheduled separately and this is why the euthanasia, (if the decision to euthanize is made), will be scheduled as a separate, subsequent visit.
With our help, you can be confident that whatever decision we make for your pet, be it continued hospice care or euthanasia, will be the best decision for your pet and your family.
If, after a Quality of Life Assessment, we come to the conclusion that it is best to say goodbye to your pet, we can perform the euthanasia during the course of the same visit if time allows, but more likely, we will need to schedule the euthanasia in a subsequent visit.
However, if the Quality of Life Assessment leads to the conclusion that your pet is not ready for euthanasia, we can schedule a Hospice Visit and we will focus on how to best optimize your pet's Quality of Life until such a time as euthanasia will be warranted.