Final TailFinal Tail

Free tool

Pet quality-of-life journal

A quiet way to keep track of how your pet is doing, day by day, and to turn it into something you can hand to your vet. There is no score here and no verdict — just your own observations, written down properly.

Built from AAHA, PDSA and IAAHPC guidance on what to observe and on keeping a home record. It is a discussion aid for a veterinary appointment, not an assessment of your animal, and it cannot tell you whether euthanasia is right.

How often do you want to check in?

You can change this whenever you like. Nothing is locked in.
How often

What are you seeing today?

0 of 10 answered

Answer what you can. Leaving something blank is fine, and “not sure” is a real answer — it tells your vet something a guess would not.

Comfort

Comfort

Do they seem comfortable?

  • Can they settle and rest without shifting around
  • Any change in how they hold themselves, or where they choose to lie
  • Whether anything you have been given for comfort still seems to help
Eating

Eating

Are they eating?

  • Interest in food, not just how much goes down
  • Whether they still want the things they always wanted
  • Any difficulty with the act of eating itself
Drinking

Drinking

Are they drinking?

  • Noticeably more or noticeably less than usual
  • Whether they can reach and use their water comfortably
Toileting and cleanliness

Toileting and cleanliness

Are they managing to toilet, and to stay clean?

  • Getting to the right place in time
  • Whether they can keep themselves clean, or need help
  • Any change you have noticed and would mention to a vet
Moving around

Moving around

Can they get about?

  • Standing up, lying down, stairs, getting onto their usual spot
  • Whether they need help, and how much
  • Whether they can reach the places that matter to them
Breathing

Breathing

Is their breathing settled?

  • At rest, not just after moving
  • Any change in effort, rate or noise
Rest and sleep

Rest and sleep

Are they resting well?

  • Whether they sleep through, or seem restless
  • Any change to where or when they sleep
Interest and enjoyment

Interest and enjoyment

Are they still interested in things?

  • Responding to you, to their name, to the door
  • Whether they still seek out company, or have withdrawn
  • Whether anything still visibly pleases them
Was today a good day?

Was today a good day?

Taking the day as a whole, was it a good one for them?

  • Not whether it was a good day for you — whether it was for them
  • Some days are simply better than others, and that is worth recording
Compared with their normal

Compared with their normal

Is any of this a change from what is normal for them?

  • Every animal has their own normal, and only you know theirs
  • A quiet dog who is quiet is not the same as a busy dog who has gone quiet

Anything else about today?

Saved in this browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere.

What this is, and what it is not

  • This journal cannot tell you whether euthanasia is the right decision. Nothing can do that except a conversation with your vet, and what you know about your own animal.
  • For anything medical — what a change means, whether it can be treated, what to expect — your veterinarian is the person to ask.
  • If something has come on suddenly or seems severe, do not wait for an appointment. Contact a vet or an emergency service now.

Summary for your vet

Nothing recorded yet

Your summary will build itself here

Save a check-in on the left and it appears here straight away. After three, it starts describing the pattern.

This document prints as a designed two-page summary, not as a copy of this web page.

When not to wait

Some changes need a vet now rather than at the next appointment. If you see any of these, ring someone.

  • Difficulty breathing
  • Pain that is not settling
  • Not able to eat or drink
  • Repeated crises, one after another
  • Collapse, or being unable to stand
  • Bleeding that will not stop
  • A seizure, or seizures one after another
  • Not responding to you at all
  • You think they may have swallowed something harmful

This is not a complete list, and it is not a diagnosis. If something worries you and it is not here, that still counts — ring a vet.

Where to go in Australia

Guidance for

Evidence and method

Method

How this works

The whole model, in plain language. Nothing here is hidden behind a black box.

It records observations, not measurements
Ten plain questions about things you can actually see: whether they seem comfortable, whether they are eating, whether they can get about, whether they still seem interested in anything. Nothing asks you to assess pain or hydration, because those are clinical judgements and a guess at one is worse than no answer.
There is no score, and that is deliberate
There is no score here, and there is no number that means anything on its own. What this records is what you noticed, when you noticed it — so that you can describe it accurately to someone who can help.
It is a journal because change is the thing that matters
PDSA's own guidance says it plainly: it helps to keep a diary or a log to track changes over weeks or even months. One snapshot of a bad afternoon tells you very little. Six check-ins across three weeks tells you and your vet a great deal.
“Not sure” is a real answer
If you genuinely cannot tell, say so. An honest gap is more useful to a veterinarian than a guess recorded as fact, and the trend deliberately leaves those answers out rather than counting uncertainty as good or bad news.
It produces something you can hand over
The whole point is the printed summary: two sheets, most-flagged areas first, the full check-in table, the days you wrote something down, and space for what the vet said. It is designed to be read in a ten-minute consultation.
Nothing you write is transmitted
There is no server call in this tool at all. Your answers, your notes and your pet's name are held in this browser and nowhere else. Analytics records that a check-in happened and how often you have chosen to check in — never what you observed.

Limits

What this cannot tell you

  • This journal cannot tell you whether euthanasia is the right decision. Nothing can do that except a conversation with your vet, and what you know about your own animal.
  • For anything medical — what a change means, whether it can be treated, what to expect — your veterinarian is the person to ask.
  • If something has come on suddenly or seems severe, do not wait for an appointment. Contact a vet or an emergency service now.
  • It does not diagnose anything. A change you record here has many possible causes and only a veterinarian can work out which.
  • It is not the HHHHHMM scale, does not reproduce it, and does not use its categories, its ratings or its score bands. See the source manifest for why.
  • The list of changes that need urgent attention is short and is not complete. If something worries you and it is not on it, that still counts.
  • Ten areas cannot capture an animal. You know things about your pet that no list has a row for, which is what the notes field is for.

Sources

Where this comes from

Every source we used, what it supports and when we retrieved it. If one of these changes, this page is wrong and we want to know.

  • American Animal Hospital Association

    12 Things Pet Owners Should Know About End-of-Life Care for Dogs and Cats

    The areas a veterinary team assesses are the pet's level of pain and their ability to eat and drink, breathe comfortably, eliminate appropriately, move around the home, and engage with caregivers and surroundings.

    Retrieved 30 July 2026

  • American Animal Hospital Association

    How to Assess Your Senior Pet's Quality of Life

    Regularly evaluating an ageing pet's quality of life helps guide care decisions and informs end-of-life conversations with a veterinarian.

    Retrieved 30 July 2026

  • American Animal Hospital Association

    Tools for End-of-Life Care (2023 AAHA Senior Care Guidelines for Dogs and Cats)

    Structured quality-of-life tools are an established part of veterinary senior and end-of-life care, used to support a conversation between a veterinary team and a caregiver.

    Retrieved 30 July 2026

  • International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care

    General Animal Hospice and Palliative Care Guidelines

    Quality-of-life assessment is a collaborative effort between the veterinary team and the caregiver, and relies on careful observation of the animal.

    Retrieved 30 July 2026

  • International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care

    Helpful Links For Pet Hospice & End-of-Life Care

    Recognised hospice bodies point caregivers to structured quality-of-life resources, which is why a home-recording tool is a legitimate thing for a directory to offer alongside them.

    Retrieved 30 July 2026

  • PDSA

    How can I tell if my pet still has a good quality of life?

    It can help to keep a diary or a log to track changes over weeks, or even months. This is the direct basis for Final Tail building a journal rather than a one-off questionnaire.

    Retrieved 30 July 2026

  • Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine (Riney Canine Health Center)

    Canine health information

    A veterinary school maintains owner-facing health information, which is where a family should check a specific sign rather than relying on a directory.

    Retrieved 30 July 2026

  • PDSA

    PDSA Pet Health Hub

    UK owner-facing veterinary information covering symptoms and conditions, for a family who needs to check a specific change.

    Retrieved 30 July 2026

  • RSPCA Australia

    RSPCA Australia Knowledgebase

    Australian owner-facing animal welfare and veterinary guidance, for a family who needs to check a specific change.

    Retrieved 30 July 2026

  • Australian Veterinary Association

    Australian Veterinary Association

    The national body for Australian veterinarians, and the correct starting point for finding ordinary veterinary care in Australia.

    Retrieved 30 July 2026

  • Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons

    Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons

    The regulator of UK veterinary surgeons, and the correct place to confirm that a practice and its vets are registered.

    Retrieved 30 July 2026

  • American Animal Hospital Association

    AAHA veterinary practice guidelines

    AAHA publishes the practice guidelines that US veterinary teams work to, including the end-of-life care guidelines developed with IAAHPC.

    Retrieved 30 July 2026

Questions

Common questions

Will this tell me whether it is time?

No, and it is not built to. Nothing on this page produces a score, a threshold or a recommendation about euthanasia. What it does is help you describe accurately what you have been seeing, so the conversation with your vet starts from a real record rather than from the last twenty-four hours.

Why is there no total out of seventy?

Because a total invites a threshold, and a threshold invites a decision. The widely circulated seven-category scale attaches published score bands to euthanasia-adjacent conclusions. Final Tail will not do that. The counts here describe what you wrote down; they are not a measurement of your animal.

Is my pet's information sent anywhere?

No. There is no server call in this tool. Your check-ins, your notes and your pet's name are stored in this browser only, and clearing your journal removes them. Analytics records that a check-in was completed and which mode you chose, and cannot carry an answer, a note or a name.

How often should I fill it in?

Whatever you can manage. Daily shows change most clearly, weekly suits a slower decline, and a single check-in is a perfectly reasonable place to start. The pattern only begins to mean anything after about three, which is why the tool says nothing about direction before then.

What if something changes suddenly?

Do not wait for the next check-in or the next appointment. Difficulty breathing, pain that is not settling, collapse, bleeding that will not stop, repeated seizures, unresponsiveness or a suspicion that something harmful was swallowed all need a vet now. That list is not complete — if you are worried, ring someone.

Next

Where to go from here

At-home euthanasia

Vets who come to you, by area, when that time does come.

Open

Pet loss support

Verified support services, and what each one actually offers.

Open

Pet age calculator

Life stage and a rough human-age comparison, from published guidelines.

Open

Create a memorial

For afterwards. Free, private by default, and yours to keep.

Open