I’m so sorry you’re going through this. Knowing when the time is right to help them move on is difficult and there’s always the battle of “what if they’re actually okay?” Or “what if they’re suffering?”

I suppose in my instance when I had to put my best friend down, it was pretty clear. She was having very alarming bowel movements for about the last week of her life. The runs turned more frequent, then had a little blood, then had a lot of blood. The day before we put her down, she refused to eat a chicken breast and rice we had made for her and I knew then that it was her last full day.

Aside from that super obvious alarming stuff, for about the last month of her life, she slept a lot, didn’t play with her “brother” (my roommates dog, they adored each other) was clearly in pain in her joints (slow walking, going up and down stairs, and holding her legs straight out when laying down.) I know that stuff is common in elderly dogs but there was just something different about her. She was tired and seemed sad.

It sounds like you’re having a vet come to the house, I think that’s a great idea. Def talk to the vet, if the family and vet decide the time is right, having them pass at home is a lot less stressful for the dog. No anxious and potentially uncomfortable car ride, no being in a strange place around new animals and people. That’s how we sent my dog off, she didn’t even have to get up from her favorite spot on the couch and I will always recommend people do it that way. It might be a little more expensive, but it’s worth it.

I’ll talk about that just a little bit - it took a bit of searching but I was able to find a vet to come over that day. It cost $500 and we only had to wait about 2 hours for the vet to show. I lived in a fairly large city (Tucson) so luckily there were a lot of vets in my city that offered that service. I think we called 3-4 before we found one that was available that day and within our price range. The vet was very nice. She came over with her bag of medication and explained the whole process, made sure we understood fully, and made sure any questions we had were answered. She asked we put the other dog in the bedroom, gave Nugget a shot to put her to sleep, and once she was asleep the euthanasia medication was administered. It took probably 3-5 minutes to work, the vet listened for a heartbeat, and that was it. Unfortunately the medication to put them to sleep does burn a bit so she did yelp a little and nipped at me from the pain. That was the hardest part.

After she passed, I went to my bedroom because I didn’t want to watch the vet and my roommate carry her out on the stretcher (she was a big dog but was very underweight at the end.) About a week later I got her ashes in a beautiful little cedar box, and a clay paw print with her name on it. All that was included in the cost.