r/PetLossJourney

I am absolutely devastated. Our 5 year old German shephard Chloe crossed the rainbow bridge last week due to pneumonia aspiration. We had switched her food in March of 2026 and that’s when everything started. She was regurgitating a lot, and after several X-rays and vet visits, it came down to taken her to the emergency vet after she was what looked like choking on the own vomit. Once we got the emergency vet, they took more X-rays and told us she most likely has mega esophagus and had aspirated. She developed a fever and was kept overnight. When we saw her the next day, she did not look like the happy dog she always was. Barely wagged her tail. We made the hard decision to say goodbye and not let her continue to be in pain. I can’t help but think did we pull the trigger to soon? What if we hadn’t changed her food? She was always one to throw up randomly since she was a puppy, why didn’t we address this sooner? Could we have done more? After days of non stop crying, I’m entering this guilt phase and it’s breaking my heart more. She was such a happy girl, always playing always barking and smiling, wagging her tail and taking back to me when I’d ask her ‘what’s going on girlie!’. I truly don’t know how I’ll get through this grief. She was only 5 years old. The vet kept repeating that she has a long road ahead of her before we made the decision to let go. Could we have waited or done more? Having to play god with her life was the hardest decision of my life, my heart is so broken. How can I accept that this was the best decision for her🤍🤍

He’s on palliative care for a few months now, we made the appointment today and the dr will come to the house and put him to sleep here at home, just the thought of doing all this was exhausting, painful and made me feel like dying, we will dig the hole tomorrow where he’s going to rest forever in our family home, I cry all day but it was needed, and I’m sure someday I will understand that I’m doing the best but fuck me this is hard, he was the absolute best boy during this 8 months of failed electrochemoterapy then amputation of his grin leg and now the tumors came roaring back, he had enough
I just love him so much

Not a relatable vent by any means but I'm sure others have their own versions. Tonight I watched my tarantula die horribly after it got stuck while molting which is where it sheds it's exoskeleton to get bigger. It really hurts to have hope for something to live when its at its worst, I stayed awake for almost 40 hours making sure it didn't die on me, making sure it had enough moisture and making sure it wasn't bleeding. Unfortunately it wasn't enough. This might not seem like much but it just feels like life spitting in my face and telling me that I can never properly care for the things I love so much despite putting my life into protecting them. It's bad when coupled with the fact that I don't know many people and I replaced a lot of my social time with taking care of my tarantulas, it literally just feels like life used the life a creature I loved so much to prove a metaphor of own my incapability to me. I want to cry but I can't because I know it's quite literally all my fault, I don't even feel upset I just feel betrayed by myself. Thank you for reading. RIP Bandit ❤️

I lost a few off my pets recently , I had 4 and they’re all getting old . I lost the first in September and I just lost another at the weekend. I can’t deal with the pain , I can’t believe it’s over , I just can’t believe they’re actually gone by let’s are everything to me.

I can’t stop thinking about when I had it all; thinking about years ago sitting with my full family and my 4 pets in our house , why can’t that have just last forever , I would do anything to back and do it again . It hurts so much to know I can never have that again , it’s over I truly believe those could have been the best years of my life and looking back now I wish I could tell myself that because now I know how much it hurts to have lost that I would do anything just to savour those moments and years.

I hate life , I have a fear of dying , like I’m in therapy for it. I can’t accept that everything good comes to an end, I can’t accept that I’ll never see loved ones again and that one day I’ll cease to exist. I simply just hate the nature of life why can’t everything stay the same forever I would truly be more than happy with that. I just can’t believe that we will loose it all and everything along the way . Life is to painful why does time have to keep passing .

I don’t know what I’m looking to accomplish. I’m just so devastated. He went to daycare last week even, still had some good walks, and it all went downhill so fast. I’m in a haze and don’t know if I’ll ever know that we made the right decision. He was showing pain toward the end and he never shows pain. I miss my best friend so much and I don’t know how I’m going to manage.

I lost my best friend and soul dog a little over a month ago to kidney failure. She was a 16-yo Jack Russell mix. She crashed quickly over the course of two weeks, and there was nothing we could do. Her blood work was great a month before her passing and it really felt out of the blue. The night before we put her down, we took her to the park, sat in the sunshine, and she looked at us as if to say, “I’m ready.” My heart is still shattered thinking about her last few weeks and I feel like I can’t live without her. We did EVERYTHING together.

To make matters worse, my dad was recently diagnosed with cancer, we just moved to a new state, and my job denied my PTO when I requested 2 days to put her down and grieve (due to this (and many other reasons), I left my job of 7 years and am now unemployed). I feel like my life is falling apart without my little bestie. She was SO confident and bold and always helped me be brave. I’m not sure how I’m going to tackle life without her.

Will things ever get easier? I miss her so much. I’m trying to live life like she would, bold and brave, but I’m just not as brave as she was.

My soul dog, a little corgi named Waffles would’ve turned 9 years old on July 1st. He passed away from cancer just this March.

I struggled so much with this being his first heavenly birthday. I wanted to take him for a pup cup, and fill up an inflatable pool for him to bark at his brother but not dare jump into the pool. The whole week leading up to his birthday and even now I just keep missing him something fierce.

I guess I’m just trying to get my feelings out there and I bet you folks in this community understand what I am going through. Life is so different without him.

Thank you for reading.

I don’t know what to do anymore, Emmie meant everything to me. she was with me through my worst and now she’s just gone. a week or so ago she stopped eating and was throwing up a lot, me and my parents tried everything. the day before she died we took her to the vet and they said she seemed fine, but after some bloodwork it turned out she had Addisons disease, they gave her some anti-nausea pills and told us to feed her baby food. we tried to but she just wouldn’t eat all of it so we decided that we’d try again tomorrow. but in the middle of the night she went into shock and just collapsed onto the floor and never woke up. i just don’t know how to go on without her, all I can think about is how I’ll never hear the clicking of her nails against the hardwood as she runs over to me, and I’ll never get to scratch behind her ears any more and then have her lick my fingers, I’ll never get to see her go out during winter and see her play in the snow, or see her cuddle bumble again, or see her under the japanese maple on a hot summer day, i wont be able to see her with every pillow in the house because she loved laying on pillows and watching out the window as cars drove by. I just wish I did more to help her, but now all I can do wish.

I've been trying to not panic the last day or so but I don't really know what to do at this point. My 15 yo paperanian went missing around 5:00 a.m. yesterday and we've been looking since about 7:30am yesterday. Myself and multiple neighbors have patrolled the neighborhood looking for him, checked the local shelter, put flyers in mailboxes all over our neighborhood and the neighborhood across the street. I put up an alert in a lost pets service for our area. I even fell for a pretty obvious scam service that pretends to help find lost pets.

I'm a wreck. I've had like three crashouts in the last 24 hours. It's so hot outside, I just feel terrible that he's out there.

I haven't talked about it much but he's declined a lot in the last year or so. He can barely see, just kinda eats and sleeps. I know we don't have much time left with him but this is just terrible no matter how old. My hope is that someone around here saw him and brought him inside. Hoping the flyers help reach them if that happened.

People keep asking what they can do and I kinda don't know what to tell them at this point. Just waiting for someone to call or to miraculously see him on my 1000th loop around the neighborhood. This is torture.

Hi everyone. I’m not even sure what to say. I was just wondering if anyone could give me some advice on coping with the grief of losing a pet. I went to the emergency vet just a few hours ago with him, and came back without him. This is the first time I’ve ever lost a pet. I’ve had him since I was 6, and I’m 22 now. I’ve been mentally preparing for this day. Many bouts of anticipatory grief. I’m so glad he’s not suffering, and that gave me comfort at first, but now that I’m back home, my whole environment is a constant reminder of the fact that he’s not here anymore. It happened so abruptly. The triggering noises and visions of him today keep playing in my head over and over again. I’m scared to go to sleep and see him in my dreams, only to wake up alone. I feel so restless and lost. Any kind words would be appreciated. Thank you so much.

It's been almost 3 years since i lost my kitten. He was my soul pet and I miss him more than anything. He got me out of bed in the morning and gave my life purpose. He passed in my arms 10 days before his second birthday. He got sick and had to be put down. It is so unfair, he was so little. I wish I could have saved him how he saved me. I was supposed to protect him and I failed. I havent cried over him in a while but I just miss him so much. I just want my little boy back. I hope he knew how much he was loved.