Much of the information you will find here comes from my experience related to many years as a veterinarian, the last 15 years of which have been devoted to the old and end of life dog and cat. You will find that my viewpoints are, in many cases, contrarian to the general viewpoints of veterinarians and the global pet caretaking community. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I am correct and they are wrong. However, my narrow focus on the elderly animal and end of life situations, has given me a different perspective on the issues affecting these animals. I soon realized that I wasn’t taught how to deal with the aged animal. Over time, and after thousands of discussions with clients, I found that there were many common threads associated with the problems affecting the older dog and cat. Along with this new knowledge came new approaches to dealing with these common diseases, and I was often able to give helpful advice that would prolong the animal’s life. I also discovered that many, if not most veterinarians develop a sort of “tunnel vision” approach when they discover a specific problem, such as cancer, kidney disease, heart disease or a plethora of other diagnoses. Once they see what they think is the primary problem, they completely neglect to look for anything else, often missing an important additional malady that is the reason the animal was presented in the first place. A prime example is the finding of a mass in the abdomen, which has been developing in most cases for a significant amount of time. However, that singular finding becomes the primary cause for every symptom the caretaker has witnessed. Rarely, in my experience is that the case, but the veterinarian in charge stops right there and tells the client the devastating news and that the caretaker should consider euthanasia. I couldn’t even hazard a guess as to how many of these animals are euthanized right then and there, but likely in the millions over time. In other cases when the owner decides not to pursue euthanasia immediately, I may be called. I will then have a long discussion with the caretaker and in many cases, that animal will live a longer and comfortable life until they pass naturally or decline to the point euthanasia is performed.