The Problem With 'You'll Just Know'
Grief distorts perception in both directions. Some owners see suffering that isn't there; many more convince themselves a pet is coping when the animal has simply stopped protesting. The advice to 'trust your instincts' is well-meaning and useless, because instinct under emotional pressure is not a reliable instrument. This is why veterinary palliative care shifted, over the past two decades, toward structured scoring, not to remove the owner from the decision, but to give them a framework that survives a bad day or a hopeful morning.
