Moreover, your vet may be able to provide you with a cardboard box or recommend services for pet coffins and tombstones. You may also wish to ask your vet to make a plaque with an imprint of your pet’s paw print or to provide you with a lock of your pet’s fur. Additionally, you may wish to consider what to do with your pet’s collar and leash or what blanket or towel you may want to use for your pet during euthanasia or burial.
Wrestling with the decision of when it’s your pet’s “time” is a difficult one. We vets can advise our clients, but ultimately, electing euthanasia is a decision for the pet owner. Even if a pet owner has concluded that when his or her dog or cat’s health significantly declines, recognizing when the time has come is definitely in a gray area.
During the euthanasia process just prior to death, your pet may seem to take a few large breaths (known as agonal breathing). This is often a side effect of one of the medications used in the procedure or may be secondary to residual neurological activity at the level of your pet’s diaphragm. Your pet is often already gone mentally (i.e. is brain dead), yet some remaining thoracic nerve activity may take several more seconds to minutes to cease.
I am often asked by clients that have a multi-pet household if and how to prepare their other pets for the impending demise of their furry friend. Clients also ask if the surviving pet will grieve. Yes, pets can grieve too. Although some pets may not change in behavior, other pets noticeably appear to grieve by refusing to eat, becoming lethargic, not wanting to play, or electing to lie down beside the deceased pet’s favorite blanket or bed. My childhood Dalmatian, Patch, refused to eat for nearly two weeks or move from the resting spot of our family cat Rose following Rose’s death; Patch and Rose had been best friends since they were both very young.
Many veterinarians will place an intravenous (IV) catheter in one of your pet’s limbs as the IV catheter will enable your vet definitive venous access to administer the euthanasia solution via a final injection. Your vet may place an extension line to your pet’s catheter, allowing you to cuddle your pet while the final injection is being delivered through the line at a short distance away. Other vets may inject the euthanasia solution directly into the IV catheter, or if one is not placed, directly into your pet’s vein with the aid of a tourniquet or a staff member’s assistance. The final injection may take up to a minute or so to achieve death, sometimes more quickly, sometimes slightly longer if your pet has very low blood pressure and blood circulation.
Allow your veterinarian to place an IV catheter.
Although I concede that placing an IV catheter does cause a prick of pain, because I know how it feels when I’ve had one inserted, an IV port ensures no future pain-associated injections. Injecting into the IV is not painful and is reliable. On the contrary, often our patients are frail, dehydrated, or hypotensive. Injecting a solution intravenously can be tricky even for seasoned vets under these circumstances. Without an IV catheter, I may struggle to hit the vein the first time. If any euthanasia solution is accidentally injected outside of the vein, this will cause a painful response.
An IV catheter is a one-time step in the procedure. It’s designed to save the dog from pain and anxious moments later.
When you are away, your pet is our responsibility. During your absence, we treat your pets the same way you treat them.
A pet’s demise is surely the least that any pet-lover would ever want. If you have a pet, who has grown to be part of your family through the years, saying goodbye is never an easy thing. This even becomes harder in the case of pet euthanasia. Deciding to finally put your pet to sleep is a decision that you can never make in haste. It can be emotionally-draining, especially if you think of how sad life would be in the absence of your source of joy – your pet. Nonetheless, in most cases, you have to do what is right, and that is to finally let go. Death may sound harsh, but it is better than seeing your pet suffer.In order to lessen the suffering brought by pet euthanasia, make sure to be prepared for the day you have to say goodbye.
Padonia Veterinary Hospital prides itself not only on treating pets but also on educating owners about the overall health and wellbeing of your beloved pet. We provide you with tips on how to improve your pet’s weight, activity, and overall happiness. So call us and give Padonia Veterinary hospital a try.
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Before you finally give the green light for pet euthanasia, find a quiet spot where you can have meditation. Never make a decision when you are in fear, anger, or any other negative or heavy emotions. It would be best to stay calm and have a positive state of mind. Think of the happy moments with your pet. Evaluate the necessity of euthanasia and think About how it can be better for your pet. Although it is hard to accept, the hard-hitting reality of life is that death is inevitable, and it can come sooner for the better.
Saying Goodbye: The Right Time to Euthanize Your Pet
If you’re making the difficult decision to say goodbye to your beloved dog, integrative veterinarian Dr. Julie Buzby understands your grief. In part two of her series on grieving the loss of a dog, she offers guidance on how to prepare for your dog’s euthanasia. By understanding the procedure, may you embrace the final gift you’re giving your dog … and may you find peace.
After last week’s blog post (Grieving the Loss of a Dog After Euthanasia) generated the most reader comments of any blog we’ve ever published, I realized that I owed it to our community to write some difficult things about pet euthanasia.
The overwhelming sentiment in those comments was grief wrapped in guilt. It broke my heart to realize the abundance of guilt burdening the souls of our readers—sometimes for years—regarding euthanizing their dogs. These dog parents had done the best they could with the information they had. They had nothing to feel guilty about. Rather, they had heroically given their suffering dogs a final gift when they unselfishly let them go.
But at the root of most of the reader comments, there were some common threads: lingering questions, confusion, and a lack of confidence in their decision on the euthanasia process.