I need to hear yalls dead pet stories to make me feel better.

[kired]

Adopted a six week old cat with my now wife when I was 23. This was in 2016. He lived exclusively with me for almost the first year of his life until the Mrs. moved in after the wedding. I remember when we first got him he wasn’t even big enough to eat or drink out of a bowl, I had to feed him formula from a little pet baby bottle we found at the pet store. This cat had some major anxiety and behavior issues, man. Just an aggressive player that bit the fire out of me regularly. He’d have to be sedated at the vet just for routine check ups. We almost got rid of him multiple times but never had the heart to go through with it for a long time. He was a terror sometimes but he had a sweet side and he LOVED us, just had a really frustrating way of showing it. He had some really nasty episodes but we learned some things on how to manage him and really had a smooth couple of years after a while.

Well, the situation changed last year when our first child was born. The cat was suddenly uncomfortable in his own skin constantly. Wouldn’t come in the room with us anymore unless it was just me home alone with him. One night we had friends over and he pretty much went feral and attacked one of our friends. At that point he was a major safety issue for a baby. I knew then he had to go. After talking with our vet the next day, he advised that given his history and the situation, the most humane thing to do was to put him down. I still think he may have had an undiagnosed tumor of some kind that made him the way he was. It tore me up inside but I agreed to do it.

We had him put down the morning of the Texas A&M game last year. My wife was extremely upset so I ended up going to the game alone. I needed an outlet to help me get over it. Then of course at one of the TV timeouts, someone paid to wish their dang cat a happy birthday on the video board. I just started sobbing in the middle of Davis Wade. Probably looked like a total moron.

He was crazy but I still miss that cat. We view him as our child before we had actual children. He was there for us through years of fertility struggles. I still find his old toys under furniture sometimes and it makes me sad almost a year later.

My wife had a cat that was the same way - always a little crazy, but could be sweet to us. She got it as a kitten in high school and had it when we met in college. That cat was probably 12 yo when our first child was born, and after that it almost never came out of the room it stayed in. But it was in great physical health. We kept it for a few more years till our 2nd was born but then finally gave it to my in-laws. Lived to be ~20 years old, and it was halfway friendly again when at my in-laws --- but it would just go into hiding when our kids were around.

 

[thekimmer]

My 10 year old pit/boxer mix had, what appears now to be almost completely debilitating, leg injury about 7 months ago. It healed just enough to where he could walk with a limp.

Today, he has apparently aggravated that injury. Really can’t walk. I had to carry him up and down the porch steps to the yard. He groans with any movement laying down. It’s pitiful. Very hard to watch. The end seems pretty imminent. Hank has been my first puppy to death dog as an adult.

When did y’all know it was time?

Each case is different but simply put, it is the point when the pet has reached a level of suffering that is incompatible with enjoyment of life with little reasonable prospect for improvement. You should definitely see a vet to help you with the prognosis part, Sometimes it depends on age. A young dog might be worth more intervention versus an older one near his expected life span. If it were my dog I would ask my vet what he expected the progression to be. If he or she said something like, I expect he will fully recover in a few weeks I would hold off. If he said something like, well if you are willing to spend $10K on surgery he might get a little better I would consider putting him down given his age.

 

[Seinfeld]

My 10 year old pit/boxer mix had, what appears now to be almost completely debilitating, leg injury about 7 months ago. It healed just enough to where he could walk with a limp.

Today, he has apparently aggravated that injury. Really can’t walk. I had to carry him up and down the porch steps to the yard. He groans with any movement laying down. It’s pitiful. Very hard to watch. The end seems pretty imminent. Hank has been my first puppy to death dog as an adult.

When did y’all know it was time?

Sorry you’re going through this, man

also, I’ll have to apologize in advance because it’s a pretty crappy story, but we lost our 13 year old bulldog a little over a year ago, and he had been dealing with all kinds of issues. Heart failure, degenerative joints, and a hard time holding food and water down to name a few. On top of that, he was going to the bathroom inside the house a lot towards the end.

Anyway, like you, I questioned whether it was close to being time or not for a solid year it seems because in my mind, as long as he was living and breathing, it wasn’t time yet. The thing is, though, I terribly regret all the angry things I said during those last 6 months due to cleaning up his messes, and his last 24 hrs were awful because he was just suffering so much.

Letting an ol’ boy go is a terribly hard thing to do, but as others have said, if it seems like it may be time, there’s a good chance it is. Trying to hold on for too long is something you definitely don’t want to regret doing.

 

[Car Ramrod.sixpack]

Not a story exactly but my own experience in your situation. If you are having these internal conversation on when is the time, I have a feeling you already know it is time. I wen thru this with my 14 year old lab that was my tried and true while I was at state. When I look back I probably waited longer than I should have from the time I started having the same conversation with myself.

 

[GloryDawg]

I grew up on a farm so animals dying did not hurt me too much. We did have a stray dog dropped off at our house. This was when I was getting ready to go to Parris Island. I was running four miles every day. This dog would run with me. I got attached to that dog. It did not even have a name, but it became our pet. I left for bootcamp, and I was there about 14 weeks. After I got home, I could not find the dog. Mom told me it died about three weeks after I left. They found it dead laying in the yard. I was kind of sad for that one.

 

[biodawg]

I put my old Mountain Cur down at the beginning of June. He was just short of 15, but was a shell of his former self. He could barely walk and peed on the floor all the time. It was past time. It wasn’t fun, but he just laid down on the floor and went to sleep.

When you decide it’s time, stay there and be with him. Don’t leave him to die by himself. Not that you would, but some people do and that irritates me. Dogs are always there for us, we should be able to be there for them one last time.