Animal Quality of Life: Can it Help Us Decide If and When to End an Animal’s Life by Euthanasia?

Animal Quality of Life:
Can it Help Us Decide If and When to End an Animal’s Life by Euthanasia?
by Amir Shanan, D.V.M., Certified Hospice and Palliative care Veterinarian (CHPV®)

Making decisions about if and when to end an animal’s life by euthanasia is one of the most challenging aspects of providing care for ill, debilitated, or frail animals. Assessing the animal’s quality of life (QOL) is important to consider when facing these decisions.

What is QOL?

The concept of QOL was developed to ensure that the patient’s perspective is the focus of medical care. Animal QOL is, therefore, defined as the assessment that an animal patient makes of its life overall while undergoing medical care. QOL assessments are necessary to determine whether animal hospice and palliative care is being provided effectively.

QOL assessments are based on tracking changes in animals’ behavior. Many aspects of the animals’ behavior help us understand how an animal might feel about her life. Those include animals’ physical comfort and function, their social behavior, and behaviors reflecting the animals’ emotional well-being.

Making End-of-Life Decisions for Animals

Animals want to live even when their lives have been affected by illness and/or old age. Animals can successfully adapt to life changes, including many types of disability and different levels of discomfort. In most cases, companion animals’ lives feel to them meaningful and worth living as long as they are capable of:

1. Feeling a connection to their family [“connectedness”], and
2. Having an awareness and forming an opinion about what goes on around them [“engagement”]

Under some circumstances, however, the decline in animals’ health may reach a point when they can no longer successfully adapt, leaving them susceptible to feeling helpless and hopeless. A decline in an animal’s connectedness and engagement suggests that the animal may be getting close to that point.

When such a decline is noticed, it is time for the animal’s human caregivers to consider the option of ending their animal’s life by euthanasia. When considering euthanasia for a beloved animal, caregivers face a clash between two important ethical principles: 

1. Respect for and sanctity of life [suggests waiting longer], and
2. The obligation to minimize animals’ suffering [may suggest euthanizing sooner]

Having weighed these critical principles, it remains for caregivers to decide if and when euthanasia is right for their animal, relying on their perceptions of what their animal would want for herself, a well as their values, beliefs, needs, and resources.

This is not always easy. In fact, caregivers facing the dilemma often feel confused, overwhelmed, and/or distressed. Fortunately, there are experts who dedicate their careers to providing guidance and support to caregivers struggling with end-of-life decisions, including:

• Hospice-trained veterinarians
• Hospice-trained veterinary technicians/nurses
• Animal hospice practitioners 
• Mental health professionals experienced with pet caregiving burden and pet grief support

These experts collaborate with veterinary teams and, when appropriate, with licensed mental health professionals. This team-based approach ensures that pet parents receive the comprehensive support they need—practically, emotionally, and ethically—helping them feel less isolated and more confident in making compassionate decisions that honor their beloved companion’s life. 

AHELP’s Partners to the Bridge is staffed by animal hospice practitioners who are educated and trained to provide compassionate and comprehensive caregiver support. AHELP’s Partners to the Bridge Coaching offers practical tools and compassionate guidance to help families through this difficult time, and it assists families in finding a trusted veterinarian to address their pet’s medical needs while providing crucial caregiver support. 

Veterinary teams can also significantly benefit from collaboration with an Animal Hospice Practitioner to ensure pet parents - veterinary clients - receive the comprehensive support they need: practically, emotionally, and ethically. 

With an interdisciplinary team dedicated to providing physical and psychosocial comfort for the pet and emotional and spiritual support for the family, caregivers can navigate the hospice journey with confidence, competence, and compassion.

(Blog post banner photo: Dr. Amir Shanan, DVM, CHPV® comforting a senior golden retriever in pet hospice care. Copyright © Compassionate Veterinary Hospice. All rights reserved.)

About the Author: Dr. Amir Shanan DVM, Certified Hospice and Palliative care Veterinarian (CHPV®) Dr. Shanan is a distinguished expert, seamlessly blending the roles of philosopher, ethicist, counselor, and veterinarian. He has assisted thousands of pets and their families to create meaningful moments during the end-of-life journey by providing essential information and unwavering support. As a trailblazer in animal hospice and palliative care, he founded the International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care (IAAHPC), co-founded the Animal Hospice Group, and established the first best practice guidelines, textbook, and comprehensive training program in the field. His impactful contributions are transforming the way pets and their families navigate challenging times.