# Dog people; when to euthanize



## Muttlycrew (Dec 21, 2012)

I've never had to put a dog down before, my family has but personally I've only lost two dogs and both were horrid accidents. First my neighbors decided to try to poison the raccoons on the empty neighboring lot and instead got my dog and several neighborhood cats, and then my dad got me a puppy to help heal/fill the hole and within 2 months his dog "snapped" at my puppy (who was a 2lb chi puppy) and killed her.

Needless to say, horrible accidents. 

However, I have a jack Russell that is going further and further downhill every day and I'm being forced to think about things such as euthanasia. 
When do you think it's "right" to do this? 



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## Hikari (Feb 5, 2013)

I just had to put my dog to sleep on Monday. He had lymphoma, we tried a lot of different things and nothing was working. We just waited until we knew that his quality of life wasn't what it used to be. It really is a hard choice but you will know when the time comes. 
I hope for the best for your jack russell and you.


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## Muttlycrew (Dec 21, 2012)

I should give a little background info so as to explain his current situation.
Please don't judge (part of it gets very upsetting) and understand that I got him when I was 10 as a birthday present. 

Skip is 8 years old in September.
He was BEAUTIFUL when he was young. Glossy, smooth coat that flew over a thin, muscular body. He was agile and just flat out gorgeous. 
Fast forward to three years old.
I was visiting my dad's house and at that house lived my 5 teenage brothers who were ALWAYS on the go. During one of their escapades, one of them forgot to shut the door. Because of this, Skip got out. All he did was go out to pee, but our yard wasn't fenced. His favorite place to potty was on the hedges lining our yard. Well this connects to the sidewalk. We live on a corner and Skip was peeing on the corner hedge when a ford f350 came flying around the corner, up onto the sidewalk, and over my dog. 
I heard the yelps coming from outside an knew it was him, so I ran out to see and sure enough the door was open. 
The lady got out and said "hey is that your dog?" To which I replied yes. She said "oh.. Well I ran over him." And got back in her truck and left! 
Both of Skip's back legs were dislocated. He had to wait 2 days to go to the vet, as this was 6 pm Saturday. He got in at 8 am Monday. On Monday we found that one of his testes had shot up through his rib cage and come back down, ripping a hole through the abdomen and cutting off blood flow to his back half. Also, the hit had all but destroyed the cartilage in his hips and fractured one of his legs.
After he is all healed, my brother had moved to my moms house (where I lived with Skip) and my brother had rage issues. (Warning, this is where it gets upsetting) my brother HATED me. He knew that hitting me was one thing, but when he would beat my dog the effect on me was much greater. So that is what he did. My mom and step dad did nothing about it, claiming "they couldn't handle him". I was only 13. This went on for a couple of years until he got kicked out. 
Two years ago, Skip was out in our yard (at my mom's, which is fenced) when our neighbor's German shepherd jumped our little picket fence and mauled him. She tore up his already painful back legs and his belly. 
Next, he was in my yard at my dad's when a lab ran into our yard and grabbed him. I had him out on a leash but the dog was relentless. He grabbed Skip's throat and shook and shook and ended up nearly killing him. (This was about 8 months ago) we had to get a drain tube in Skip's throat so that the wound would go down as well as a tube actually IN his throat so that he could breathe. 
Easy to say, he has had an extremely trauma filled life. He is just an unlucky pooch. None of our other dogs have ever endured even one of these tragedies(excluding the time our pit bull was attacked by the same lab that got Skip. Bart[pitty] tucked tail and RAN, and my dad was out there and restrained the lab, though, so he just got one bite wound on his leg.) 
But there is a basic description of the trauma in Skip's life.
8 years seems young, but he's been through a lot. I also found a tumor on his throat three days ago. He's going to the vet next week. 
He also suffers severe allergies from the hit. Vet said it threw his internal system out of whack. He has a medical soak for 20 minutes twice a week as well as antibiotics twice a day every day and hip pills every day and a cortizone shot every 3 months. 



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## ratchet (Sep 27, 2012)

Hikari said:


> I just had to put my dog to sleep on Monday. He had lymphoma, we tried a lot of different things and nothing was working. We just waited until we knew that his quality of life wasn't what it used to be. It really is a hard choice but you will know when the time comes.
> I hope for the best for your jack russell and you.


i lost a dog 3 years ago to advanced lymphoma too. sorry to hear about your loss ):

it's all subjective, but it really comes down to when you think their QOL is degrading. some things that are QOL for dogs: ease of movement, ease of eating, ease of passing/defecating, and ease of life. if it hurts to do anything, the QOL is definitely no longer there. best of luck to you.


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## j_kalman (Apr 14, 2013)

Poor Skip. What does the vet say his prognosis is? Do they think the will pull through with any sort of quality of life? If no, I say put poor Skip to rest. Talk with your vet... if they say it's time it usually is. I had to put my old lab Luna down. It was the toughest decision I have ever had to make, but she was losing her faculties and had very little quality of life. I'm willing to bet that the best thing for him right now may just be to be put to sleep if he is fading more and more everyday. Good luck making the decision, and many hugs for you and Skip.


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## bbrats (Jan 21, 2013)

I agree with j_kalman. If he isnt going to be making any progress and he's in such a poor state of health then i think it is his time to go to a better place. I know it can be hard. I too was faced with the decision of having to euthanize my dog a few years ago. I had grown up with my dog and he was literally my best friend; we went everywhere together and we grew up together. My dog didn't have a traumatic life like yours but he did have degraded quality of life. My dog had heart disease, aswell as arthritis in his spine that disabled him from walking or even going to the bathroom. But since he was my best friend i built him a wheelchair and would be by his side every hour of the day. And he was still happy doing this. But there came a time where everything got worse and i woke up one morning and looked into his eyes and the look he gave back to me broke my heart. I knew then that it was his time. He wasn't happy anymore. He had taken all those hard ships in stride and was still happy to be where he was but there came a time when he knew he had had enough. You know your dog; you'll know if he is saying his time is up.


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## Poisoned (Nov 17, 2012)

It's time to let them go when you know in your heart they don't have a few more good days ahead of them. I let mine go when they tell me it has to be done.. The last one I had no choice at all, she bloated and I found her way too late to save her. But the one we euth'd from old age.. A big male German Shepherd, He stopped eating unless you handed him little bits at a time and looked like a skeleton. He couldn't walk very far without falling - his hips could not support him anymore. He had no real quality of life. We had the vet come out and let him go laying on the front porch with his mate next to him.

Will to live affects my choice. IF they want to fight, I will fight with them. If they don't and there is no hope.. Make them comfortable and let them go.


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