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Pet Quality of Life Assessment: Guidance on Putting a Dog or Cat Down at Home

We know it can be very difficult to really know how well your companion is doing and when the balance of life is starting to tip downwards.

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As he or she ages (usually), mobility is getting harder, painful even or various diseases and ailments are becoming too much of a struggle or perhaps giving the necessary medication may prove too difficult (or expensive). Travelling to the vets regularly may be too stressful or painful for your pet also. This is why we are experts in home end of life care and here to help you. We want to help you keep your pet for as long as he or she is still enjoying life and with some help and different medication or tips on how to give this, we may be able to add some valuable time.

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With over two decades of dedicated real-world experience helping animals both in corporate clinics and through mobile home visits across Sussex and Surrey, we offer our deep, specialised expertise in palliative and compassionate end-of-life care. Our long-standing clinical background allows us to help you accurately understand what your special friend needs most when this challenging part of life arrives, ensuring their final chapters are handled with absolute transparency, dignity, and professional medical support.

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Compassionate Assistance & Guidance: When Is It Time to Put a Dog or Cat to Sleep?

As we are end-of-life specialists with special qualifications in Animal Hospice, Dr Suzen & Dr Jo are here to support you with the necessary comfort care, medication and other helpful tips so you can enjoy some quality time together for as long as possible.

Most importantly we hear that our clients appreciate the assistance and guidance we give so you “will know for sure” when your companion has had enough (or nearing this time) and need our help to find peace in the gentlest of ways, with a two-step home goodbye.

The best way we can help you is with our professional, in-depth and caring veterinary assessment in your own home. This quality of life appointment includes scoring and discussion of your pet’s specific joys, comfort and quality of daily life, what to expect after a “bad” diagnosis and/or how to just make the most of what is left for as long possible but with less worry and our full support. We offer our professional and experienced overview – and prescribe supportive medication if necessary – on how to manage and maintain a good life for as long as possible and signs to look for.

Every companion has unique emotional and physical needs when the time comes to say goodbye. To help you understand exactly what to expect in the comfort of your own home, explore our dedicated guides to peaceful mobile cat euthanasia and gentle in-home dog euthanasia services across Sussex and Surrey, where we detail our unhurried approach, visiting areas, and compassionate care.

Useful Downloads

As a very helpful aid to you, also before this appointment, below we have added two very helpful charts developed by expert vets to score both quality of life (“suffering”) and also the difficult to spot chronic pain in your dog or cat. Using these tools will give you clarity and hopefully prevent unnecessary worry and “suffering” for both you and your pet. Please download and use these charts for a few days or a week as we will be using these as a starting point for our quality of life consultation.
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Download our
PAIN SCORING
tool for DOGS

Download our
PET QUALITY OF LIFE
Rating Chart

Download our
PAIN SCORING
tool for CATS

Key Factors in Monitoring Quality of Life: Knowing When to Put a Pet to Sleep

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Mobility

Your assessment of your pet’s ability to get around, jump up on favourite furniture or participate in regular walks and other normal activities.

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Nutrition

Assessing your pet’s appetite, their food choices, regularity of eating, inclination to eat and ability enjoy their usual foods in normal amounts.
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Fluid Balance

This score gives an idea of your pet’s hydration status and ability or inclination to take liquids either orally via various fluid sources or need for fluid administration.
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Interaction & Attitude

Your pets’s ability and willingness to purr, bark happily, wag their tail, greet you at the door, sleep on your bed and so on, in other words, their usual lifelong habits. This is a “Happiness Factor”.
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Toilet Habits

Your pet’s ability to still be regular with their toilet habits, with normal consistency and frequency, without straining, pain or discomfort in appropriate places.
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Favourite Things

This is the factor that measures your pet’s uniqueness. Is your pet is still interested in their favourite things and activities – e.g. playing with their favourite toy, going for walks, running about the garden, etc? Only you will know what these are.

Request a Quality of Life Rating Appointment

Home consultations for QUALITY OF LIFE ASSESSMENTS are available daily Monday – Friday 9am-6pm, 7 days a week with one of our two vets, our specialist Palliative Care & Hospice Vet, Dr Suzen Gregersen (CHPV MRCVS) or our Senior Vet, Dr Jo Feliu (MRCVS).

See our professional fees page for prices.

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