How do I know it is time?
Resources to assess your pet's quality of life.
Quality of Life
There are many easy to use resources that ask very specific questions regarding your pet's behaviors and lifestyle. Using a scale, you can determine by these standards, if your pet still has a good quality of life or is it time to start considering humane euthanasia. See below for Ohio State University's Quality of Life Checklist.
Your Pet's List
A much more personal decision making tool can be created by sitting down and creating a list of 10 things that your pet has enjoyed in his/her life. This list should be displayed somewhere in your home where it can be seen daily. When 5 things are eliminated off of this list, it is time to consider if your pet's quality of life is suffering. On a more positive note, this list can serve as a "bucket list" to ensure that you take the time to do these things weekly if not daily to make sure you pet is still living his/her life to the fullest.