After you have made the decision to euthanize your dog or cat and have determined the right time to put them down, the best thing to do is prepare yourself for the journey ahead. Preparing for pet euthanasia will help alleviate feelings of fear, guilt or regret.

While this is a very upsetting time and you are most likely dealing with feelings of sadness, you have to remind yourself that the decision you made is what’s best for your pet. If the decision was made under the guidance of a veterinarian, through the use of our online quality of life calculator or with the help of one of our suggested assessment activities, it’s important to remember that you made an informed decision based on objective insights. Second guessing yourself would like to feelings of guilt, so remind yourself about the steps you took to arrive at your decision.

To further reduce any feelings of guilt, you have to realize that you decided on euthanasia because that is what’s in the best interest of your pet. You should also relieve any fears you have about the euthanasia process by educating yourself on what to expect. When you educate yourself on the procedure and understand the process, you will not fear the unexpected.

In addition to learning what to expect with a pet euthanasia, you should also figure out who the veterinarian will be that conducts the procedure. If they are a vet you are familiar with, that should give you more comfort to know who they are and how they operate. If you are using a house call vet you have never met before, you should talk to them or their assistant ahead of the appointment. You should go through their website and familiarize yourself with their information. Your worries and concerns should be put at ease after talking to them and learning about their specific euthanasia process, since every vet does things slightly different.

When using a mobile vet you are not familiar with, you should check their reviews on Google as well. This will either give you more reassurance in scheduling an appointment with them to put your pet to sleep, or it can make you aware of some reasons you might want to find a different in-home vet.

As a side note, you should know that Google reviews are unfiltered, which means every review will be publicly visible to you. Looking at Yelp reviews on the other hand are very deceptive. The overall star rating is also deceptive, since it only includes selective reviews based on Yelp’s “algorithm” that filters many real reviews. This means that real reviews left by real clients are excluded from the overall star rating and hidden from you. In order to see these filtered reviews, you have to click the section in very small light gray font below all of the public reviews that says, “other reviews that are not currently recommended.” If businesses do not pay Yelp a monthly fee, they filter/hide many of their good reviews and show more of their negative reviews.

Lastly, you should direct all of your focus on your pet during their last days with you. You want to share as many special moments with them as possible. Give them as much attention as possible and express your love to them every chance you get. If you have the opportunity, you should make a bucket list of things that you want to do together before they are put to sleep.

If you don’t have the time left to make it through a bucket list of activities, you can still give your pet all of their favorite treats or make them some special meals. During their last day, you give them as much “people food” as you want, including things they were not allowed to eat before like chocolate. You should also take lots of photos together. If you do not end up wanting them in the future, they can always be deleted, but some of those final photos end up being the most cherished.

Learn more about how pet euthanasia works.

Learn more about our services for pet euthanasia at home.