Is that senior dog in your shelter just stressed out, or in pain? Is she not eating because she feels anxiety, or because she’s nauseated? Can she be helped to feel better and if so, how?

These are not just a tough questions for shelters, points out Dr. Elizabeth Berliner in the latest
issue of Shelter Watch, the publication of Maddie’s® Shelter Medicine Program at Cornell
University:

Quality of life (QOL) assessment is a hotbed topic in medicine these days, be it human
or veterinary. Defining quality of life is the first challenge. Even in humans capable of
self-reporting on their own quality of life, assessments vary greatly based on attitude
and overall outlook. Objective measures fall short. When it comes to proxy assessments
– meaning that one person assesses another person’s QOL – the results are highly
unreliable: what I may judge to be a horrible QOL may seem highly desirable for another
with different values…. When it comes to judging QOL for non-verbal creatures such as
human babies, non-verbal adults, or companion animals, dynamics become increasingly
complicated.

There are several protocols to help pet owners evaluate the quality of life of a pet
facing challenges of illness and infirmity, such as putting marbles of different colors in a
jar for each “good day” or “bad day,” or Dr. Alice Villarobos’ HHHHHMM Scale, which
evaluates hurt, hunger, hydration, hygiene, happiness, mobility.
Unfortunately, such systems are harder to implement in shelters:

In a shelter, the absence of a long-term, historical relationship often calls for an
evaluation of a senior’s quality of life in the shelter, where its human bonds have been
broken. This can be incredibly difficult, but I think the same QOL assessments can
be used, along with the Farm Animal Welfare Council’s, Five Freedoms, which have
become the basic guiding principles for ensuring QOL for all shelter animals. Ensuring
freedom from pain and discomfort or fear and distress can be difficult to impossible in
older pets with painful, debilitating conditions, especially with the added stress of being
separated from their human life partners. Senior pets often require more time, patience,
and resources, but the rewards can be great when you see that pet through to placement
in a new home. However, evaluation and management of common conditions such as
osteoarthritis, dental disease, or other degenerative diseases are essential when providing
for older pets in the shelter and ensuring that their “golden years” are truly humane and
enriched.

Quality of life is just one issue examined in the November edition of Shelter Watch, which
is devoted entirely to the health and well-being of older shelter pets. You can read the entire
issue here (PDF).