Peaceful End Of Life Care

We offer a peaceful end of life care, or a dignified euthanasia service for your beloved pets in the comfort of their own home. We believe our fur family members deserve nothing but the highest standard of care when it comes to the time to say goodbye.

We understand very well that the decision to let your pet go is one of the hardest decisions you have to make as a pet owner. It may not be so clear to some people when it is the right time to let their pet go, so we listen to our clients and their stories, remain patient, professional, respectful and compassionate throughout the process from when we first receive an enquiry. If you are not too sure if it is the time for your pet, please book a consultation with our vet who can come out and make a quality of life assessment and assist you with making an informed decisions regarding your pet’s care. We provide honest and non-judgmental advice, and we only arrange our home euthanasia service when both you and your pet are ready.

Our staff are experienced and we understand how it feels; we have been there with our own pets in the past, so we ensure you feel supported and most importantly your pets feel loved and cared for with the dignity they deserve throughout the process, while you and your family navigate through these difficult times.

We know that pets often feel calmer while being at home, surrounded by the families they love in their own bed or favourite spots in the yard which are their most familiar environment. We consider what we offer as a final gift of kindness and compassion for those pets that gave us so much love and loyal companionship throughout their life. Our peaceful home euthanasia service is aimed at providing a humble loving touch to help celebrate your pet’s incredible journey of life and help them walk across the rainbow bridge while you hold their little paw in passing.

A vet will arrive on the day and give your pet a small needle of sedation, usually on the back of the neck just like an annual vaccination, it is minimally painful and most pets cope really well with this small injection especially when accompanied by a gentle cuddle, or a small treat while the injection is being given. 

We then wait for 5-10 minutes while keeping your pet calm and reassured. We gently guide them to where you want them to lay down, usually on their bed or on your lap, wherever you and your pet feel comfortable.  

Once the sedation is fully in effect, we place an IV catheter in the front leg, ensure the catheter is in place by flushing once with saline. When everyone is ready, a vet will administer an overdose of general anaesthetic agent through this catheter. Your pet will sleep deeper and eventually the heart will stop, usually within about 10-20 seconds or so. The whole process is stress-free and pain-free, from your pet’s point of view they just feel sleepy and fall asleep in their own bed at home surrounded by their loved ones. We ensure your pet is treated in a calm, loving and dignified manner throughout the procedure.

We generally offer three options for your pet’s aftercare.

1. We can make an arrangement on your behalf with a private pet cremation company to come to your home shortly after the vet visit, Your pet will be individually cremated and you will receive the ashes and small memorials back at a later date.

2. Our vet can take your pet’s remains once the procedure is complete.

3. Home burial.

If you are not sure of the aftercare options yet, we can go through the details during the appointment booking to help you decide what is best for your pet.

We believe quality of life (QOL) to be very important, it helps us to make the difficult decision of when is the right time to put our pets to sleep. We think about how our pet feels about his or her current circumstances, both physically and mentally. We believe the good time to let them go is when they still have good quality of life left, because we don’t want to wait until they are suffering and feeling miserable. While your vet cannot make the decision for you, it can be helpful to seek the help of your vet who can give you objective assessment and to discuss about further options such as diagnostics and treatment, palliative care or decision to euthanise your pet.

Here is a very basic check list that may help you to assess the quality of life for your pets.

• Pain – Is your pet in pain? If so, how well is it currently being managed? Does your pet take regular pain medications and is it still sufficiently effective?

• Mobility – Is your pet able to walk around freely to get to where they want to go or do they hesitate with obstacles (going up stairs, jumping)? Does your pet require your assistance getting up and moving around?

• Eating – Does your pet still eat their normal food with good appetite or have they become a fussy eater now? Does your pet feel nauseous sometimes? (vomits or refusing food)

• Drinking – Does your pet drink a normal amount of water or are they drinking more/less than usual? Does your pet require additional fluid support (regular subcutaneous fluids administered by owners)?

• Interaction – Does your pet still happily interact with you, or do they appear less interactive with you and others and seclude themselves? Are there any behavioral or personality changes that you have noticed lately?

• Elimination – Is your pet still able to go and eliminate when they want to go in their designated spot or does your pet have accidents occasionally or wetting/soiling themselves in the bed? Does your pet have normal stools regularly?

• Interest/Disinterest – Does your pet still show interest in their favourite toys or activities? Does your dog seem to be excited when walked or have they lost interest in what used to delight them? Has your dog stopped caring for a postman when he used to bark at them all the time?

• How are you coping? – This is often not discussed during the pet’s quality of life discussion, but it is important to ask yourself how well your are coping while your pet’s health is declining. Financially, emotionally, physically. Are you struggling to assist your large dog that is no longer able to get up on its own, are you feeling guilty, sad, anxious or stressed seeing your pet struggling, are on-going medical expense affecting you financially? While this is not the main part of your pet’s QOL assessment, it is often an overlooked component of what needs to be carefully taken into considerations when making the decisions around your pet’s euthanasia.

If the quality of life is severely compromised and your pet is no longer enjoying the life as they used to, it may be the time to let them go. It is our responsibility as pet owners to ensure our loving pet does not end up suffering. While some pets may pass away in their sleep overnight and don’t wake up the next morning, most don’t. For this reason, people often regret making the decisions too late and only rarely that it was done too early. While there’s a sense of guilt in making the decision to let them go, we often remind our clients that home euthanasia is a kind way to ensure that your pets have a peaceful end of life experience. This eliminates the risk of your pet experiencing sustained suffering or unpredictable, potentially stressful last moments that no pets should experience. Often people ask us this must be the hardest part of our jobs, in a way yes, but we also regard what we can offer as a final gift of kindness and it is our honour to be able to help your pet’s last day on this earth side to be a rather peaceful one.