i know an independent cat rescue that will take injured animals and never euthanize due to buddhist principals. you would not believe the depth of suffering i have seen.

I’ve known pets that had lost their owners and just stopped eating. They got super depressed, lost the will to go on, and let themselves slip away.

I had to put my dog down a few years ago. He was in late stages of kidney failure. He probably wasn’t going to live more than a few more days anyway. I spent the entire day with him, gave him everything he could want.

It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Even thinking about him years later still brings me to major tears.

Im a big right to die person and so wish robust right to die laws were common. I would love to be able to make a doc to say give me an overdoes of barbituates rather than just let me suffer until I expire. I have had to put down animals and while married. Mostly my wife and I discuss the animals quality of life. It comes down to if we would rather be put down or live in their situation. Dogs are not that different for us and we evolved with similar desires. I believe we can make the call. Now granted my dog lived with a lot of issues before being put down and dogs are so generally willing to show happiness that it was way passed time were we would want to be put down. Part of its just hard. We don’t want to do it and its incredibly painful for us. The survivors. This is why we discuss so that don’t let her suffer to much. It makes us come to terms with her reality. Ok. gonna go cry now.

I have a small dog that isn’t yet 5yo but has lots of seizures. We keep upping meds but we are hitting points where we can’t add any more. The drugs make her hungry all the time and more recently she has started to stumble and walk into things. I could take all drugs away and shed surely sieze to death but that seems cruel. At this point my wife and I agree no crazy surgeries and if we get multiple instances of incontenance in a week, new decisions will trigger

We had to put down our 21 year old cat two years ago. Mentally she was fine, but her body was failing her. She was having a hard time controlling her body when walking, she would bump walls, fall off the back of the couch when trying to lay down.

It was a very difficult decision to make.

I have an 18yo dog. She’s very near the end of her life. Deaf, hair falling out, slowly losing motor control and strength, and can’t climb stairs anymore. She’s still happy, and doesn’t appear to be suffering even though she does require a bit of extra care now.

I can’t bring my self to euthanize her, because she can’t make the decision unlike a human could.

I hope that one day we wake up and she’s died peacefully in her sleep.

I’m not sure on the answer myself, but you did get one thing wrong.

Even the oldest, sickest pet will still make an effort to keep themselves alive however they can: eating, drinking water, moving out of the way of danger, etc.

No, they won’t.

Plenty of illnesses cause apathy, dehydration, or loss of appetite.

Causes vary from pain so intense moving is unberable, or nausea so severe food is inedible. It can be mental, physical, easily treated, or incurable and eventually lethal.

Either way, pets can and absolutely do choose inaction when miserable enough.

This is one of those questions where it’s very easy to project one’s vision of their own mortality onto the mirror of their pet. Like, for me, personally, I dread becoming so enfeebled that the tasks of daily life slip beyond my strength, to say nothing of mental incapacity, and I very much do not want to live that way. I know people who would rather lie in bed, maintained by machines, ass wiped by a stranger, for years than give up. We can’t ever know what the internal life of our pets is like, can’t know if they’re aware of their own mortality in the way that we are, but we will be responsible for their geriatric care and end-of-life decisions. ‘What I would want for myself,’ is the best place to start.

I agree with legalizing assisted suicide for terminally ill humans. As such, if the pets quality of life at the end of life declines that much, then yes. Sometimes the treatments make things worse.

For example, on the human side, people may not want to spend most of their last days in hospitals hearing machines beep and sleeping in an uncomfortable hospital bed. They want to go home, be comfortable, and die not in pain. Fair. In states where it’s legal, that sometimes means taking prescribed euthanasia on their terms, rather than letting the cancer do it. Sometimes it means just having the option close by as a reassurance while letting the cancer take them, but I digress.

How much do our pets like the vet? Staying overnight? Considering that at the end, alongside pain, is something we have to weigh in these decisions. Unfortunately, unlike humans, our pets can’t make that decision for themselves. You’ll have to decide for them. When is enough enough? What’s the balance between their pain and your want to have them with you? None of us can tell you that answer.

The only real advice I can give you is to listen to them, really listen to them, and don’t allow your personal pain drown out their voice. Humans or animals.

It’s merciful but it’s incredibly difficult. What would you want someone to do for you?

When you come home and your 20 year old dog is lying on the floor in a puddle of pee, poo, vomit, and blood and can’t get up it’s likely time (or past time) to help him go, but you’ll still feel terrible about it

When your blind dog with liver cancer is at the date your vet thought she would pass; she still lifts her ears and wags her tail a bit when you walk in, but she also can’t hold bowel or bladder, vomits most days, and has to get carried to the yard; and you put her down a few days before you have surgery knowing you won’t be able to clean the floor or carry her for a couple of weeks, you’ll feel guilty and selfish and like you killed your dog because she was an inconvenience even though everyone tells you it was the right thing to do.

I don’t think you can decide in the abstract and I don’t think there is a one-size-fits all answer. Every pet’s (and person’s) decline is different. You may get to a point where you have to make a decision, but the specifics of that point are always different, and being in the situation is not the same as trying to imagine it.

Do for your pets what you think you’d want for yourself, sans religious and societal opinions influencing your choice.

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Looking at other comments I will point out one thing nobody mentioned so far: keeping an old per alive is not always cheap.
You have to calculate the cruel numbers against the gain or loss also.
You could give an other neglected - abandoned pet a new life, instead of making your loved one to slowly expire.
Or I do not wish the situation on anyone, but pet meds vs human food can come into play too.

I always want my pets to die naturally of old age. It’s very peaceful. I’ve only put a couple to sleep, and they had aggressive cancers.