How Old Is Too Old To Put Your Dog To Sleep? Should You Just Wait For Your Dog To Die A Natural...
Death Or Do You Just Kill The Dog?
I personally believe one should not put down a pet unless that pet is in uncontrollable pain.
I certainly wouldn't want someone deciding to end my life because "she's 90, she doesn't have long to live anyway..."
I would say the answer lies within.
For me it would depend on the dog, it is in pain? Is it eating and drinking, using the bathroom? If there is no pain, and everything else is fine, then why put it down?
It may be old and slow, but is it happy to see you? Does it wag it's tail?
Putting a dog down, especially if it is a family member can be one of the hardest things you would have to do. I would seriously weigh my options before doing so. If it's just old, but everything else is functioning normally albeit a little slower, then why put it down?
I don't subscribe to having pets put down, sometimes it is just used for social reasons; however, I had an old dog, Jason, about 16 years old, he had a massive lump come up on his right shoulder. I took him to the vet who said it was cancer and that Jason had about a year at the most. He added that he wouldn't be able to run and play (he was still like a spring chicken at his advanced age) and would be in constant, progressively worse, pain. He also said that I wasn't doing him any favours keeping him alive, so I agreed to have him put down, it hurt me, but I think it was the best thing for Jason.
I work with dogs and the only time we put them down is if they are in severe pain that wont go away, or if they have a sickness that is untreatable and killing them inside. There is no age in my oppinion.
I have had to put my dog to sleep, when we could not bear the thought of him suffering at an old age of 13 years then - his liver was diagnosed as failing and heart was not strong. 'Heart stabbing' decision to make, but I had to do it to stop him from suffering.
If your dog is suffering then it's time to put him or her to sleep regardless of the age. I lost my dog last year to cancer and she was only 5 1/2 years old. She was suffering and there was no treatment or cure. So it's not as much an age issue as much as it is a humane issue. If the dog is suffering and is in pain then there is no such thing as a natural death only one of suffering.
by David Stillwell 13 years ago
When do you "know" that it is time to put a loved pet to sleep?We all have different emotional attachements to the pets we keep. For me, my cats are like my children. I find myself faced with make this decision and usally, its about quality of THEIR life and not about my feelings. What I...
by cantyguy 14 years ago
Should I have my dog put to sleep am I being selfish letting her live on confused,?my 19 year old Lancashire healer is suffering from dementure, she still gets around, but she can;t see or hear, she wee's constantly and stares into space, her appitite seems ok but she cannot get upstairs any more,...
by RookerySpooner 13 years ago
I have a cat who has stomach cancer, which appeared very quickly. He has stopped eating and drinking and wants to be alone. However I don't know if he is in pain. When I stroke him, he purrs much more loudly than he normally does. He seems to be nearing the end, yet has been...
by ptosis 12 years ago
My dog bit me and drew blood - should I put it down?Today, the dog bit me. Hard. On the thumb, deep puncture wound and black and blue mark on the nail. I thoughtlessly took a big bone away from her without testing first how Jackie would react. Because it wasn't dog food that she gulped down in 3...
by Cindy Lawson 13 years ago
If your dog or cat needed a limb amputated would you keep the pet or put it to sleep?For the record I have seen loads of dogs and cats with three, (even two) legs survive perfectly well, but likewise I have seen owners faced with this choice say that either they don't think it is fair to have a...
by roxy 88 14 years ago
where is a good place to put the dogs down and affordable too?
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |