There are a number of quality of life assessment tools available on the internet. I have come up with my own version, which is what I used. It is very simple and looks at not only your pet as a whole but also at you and your own feelings, which are so important at this difficult time.
This is not a scientific tool and does not require you to have any specialist knowledge or experience.
To use the quality of life assessment tool, print it out and keep it somewhere you will fill it in daily. At the end of the day take a good honest look at you and your pet and assess how your days have been and simply tick the emoji that corresponds for each of you for the day.
This will allow you to monitor how things are going over time without getting too hung up on specifics, which can take your attention away from whether or not your pet is actually having a pretty good day!
You may find that your pet is actually having better days than you are, in which case maybe try and spend more time being in the moment with them. If they are happy and you are sad, this is precious time wasted for you both.
It may be that you both have the odd bad days but then pick up and have good days. This is inevitable and can be due to changes in the weather, food or just feeling under the weather – it happens to the best of us!
If either of you have a number of concurrent bad days (pain, anxiety, depression etc) then you should be looking to see if there is a reversible or treatable cause for this. If not then it is likely time to start discussing options with your vet.
You can download the Friend at the End Quality of Life Assessment Tool by following this link.
Once it is open, right click and “save image as” to save and print the file.