From my experience with having to put animals down (which is far more than I wish) since I live on a farm, I have found that the decision can only be made by yourself and family and it is different for each animal. Like people have said, a large contributing factor for us is always if the animal is suffering and in some cases the cost of the treatment compared to the chance of recovery. There has been a couple times when I had to help the vet with the process. It was a bitter sweet situation. You were there for your pet when it died, but having to watch it take its last breath is very hard.
The most recent was my wifes 2 month old foal. It was her first horse and it developed pnemonia. Before we knew what it was she had a slight cough and some snot coming out of her nose. We thought it was just a cold. By the time we took it in she had severe pnemonia with one lung really bad. The vet wanted to put her down right then. We asked if she was suffering at all and he said not really other than her having a harder time breathing but he felt that her condition was to the point were the lung could not be saved. We decided to try and hit it with every kind of anitbiotic possible over a week and a bit. The one lung cleared right up but the bad one had become worse. She still wasn't doing bad, infact she got a little better for a bit. But the vet said that we were only putting off the inevitable, which was that the lung will die and it will become dead tissue inside the horse and most likely cause blood poisoning. So we decided the best thing for her was to put her down before she got to a point where she was actually suffering.
It really sucked but like I said, you wont know when the right time is until YOU know. And you will.
|