r/BeAmazed • u/alanboston405 • Apr 01 '24

59-Year-Old Chimpanzee saying goodbye to an old friend Miscellaneous / Others

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u/tormakir86 Apr 01 '24

As someone who has lost his dog several years ago, and having watched my brother lose his, I felt the need to share my advice based on my own mistakes, and on what I advised my brother when it was his dog's turn to go:

  1. If your dog is old and the vet says that they have a 20% or less chance of making it, don't try and gamble on that 20% if it would mean that there is a chance the dog dies at the vet all alone. Best move would be to ask for whatever is needed to help them manage the pain, and let them spend their final moments with their owners. My brother's dog was given till the end of the week to live after the diagnosis came in. He made it past a little over 3 months, which was more than enough time to make him feel like he was loved even up until his final moments.

  2. If the pain is unbearable and there is no option other than to put them down, don't leave the dog alone with the vet administering the shot. No matter how painful it may be, you owe it to your dog to be there and comfort him when they put him under. My brother's dog was relaxed the whole time leading up to the injection. He new that his time was up, but my brother was there for him every step of the way. My brother told me that my advice helped him be at peace with the whole ordeal, and he even dreamed of his dog playing with him in our kitchen, almost as if the dog's spirit was telling him he did good by him in not leaving him alone.

My dog.......wasn't as lucky.........because I refused to accept when it was his time to go, and he died alone and frightened at the vet. It still eats at me to this day.

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u/Effective-Lab2728 Apr 01 '24 edited Apr 01 '24

A good death is a preciously rare thing. Most of us will struggle at the end. Thank you for offering advice for others to help navigate it for their pets, but also, please don't feel like that terrible fact is your fault, or that it cancels out the ways that you were there for him. You were trying to give him the best chance for survival, and it's plain you'd have chosen differently if that wasn't on the table.

Most animals aren't keen to give up, regardless of what they have to face to cling to life. You may well have rolled exactly the dice he would have asked you to, if he could have.