Quality of Life Tools for Dogs & Cats
Welcome to our Quality of Life Tools for Dogs and Cats page. We understand that making decisions about your pet’s well-being can be challenging. Our goal is to provide you with compassionate support and valuable resources to help you assess and enhance the quality of life for your beloved companions. Explore our recommended scales, informative articles, and answers to common questions to guide you in making informed and heartfelt decisions as your pet ages.
The Caring Pathways “Pathway to Care Assessment”
Our Pathway to Care Assessment form allows you to evaluate your pet’s quality of life objectively and monitor it over time. Our assessment form will walk you through quality of life elements such as Pain, Ambulation (movement & balance), Thirst, Waste, Attiude, and Your self-care.
The H5M2 Scale
Pet caregivers can use this Quality of Life Scale to determine the success of hospice care. Score patients using a scale of: 0 to 10 (10 being ideal).
The Ohio State University Scale
How will I know? Assessing quality of life and making difficult decisions for your pet. Often the hardest decisions we face regarding our pets involve geriatric and end-of-life care. The needs and beliefs of each family are different, and what might be the right choice for one pet may not be right for another. It is our hope that this guide will help and support you, whether you are considering a particular treatment plan or end-of-life care.
The MMVHS Quality of Life Scale
Quality of Life scoring helps you take subjective thoughts about your beloved pet and put them into a more objective framework.
Helpful Pages
How Do I know If My Pet is in Pain: Quality of Life Questions
Your beloved pet will always show you their best face, regardless of their pain or disease. Evaluating your pet in any of the following areas below should be considered on a timeline.
Learn More About Our In-Home Quality of Life Assessment Service
The Caring Pathways Quality of Life Assessment is an in-home appointment where one of our end-of-life care veterinary experts will evaluate your beloved pet in the comfort and privacy of your home.
A pet’s life may be short, but the love they give is boundless; let’s make every moment count by giving them the best life possible.
Helpful Articles
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Anticipatory Grief Support
Anticipatory grief is experienced when faced with a terminal diagnosis of an animal companion. It can also occur with being the caregiver of an elderly/ ill animal companion. This grief can begin long before the companion has died. We begin to grieve the thoughts of our companion no longer being here, all of the things we do with our companion, all of the things the companion can no longer do and how our lives will change without them. Click the button below for our grief support resources.
Caring Pathways Calendar
Below is a printable Caring Pathways calendar for you to write down and track your pet’s conditions. Staying updated with this calendar can help you track if your pet is experiencing more good days than bad days or if their condition changes over time. Additionally, it is a good place to schedule your next Caring Pathways Services Assessment, plan bucket list activities and to keep other notes.
