A Pet Parent's Guide to End-of-Life Care for Pets

What Does End-of-Life Care for Pets Actually Include?

End-of-life care for a pet covers the whole final chapter of their life, from the early senior years through palliative care, hospice, and the goodbye itself. It focuses on keeping a pet comfortable and happy, catching problems early, and helping families prepare for what is ahead.

Many people picture end-of-life care as the last few weeks. In practice, it often begins years earlier. Palliative care focuses on comfort and quality of life for a pet with a serious or chronic condition, and it can continue for months or years. Hospice care is the stage when the focus shifts fully to comfort as a pet nears the end. Love, Baxter has a helpful breakdown of palliative care vs. hospice for pets if you are trying to understand where your pet is right now. Both work best when the groundwork, like a trusted vet relationship, a care plan, and an honest picture of what lies ahead, is already in place.

Half of pets are seniors, and many families do not realize it. "Literally most pet parents and a lot of vets don't actually know when a pet is a senior," Adam said. "The average is a dog is seven or older, a cat is ten or older." By the numbers he cites, that is about 72 million pets in the United States, or roughly 44% of all pets. Size and breed matter too, and Love, Baxter's guide to when dogs become seniors walks through how the timeline differs.

Even obvious signs do not always register. "Even when people have a face that's covered in gray fur, they still don't understand, yeah, my dog's a senior," Adam said. "God forbid they don't have gray fur or they're a white dog. They truly don't realize that they're sitting there with a senior pet who needs additional blood work, who is going to need supplements, who's probably going to need a special food, who's going to need all these different things to help care for them."

The most common mistake is waiting. When we asked Adam what people get wrong about aging in dogs and cats, his answer was about timing. "The thing we get wrong is we say, I now have a senior because my dog is 12, not 8," he said. "And I would tell you that preventative care is so much cheaper than having to treat something that you missed early on."

You rarely know which moments are the late ones. One of the photos Adam shared was of Baxter at his 11th birthday party, looking happy and healthy. "We didn't know about 16 months after this photo was taken he wouldn't be here anymore," Adam said. "He would only have one more birthday after this." For Adam, that is the reason to start caring for a senior pet as a senior pet early, while there is still time to make a difference.

Love, Baxter's senior pet care resources cover many of the conditions that come with this stage, including hypothyroidism, kidney disease in cats, inflammatory bowel disease (which is how Adam lost Baxter), palliative care, and even how to massage a senior pet.

Why Is Staying Close to Your Vet So Important in a Pet's Final Years?

Regular vet visits are how problems get caught early and how families get the honest guidance they need when decisions get hard. Yet many senior pets stop seeing a vet altogether in their final stretch, often because visits feel expensive or difficult.

Adam points to a study he credits to Dr. Mary Gardner, looking at about 817,000 animals. It found that 55% of cats and 40% of dogs had not seen a veterinarian in the 18 months before euthanasia. He does not soften how he feels about that number. "That's a failure by the veterinary community," he said. "We cannot make it hard to get people in the door to see us with senior pets. That should be the last thing we do."

Find a vet who makes it easy to come in. Adam's advice to pet parents is to look for a practice that removes the barriers to frequent visits. "If you're a pet parent, you should be finding a veterinarian who makes it easy for you to get there and makes it easy on your wallet," he said. He is honest that even then, senior care is not cheap. Sophie's medications and food are still very expensive. For his family, though, not paying an exam fee every visit has meant coming in whenever something seems off, rather than waiting to see if it passes.

He believes that access has made a real difference. "Sophie's 16 and a half and Baxter was 12 and a half, and we have a senior cat," he said. "And I think a lot of that could be tied back to easily getting into Modern Animal and making it easy." He also noticed small details, like the team having pads ready whenever his senior pets come in. (For reference, Modern Animal's All Access membership includes unlimited wellness exams at no additional charge, Essential members get one exam included per plan year, and non-members pay between $75 and $85 per exam depending on the city. The full breakdown is at modernanimal.com/pricing.)

A vet who knows your pet's whole story. Adam shared a story from a "super senior" appointment for Sophie at Modern Animal Costa Mesa, when the family brought along their new puppy, Cosmo. Sophie's veterinarian was down on the floor caring for Sophie when she began to tear up. "She said she still thinks about Baxter, and Cosmo reminded her of Baxter," Adam said. "It made the whole room tear up. Seriously. We were all just like, wow, she really cares about him."

That appointment stayed with the family. "You talk about having a vet that truly understands the full cycle of everything," Adam said. Over the years, that same veterinarian also connected the family with many of the specialists who now care for Sophie, several of whom she knows personally.

Have the hard conversations early. Sophie now gets acupuncture and laser therapy, and Adam says she is doing well at 16 and a half. (If you are curious whether it could help your pet, Love, Baxter has an overview of veterinary acupuncture for senior pets.) He also wishes they had started sooner. "We've been doing this for about a year, year and a half, maybe two years. I wish we were doing it for the last five," he said. "I wish we would have had these conversations earlier, because she's doing great at 16 and a half, but I think she could have been doing better. And that's on us. And it's on us to have hard conversations with our vets."

Those conversations can include questions like: Is my pet a senior now, and what should change? Which screening tests make sense at this age? What supplements, foods, or therapies could help with comfort and mobility? What conditions is my pet's breed prone to? Veterinarians generally recommend wellness exams about every six months for senior pets, since health can change quickly as pets age. For more questions worth bringing up, Love, Baxter collected what vets wish you knew about end-of-life care.

How Do You Track Your Senior Pet's Quality of Life?

Tracking quality of life means knowing what a good day looks like for your pet and noticing when things start to change. Working with your vet to set a baseline, then checking in on it regularly, makes it much easier to make clear decisions later.

Adam keeps the definition of a good baseline simple. "The baseline is just they should be happy and eating and doing good and going for walks," he said. "And if you can get them to that point, I think it's really great, and you'll have this really fulfilling relationship with your pets."

Start with a baseline from your vet. "Work with your vet to get a good baseline," Adam said. "And once you've got a baseline for your senior pets and they're feeling good, that's the way to do it." A baseline usually includes bloodwork and an exam, along with your own notes on your pet's normal appetite, energy, sleep, mobility, and personality.

Check in every day. Love, Baxter offers a daily quality of life guide that families can start using right away. Many vets also use structured quality of life scales that look at factors like pain, appetite, hydration, hygiene, mobility, happiness, and whether a pet has more good days than bad. Writing down a few notes each day, or simply marking each day as good or bad on a calendar, can reveal patterns that are hard to see in the moment.

Know which changes are worth a call. Signs worth mentioning to your vet include eating or drinking noticeably more or less, weight loss, new reluctance to walk or climb stairs, restlessness or panting at night, hiding, changes in bathroom habits, and confusion. Some of these have simple, treatable causes, which is another reason not to wait. Love, Baxter's guide to monitoring a sick pet at home explains how to check vital signs and which red flags need a call, and its guides to the signs a senior dog is nearing the end and the signs a cat is dying can help you recognize when changes are more serious.

Expect some scary days. Adam is honest that tracking can also bring worry. "There's going to be days where they don't eat and they don't want to go for walks, and you're going to think the worst and it's going to send you spiraling," he said. Having a baseline and a vet you can call makes it easier to tell a rough day apart from a real change.

Love, Baxter's end of life planning resources go deeper on quality of life, including how families think through the decision about when it may be time to say goodbye.

How Do You Prepare for a Senior Pet Emergency?

Preparing for an emergency means knowing exactly where you would go and what you would bring if something happened at 2 a.m. That includes a list of nearby emergency and specialty hospitals, a printed summary of your pet's medical information, and a care team you have already talked with.

"Having a senior pet's hard, and no one's really prepared for the 2 a.m. emergency, which we've struggled with," Adam said. He compares it to the planning we do for ourselves and our families. "The same way that you have a will to protect your family, or you have a trust, or the same way that when your parents or grandparents are getting older you start preparing things, you should do the same for your pet."

Know your local emergency and specialty hospitals. Adam recommends learning where the nearest emergency clinic, specialty hospital, and internal medicine practice are before you need them. "Your pet does not have to be going through something for you to show up and ask for a tour and to be able to ask questions," he said. "You should do that."

Print a medical summary. "Have something fully ready and printed out that has all their medications, all of their health stuff," Adam said. Along with it, keep the numbers and addresses for the three or four places you would call. A useful summary includes your pet's diagnoses, current medications and doses, allergies, recent lab results, and contact information for every vet on their care team. Keep a copy by the door or in the car, and a photo of it on your phone. Love, Baxter's checklist of what to include in a pet end-of-life plan is a good template for building one.

Build a care team. As pets age, many end up with more than one vet. Adam describes Sophie as having four teams: her primary care at Modern Animal, an internal medicine specialist, a dermatologist, and an eye doctor. Baxter had the same mix. His advice is to ask your vet who they trust. "We found many, many, many specialists for all of our animals" through Sophie's veterinarian, he said.

Know your after-hours options. For questions at odd hours, Adam's family texts Modern Animal's 24/7 Virtual Care, which is available to All Access and Essential members and can help you decide whether something needs to be seen right away. In a true emergency, though, Adam is clear that you need to know your closest 24-hour hospital. "We have insurance for ourselves. We know where the emergency room is for ourselves. We have first aid kits for ourselves," he said. "We need to have the same thing for our pets." A basic pet first aid kit, your pet's medications, and a leash or carrier by the door can save valuable time.

For more on preparing ahead, Love, Baxter's Preparing for Pet Loss section covers questions like signs a pet is dying, palliative care, and how to monitor a sick pet at home, and the site also has a guide to deciding whether to go to the emergency vet or wait until morning.

What Is Caregiver Fatigue, and How Do You Cope With It?

Caregiver fatigue is the physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion that builds up from caring for a pet who needs constant attention. It is very common among people caring for senior or seriously ill pets, and it often goes unnoticed because the focus stays entirely on the pet.

"Caregiver fatigue is hard. I'm definitely living it right now," Adam said. A couple of weeks before our conversation, Sophie had a urinary tract infection that led to a very rough day. "It's not a fun way to live," he said, "but it's kind of what we sign up for." Love, Baxter's guide to pet caregiver fatigue goes deeper on the signs, causes, and ways to find relief.

It shows up in the body, the mind, and the heart. "You're going to feel it physically, emotionally, and mentally," Adam said. "I feel all three." He described chronic exhaustion and a nervous system that never fully settles. Sophie now sleeps through most nights with help from medication her vet team prescribed, but about one night a week she still wakes up needing to go out, and there is no telling which night it will be. When we spoke, Adam was sick after spending two nights away from Sophie to speak at a conference. "Even though my wife's obviously amazing with her, I was so worried about her just being away," he said. "What if something happens?"

Caregivers tend to disappear. "I think we neglect ourselves because we're so focused on them," Adam said. "We're so focused on making sure that Sophie's okay, that she's feeling good, that she's happy, that she's eating, that it becomes this all-consuming thing."

The nightly goodbye. Part of what makes it so draining is that the weight of each day is real. Every evening, Adam and his wife cook Sophie dinner, let her relax, and take her on a long walk at her favorite place. Then they say goodnight. "Every night, both my wife and I have this huge good night for her where we just tell her a million things in case she doesn't wake up the next day," Adam said. "It's really hard to do that 365 times a year. But it's what you do when you have a senior pet, because you just don't know what tomorrow's gonna bring."

A routine can give you your life back. For Adam's family, the most helpful tools have been boundaries, routines, and protecting some time for themselves. "We have such a tight routine for her that it actually gives us our life back a little bit," he said. "And the days things come up and that routine gets missed, it throws off the whole household and we feel it."

Ask for support, and offer it. Adam encourages caregivers to tell the people in their lives what they are going through, and what would help. "Talk to your vet and talk to friends and family and let them know, this is what I'm going through, this is what I'm struggling with, and this is the support I could use from you," he said. He also asks everyone else to reach out. "If you have someone with a senior pet in your life, I really recommend reaching out to them and just checking in with them, saying, hey, how are you doing?"

You are far from alone. By the figure Adam cites, 75% of pet owners have experienced anticipatory grief, the grief that comes before a loss. Love, Baxter's anticipatory grief resources explain what it is and how people cope with it. If the weight starts to feel like too much, Love, Baxter keeps a directory of grief counselors, social workers, and end of life doulas who help people with anticipatory grief specifically, and you can also get personalized help from a real person on the Love, Baxter team.

Is It Normal to Feel Guilty or Relieved When Caring for a Senior Pet?

Yes. Many people caring for a senior or dying pet feel guilty about being exhausted, and some feel moments of wishing it were over, followed by guilt for thinking it. These feelings are a normal part of caregiving and do not mean you love your pet any less.

"If you're feeling exhausted and you're feeling guilty about feeling exhausted, don't," Adam said. "You will feel guilty, and you shouldn't. You shouldn't feel bad. I promise you."

He is unusually honest about his own feelings. "It's crossed my mind many times my life would be easier if she wasn't here," he said. "I want her here more than anything, but I think it's okay to say those things out loud."

He knows that losing Sophie will be devastating, and he also knows what will come with it. "I hope she lives another five years," he said. "The day she's not here, it's going to be very hard. But a week later, we're going to have a lot more freedom in our life to do things. And it's a weird feeling to know that and still not want it. But I don't want it. But I'll have it." Love, Baxter has a post about exactly this, feeling relief after a loss and the guilt that can come with it, and its section on grief and emotions around pet loss is a good place to start reading.

A different way to look at the hard days. What helps Adam most is remembering how many people would give anything for the problems he has. "For every hard day we have where we're just really stressed and really frustrated because she doesn't want to eat or she's just not in the mood or she's being very stubborn, there's someone out there who lost their three or four year old pet yesterday or a week ago or a month ago who'd do anything to have them back," he said. "And with Baxter, same thing. I would do anything to have him waking me up in the middle of the night. It would mean he's still here."

Love, Baxter reads thousands of messages from grieving pet parents, and many are from people whose pets died young or without warning. "Every single day we read thousands of messages from people whose puppies and kittens died, whose seemingly healthy five year old dog was unresponsive and gone when they came home for no reason," Adam said. "So when I look at Sophie and I look into her old lady teeth and her glazed over eyes, and I look at her in discomfort some days, I still just feel so lucky that we're even able to go through these bad days with her."

Caring for her has changed him, too. "I would not consider myself a patient person," he said. "But caring for her, especially in her old age, has brought us so much closer together and has taught me a lot about a lot of things in life."

How Can You Make Every Day Count in Your Pet's Final Chapter?

Making every day count means filling your pet's remaining time with the things they love and being truly present for it. It also means accepting that their time is limited, so that the good days are enjoyed rather than spent worrying.

Adam and his wife try to live by one question. "We kind of live life in a way where we say, if yesterday was the last day on Earth, would we have been happy with it?" he said.

Build a day around what they love. For Sophie, that means three to four walks a day, depending on how she is feeling, medicine time, a mix of fresh food and kibble with toppers, and a home-cooked meal that makes her happy every day. "Here's this girl who still jumps for treats and begs to go for walks and jumps for food and is just so happy," Adam said.

Make a memory on purpose. One thing Adam highly recommends is a senior pet photo shoot, something the family never did with Baxter. In 2025, they booked a photographer and took Sophie to the beach for a family shoot. "Honestly the photos turned out great," he said. "But it was the day. It was just taking it all in and being there with her and watching her work the camera with the photographer. It was just the most fun, best day ever." They did it thinking Sophie might not have much time left. More than a year later, she is still here. Love, Baxter's directory includes photographers who do these sessions.

Learn their new language. As Baxter aged, Adam noticed their relationship changing in a way he did not expect. "It felt like we communicated differently when he got older, and it felt like he was able to tell us a little bit better about what was going on with him and what he was going through," he said. Baxter stopped pulling on walks and stopped jumping off things like he did when he was young, but they found new ways to understand each other. "When you spend 10, 12, 16 years with an animal, you just find new ways to communicate," Adam said. "And now with Sophie, it's the same thing."

Be present, even when it is hard. Adam is honest that Baxter's last week did not pass that test. "If you would have asked me about his final week, the answer was no. It was horrible. It was the worst week of my life," he said. Looking back at footage from the camera in their living room, he saw himself on his phone the night before Baxter died, with Baxter asleep beside him. "I think I was on my phone to detach and just try to not live in that moment that I knew he was going to be gone 18 hours later," he said. "It's definitely taught me a lot with Sophie about how if we can just be in the moment and enjoy it, it just makes it that much better."

Accept what is coming, and prepare for it. Being present does not mean pretending. "We can't gloss over the fact that she's not gonna be here forever. She won't be," Adam said. "We have to understand that, and we have to be prepared for it. We just have to make every day great." When the time does come, Love, Baxter's guide to mentally preparing for euthanasia day can help you plan a goodbye that feels right for your pet and your family. When we talked, it was October 5. "I don't know if she'll wake up tomorrow, and I hope she does," he said. "And all we can do is just make every day great."

The bottom line. End-of-life care for pets is not only about the final days. It starts with recognizing when your pet becomes a senior, staying close to a vet who knows them, setting a quality of life baseline, and having an emergency plan ready before you need it. It also means taking care of yourself through the exhaustion and guilt that so often come with caregiving, and making room for the good days that are still ahead. "If you're lucky enough to have a senior pet, something could happen tomorrow," Adam said. "If you make every day great and you just really let them know how you feel about them, and really show them and really give them attention," that is what matters most. If your dog or cat is entering their senior years, Love, Baxter offers free resources and personalized support, and our veterinarians are always glad to talk through senior care and what comes next whenever you are ready to book a visit.