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Putting animals down

(edited 12 years ago)

It gets a lot easier the more you do (...thats maybe a bad thing???)

Certainly in this case it was the best thing for the animal. She would have died anyway and was in discomfort. You did a good thing.

My friend had to put both her dogs down this week after they broke into the neighbour's garden and killed his chickens. If you can euthanase both your healthy dogs who you know to be well-natured, you can euthanase anything.

Reply 2

kiss_me_now9

I can't imagine what it must be like to do that, is it standard practice for graduates to *possibly* have not had to put an animal down at all during their course? Obviously I understand that just gathering random animals and using them would be highly unethical and against the veterinary code, but it seems odd to me.

Well done for being so brave, I couldn't do it myself

Reply 3

ponyvet

Hi Claire,
Well done for volunteering. I know it's really hard but as you do more, you devlop a routine and technique. This helps loads in taking away the stress and unfamiliarity of the procedure particularly when you're on your own with an owner as a new grad. Euthanasias used to fill me with dread when I first started practice (partly because I'd never done an equine one in uni and I've always been an equine vet!) as you want everything to go smoothly for the animal and owner. There will be ones that won't go smoothly but there's often a good reason - neurological deficits, low blood pressure, high adrenaline levels etc..
Although it seems morbid, try and volunteer to do as many as possible. Clients seem to judge vets on how they handle euthanasia cases more than anything. I used to get more thank you cards for euthanasias than any other consultations.
Hope eveything else is going well x