Considering end-of-life decisions for your horse ahead of time will help minimize the unpleasantness inherent in these events and serve to provide optimal care for your horse. | Photo: Photos.com

Reprinted from The Horse Report (October 2013) with permission from the Center for Equine Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis (UC Davis).

Medical advances and an ever-increasing knowledge base about health and disease over the last century have resulted in longer lives for humans and animals. There is no question that these advances have saved lives, but not all applications have been desirable.

As the survival time for people with incurable conditions (including aging) has improved, we have come to realize that prolonging life does not always equal quality of life. With this in mind, people are now more willing than before to talk about the end of life for themselves and their families. They are giving thought to whether they want their lives prolonged by technology—drugs, feeding tubes, respirators, dialysis—and expressing these health care preferences in legal documents called advance directives in the event they cannot be expressed later