Navigating the Tough Decision of Humane Euthanasia
Today we will open up a discussion about a topic that is heartbreaking for many pet owners: humane euthanasia. This may be a tough subject for some listeners, and we want to offer a trigger warning before we dive in. Losing a pet can be one of the most difficult experiences that a person can face, and it is my goal to provide guidance and support to those who may be facing this decision. In this episode, I will explain how to recognize when it's time to consider euthanasia, what to expect during in-home euthanasia, and how to handle your pet's remains.
Listen in to learn some of the common misconceptions and questions that arise around this subject, such as whether it is possible to euthanize a pet without any serious health issues or if pets will simply pass away in their sleep if euthanasia is not chosen. The decision to euthanize a pet is never easy, and I hope that this episode will offer comfort, guidance, and support to those who are facing this difficult choice.
What You’ll Learn:
The right time to consider euthanasia.
Where the term “euthanasia” comes from.
The importance of considering the quality of life for your pet.
How to arrange in-home euthanasia.
What happens during in-home euthanasia.
Options for handling your pet’s remains.
Ideas Worth Sharing:
“Every pet deserves a good quality of life. If they can not do what they love, then that is not a good quality of life.” - Tyler Sugerman
“Veterinarians will not euthanize a pet that could potentially live a healthy and happy life.” - Tyler Sugerman
“People tend to feel isolated and alone when they lose their pet because they think no one else will understand the bond they had with their cat or dog. However, it is important to know the number of resources that are available to you and how many other people are still grieving the loss of their pet as well.” - Tyler Sugerman
Resources Mentioned:
ASPCA 888-426-4435 or pet poison helpline 855-764-7661
Is It Legal To Bury Pets In The Backyard? State By State Laws
Read The Transcript:
Welcome to Vetsplanation. I'm your veterinary host, Tyler, or you can call me Suggs. This podcast is about educating pet parents about what is going on with their furry little loved ones. As an emergency veterinarian, I understand how hard it is to explain complex diseases in terms that are understandable for pet parents in a few short minutes before the next critical case comes in.
In this podcast, we can dive deeper into understanding of what our pets are going through and break down those complex medical terms into easier to understand chunks of information.
Just a quick disclaimer: this podcast is for informational purposes only. This is not meant to be a diagnosis of your pet. If you have questions about diagnostics or treatment options, please talk to your veterinarian about those things.
Remember, we are all practicing veterinary medicine, and medicine is not an exact science. Your veterinarian may have different treatment options. The information I provide here is to help pet parents, and it's not related to my place of work. I'm here for you guys to provide free information and knowledge.
If you like our podcast, consider sharing this podcast with at least one friend or someone else who has pets and could benefit from this.
Now, let's jump into this week's episode.
Tyler Sugerman: Hey everybody, welcome back. So, today I'm going to warn you about this episode. This is going to be a sad one, and if you have young kids that you maybe don't want to hear certain things, then you might want to listen to this episode first and decide if this is something that's appropriate for them to listen to or if maybe you just want to skip this.
So, today, I'm going to be talking about humane euthanasias. This is a really hard topic for people in general, for the veterinary field, for really just everybody. But I do think it's a really important thing to talk about.
My wife had given me this idea because one of the most common questions that I get, “Is how do I know when it's time?” She had said the same thing the other day, there's been lots of questions about this on her mom's boards. We've seen lots of questions about this even just on my veterinary boards, other veterinarians seeming to know when it's time.
We get questions on the phone about this, we get questions in the emergency room about this. I see questions on Facebook and stuff all the time from just random people who just want to know when is it time?
And that's very different for a lot of people, but hopefully, we can talk about some of those things while we know it's time, what happens during a humane euthanasia, even just like what happens afterwards for cremation and things like that.
So, let's first talk about what is humane euthanasia? So, euthanasia is actually derived from the Greek term of ‘eu’, meaning good, and ‘thanatos’ meaning death, so it literally means a good death. And I know for a lot of people the word euthanasia can be just a very triggering thing and a very upsetting thing thinking that it's a bad decision.
But when we go into this as a veterinarian, we go into this as we are going to help this pet. They're not going to have to suffer anymore or they're not going to have to be in pain anymore. So, for us, this really is a good death.
And if you want the medical definition of this, it's a way to describe ending the life of an individual animal in a way that minimizes or eliminates pain and distress. Lots of people don't actually know, but we do have to follow very certain rules. With our oath that we take as a veterinarian, we need to make sure that we minimize pain and distress as much as possible.
And even there's lots of rules that the American Veterinary Medical Association sets out that we have to follow, like how we can humanely euthanize, what that process is. But then there's also just our own morals that we really want to help animals. And so, we have to follow our own morals as to what is right and wrong for these pets.
So, we'll go back to our question of when is it the right time? Now again, there are lots of theories on this. I will tell you that the AVMA put out something.
So, the American Veterinary Medical Association put out a statement that said that scientists describe the welfare of an animal with three different components. First, is the animal functioning well? Second, does the animal feel well? And third, does that animal have the capacity to perform normal behaviors for their species or breed?
So, my thoughts on this, so my thoughts on what I told my clients and what I truly believe is that every pet deserves a really good quality of life. For me, if they cannot do what they love, then that is not a good quality of life.
If that dog loves chasing a ball and can no longer do that, to me, that's not a good quality of life. I'll tell you personally, when I had to make this decision for my own, I had a dog who unfortunately hurt his back and he was like a 90-pound dog.
And his favorite thing to do was literally to follow me from room to room. Like he was always by my side no matter where I was, sitting by the door constantly with me. And so, for him, he got to the point where he could not stand up and walk around, and it gave him anxiety not to be by me — even if I was in the house and I was living in a very small house. It's not like it's a huge two-storey house or anything, like I was not that far from him.
If I walked into another room, it just gave him so much anxiety and he couldn't follow me. And so, that's when I knew that was not a good quality of life for him. And it was unfortunately a time to make that decision.
There's lots of other situations. I’ve definitely had lots of other animals. I had a chameleon who I had to make this decision with as well. And when I saw that he was in discomfort and pain, he couldn't do his normal things (he had kidney failure), then I knew that it was his time as well.
But like I said, every animal is going to be different, they're their own individuals. And so, you have to think about what makes them the happiest and if they cannot do that, that's not a good quality of life for them.
So, there's different types of euthanasias, we'll talk about what types there are. There are planned euthanasias. So, this can be having somebody come into your home for euthanasias. So, it's called an in-home euthanasia service.
There's local vets sometimes that will do it. So, sometimes you can call the vet hospitals and ask if anybody will come out to the house to do it. There's a really popular one that's common throughout the United States called Lap of Love. Usually, you can find one close to your area to be able to have them come out.
You can Google an in-home euthanasia service near you. There are definitely a lot of them that have popped up, and I think that those are a really great option. Your pet doesn't have to be stressed out coming into a clinic or on the car ride if they're not used to that, and they can do a lot of that stuff in the home, lots of people can be there because you'll have your whole home, not just like a room in a vet hospital.
So, that's definitely a good option, it's just that you have to know ahead of time that you need to do that. So, if you start noticing that your pet is not able to get up or really doesn't have the good quality of life, but isn't immediately in danger of dying, then I think that's a great option to call and schedule them to come out at a time when they can do that.
And don't expect it to be that day or the next day. This could be a week or two weeks out, so just prepare for that if that's the route that you decide to go.
There's also the euthanasia in clinics. So, you can go to a lot of vet clinics, local vet clinics that you can make an appointment usually with a general practitioner at a very specific time. Sometimes, these local practitioners prefer to be at very specific times.
So, maybe like the end of the day because there's not as many people in the lobby or maybe they do it at lunchtime. And I had worked in a clinic in California, they had a really great setup to where they did it right next to this little pond. I don't know what it's called, an aviary or something like that.
But it's basically like this little pond inside that they would do it, and they did it at lunchtime when nobody else was there, and you could spend as much time as you wanted with your pet by this really nice little pond.
There are other people who they do it at any time. Anytime they have a break in their schedule, then they do that. So, it really just depends on that vet hospital. But that is definitely an option as well.
People have asked about low-cost euthanasias. There are some hospitals that donate euthanasias. That's not a common thing though, but it's definitely something that can be found. But also, the other thing is that there are some humane societies that do lower-cost euthanasias as well.
So, it's not going to be a free euthanasia, there're going to cost something, but usually it can be less than what some of the other clinics are charging for it. And not every humane society does this. So, you do have to call or find it online to figure out if your humane society near you will actually perform humane euthanasias.
And then the other way is to go into an emergency clinic. So, sometimes they've been going downhill for a little while, but you didn't really think about how quickly they've progressed, or they would progress, and humane society can't get you in or the vet clinics around can't get you in. Then you can walk into a lot of emergency hospitals and do the humane euthanasia with them.
Again, I would call ahead to make sure because not every hospital can do it or maybe they're at capacity or maybe the doctor is in with a surgery or something and can't walk out of that surgery, like you just don't know what the circumstances are.
So, I would definitely call and we still again as an emergency vet, I try to do the best I can to give you as much time as you need to try to get you in as quickly as possible. But it is definitely harder at the emergency clinics because we have critical patients as well. So, it might not be that I can step away from that critical patient for a little while because it's not really like a very specific time that you come in for humane euthanasia, it’s an emergency.
Like you don't want to wait, I don't want to make you wait, but at the same time, I have to also deal with critical patients as well. So, that is an option two, just to walk into an emergency hospital.
Now, the other time that people don't think about is actually during an emergency. All of these other ones are kind of more pre-planned. Even the humane euthanasia at the emergency clinic is slightly pre-planned.
It's not like they've definitely progressed quickly, but maybe we didn't think about getting an appointment or couldn't get an appointment in time, or maybe you didn't realize how bad they were until a family member came and told you, and so you decide it's time. There are lots of different situations like that, but the situation that people don't think about is when you're in an emergency.
So, a common example is when a dog is bleeding into their abdomen, they can have very commonly a tumor of the spleen. And I'll do that on a different podcast, but it's a common one for me to talk about the fact that it's a really high probability that that is going to be a cancer, a cancerous mass on the spleen.
And now, you have to make the decision right then and there to either go to surgery or unfortunately, choose humane euthanasia. It's not like we have a lot of time for it because that pet is bleeding out. You can't take them home because, well — you can choose to take them home, but I don't think that's the humane thing to do.
You can choose to take them home but unfortunately, the better option is going to be putting them to sleep or humanely euthanizing them. So, I do like to have people think about that as well. What would you think about doing in those situations? Maybe you don't have to think about that right now with your pet.
Maybe your pet's a nice young puppy that never gets into trouble, but there are going to be situations where you have to think about those things. If you have a pet that ends up having a chronic disease afterwards, if we perform surgery or hospitalization, can you handle those things or would you choose humane euthanasia?
Or if you have a pet that is very critical, would you choose to try to save them knowing that there's a very low probability of saving them or would you choose humane euthanasia? These are things that you should think about and talk about with your family as well because then you'll be more prepared if and when it does come.
Another really hard humane euthanasia is going to be due to finances. There are lots of other ways that you can try to come up with finances. There are lots of places that want to help keep your pet with you. So, the Humane Society will usually give out money. There's lots of organizations, you can always look for ones that are related to your specific pet’s breed.
You can look for ones that are related to your city that you live in, there's lots of different financial resources. But in the end, you also have to consider if that pet has a long-term disease, will you be able to afford that disease?
And then your options at that point are either considering rehoming them even if it means to the Humane Society or again unfortunately, thinking about humane euthanasia, but one of those things that you should consider. Nowb what happens during the euthanasia, that’s going to be our next part.
So, when we talk about humane euthanasias, usually, you can always call ahead of time and ask what their process is for humane euthanasias so that you have an idea of what their process is. A lot of this is what I do, and it may not be the same thing that they do.
So, I would always call and just ask them what the process is, can you be there? How long can you be there for? Do they take the pet away at any point? So, a lot of people will be surprised if we take the pet away to the back to put in an IV catheter and then bring them back because you want to stay with them as long as you can for those final moments.
And some clinics will do everything in the room, but you should call and ask about that beforehand so that you're prepared and know what's going to happen. I'm also going to talk about real quick what the other names of humane euthanasias are because some people can — you're calling on the phone, you can't really think about what to call it at that moment.
It's already such a hard discussion in the first place to have to call and ask about putting your pet to sleep. So, putting your pet to sleep is another option, human euthanasia, putting your pet to sleep, asking about end-of-life care, or even to help your pet to pass over the rainbow bridge.
So, what we do or what I'm used to doing pretty much in clinics, is typically the pet is usually taken into the back, and we do put in an IV catheter so that way we have direct access to the veins. We're not poking around so that we … we don't want to hurt them. We want their last moments to be as peaceful as possible.
So, trying to put in an IV catheter first time is ideal. So, we like to try to do it in the back while somebody else is doing paperwork with the pet parent. It’s usually when they're doing the paperwork, a lot of times they're going to do it before the euthanasia so that way, everything is taken care of and as soon as you're ready, then you'll be able to just leave instead of having to do everything at the end.
The next thing is just who performs the euthanasia. Most of the time, it's going to be the doctor, but licensed technicians can perform the humane euthanasia. So, sometimes, if I'm in surgery I'll have my technician ask if it's okay with the owners to perform a euthanasia if I am in surgery and cannot step out for a while.
And if they're okay with that too, my technicians are trained on how to do that so that they can do that in the room with the owner. But licensed technicians are allowed to do that as long as the doctor is supervising in the hospital setting.
Now, I usually talk to my pet parents about what it is that I'm going to do before I do it. I don't want you to be surprised as to what's going to happen. So, I want you to have some idea and I try to make this a very quick speech so that way, you don't feel like you're talking about all of this in front of your pet, but at the same time, you have some idea of what's happening and can focus on them afterwards.
So, in general, I usually use sedation. So, for me, I prefer the pet to have some sort of pain control, not necessarily because this is painful, just because they're usually in some sort of discomfort to begin with. And then I also give some sort of sedation because I don't want them to know what's happening, I want them to be unconscious for it.
And then the final injection, it's very fast, it's known as a lethal injection. The drug is usually sodium pentobarbital. It's actually was used for like seizures and as an anesthetic, so to put a patient under anesthesia.
So, some people prefer not to use a sedative and just use the sodium pentobarbital and that's fine, it does have an anesthetic in it, and so that is fine, that's just not what I prefer to do. It is a very fast thing.
So, I usually tell people from the moment I start the first injection to the last injection, it is less than a minute that all of this is going to happen, it is usually very quick. And then as long as everything has gone well and according to plan, usually the doctor will listen for a heartbeat afterwards to make sure that pet is gone.
I do usually tell people about some of the things that they should know afterwards. Usually, after that last injection, their pet's eyes will stay open and the muscle doesn't allow it to close, it actually stays open. And then I talk about how they might have like a breath afterwards or a twitch afterwards. But in general, it's usually the nerves that are still firing and not that the pet is still with us.
And then the last thing is they might urinate or defecate during it and it's just their bowels are releasing. I would say that when I'm doing my humane euthanasias that maybe 1 in 10 has this, but it's not like in every pet will have this, but do be prepared for that. So, sometimes we'll bring in like potty pads or we always have them in a blanket so that that way they're nice and comfortable.
Now, that's what I said, if everything goes smoothly. Unfortunately, things don't always go smoothly. And so, some of the things to know that could happen are going to be if maybe something's wrong with the IV catheter.
If we put the IV catheter in and it dislodges or it's not working correctly and we put that medication under the skin instead of in the vein, it will slowly absorb but it's pretty slow. So, we don't really like to do that, and sometimes it can be a little uncomfortable for them. And again, we don't want them to be uncomfortable at all if at all possible.
But sometimes when they're wriggling around in your arms, they'll dislodge their catheter and that just happens sometimes. So, sometimes we have to bring them back into the back again to put in a different IV catheter, and then do the process over again.
The other thing is it might be very difficult to put in an IV catheter in the first place. So, when they come to us and they're really sick, sometimes their veins are not very good, we don't want to poke them 100 times, we can't get an IV catheter in, and so a lot of times the doctor or the technician will ask about other alternatives.
Sometimes we can put it directly into the abdomen or into a kidney to try to be as quick as possible, so it still goes directly into the bloodstream and then will go to the heart eventually. It is not as fast as when we're doing it into the vein, but it's at least something, it's at least trying to do it quicker than if we were just going to give it in the bustle or giving it into the skin or something like those would be very, very long processes.
So, sometimes we can do it into the kidneys and some people will use an ultrasound to do that as well, or they'll do it in the back and then bring them back out to you so that they can peacefully go with you.
Another problem I've had is a pet becomes extremely aggressive during the process and it wasn't like after giving the sedation or anything, it was that the owner was holding them very closely. And that's a little bit scary sometimes for them because they just know you're crying, it's very emotional time.
And then I go to put my hands near their leg to be able to get the IV catheter and they attempt to bite, and some people will — it is a very scary thing, you don't understand why your pet is fighting what you're trying to do and think that they're trying to like fight for their life type thing. And a lot of times, it's actually just that they're trying to protect you or that they're just really scared.
So, sometimes I have to ask people to just hold onto their head for a second just so I can give them the sedation, and then we can relax a little bit after that and let them fall asleep. And then the other thing is it can be that the medication just takes longer to get to the heart.
So, if you have a pet who has a heart problem or has a blood pressure problem, and it's going to take a long time for those medications to get to the heart, then sometimes it's going to take longer than a minute. It might take a couple of minutes until they're done with all of their breathing, and sometimes, they'll even take agonal breaths.
So, an agonal breath is a very dramatic breath, like their mouth opens very wide as if they're choking, like trying to get air, like gasping for air. And usually, those are just nerves that are firing, not actually that they're gasping for air because remember, if we've already given that sedation, they actually don't know what's happening so they're not feeling anything.
It's not that they have that feeling that they can't breathe, it's just unfortunately it's something that happens, it's common in humans as well to do that kind of breathing. Alright, so let's hope everything went well, let's talk about our aftercare options.
So, you can do things like a home burial. Home burials, you have to look at your state laws to figure out if that's something that is okay to do in your state or not. Or if there are certain specifications for how deep they have to be or if they have to be a certain amount away from some sort of water source.
Every state has their own requirements as to what to do for pet remains. There's no federal laws that say what to do with the pet's remains, only state by state basis. And then you could also do a pet cemetery. There are pet cemeteries around where you can bury them in a pet cemetery that you can go and visit with headstones and things like that as well.
There's also cremation options. There are generally two big groups or two big categories. There's going to be other ones, other facilities that have other little categories, but they're two general ones.
So, one is usually called something like group cremation. It basically means that your pet is cremated with other pets, and then they'll usually spread their ashes on their property somewhere. Like some places have an apple orchard on their property, some places will do it in a lake or something that they have on their property, or they'll just do it on the hills of their property, things like that.
So, they all get cremated together and then their ashes are spread on their property. There's also a private cremation. So, private cremations are generally that your pet is the only one cremated at that time, and then you'll usually get their ashes back if you would like that.
Sometimes, they'll do other things as well, like give you a paw print or give you a print of their nose. I've even seen one of a chicken where they did it on their head, which I thought that was great. I have one of my chameleon, of his little feet, and then they'll usually have the remains come back in some sort of wooden box or a pot or something like that.
And then you can choose from there whether you keep it on a shelf or if you go and spread their ashes somewhere. Or some people will even make them into jewelry so they'll take little bits of their ashes and have somebody make jewelry for them and just a little bit of them that they can hold onto.
Right now, after you know all of these options and discussing how hard of a choice this is to make, there are lots of resources for grieving because after all of this, all of your adrenaline is worn off and then now, you're left at home without your pet.
And I know how hard that is. I used to hear the sound of my dog barking sometimes in my sleep, and realizing he wasn't there or seeing my cat or thinking I saw my cat at my house, and he wasn't there, so those can be really hard times.
And so, also knowing just what resources you have for grieving as well is important. There are sometimes support groups that are at the vet hospitals at some of the major clinics that have a lot of specialists. You can find this, it's usually like some sort of social worker or animal social worker that typically will run these groups and you can talk about your pet and grieving for your pet through those.
They have pet loss hotlines that you can call and a lot of times, you can just Google one. Like there's some that are very state-specific and there are some that are very veterinary hospital specific. But you can Google pet loss hotlines to be able to call as well.
There are online resources, there are pages where you can just write letters on a public forum specifically for the loss of your pet. There are lots of Facebook groups that you can join that just are about grieving your pet.
There's videos, best friends and TEDx have videos that you can watch just about grieving or the loss of your pet. There's books for adults and then there's also books for kids and teenagers as well. They try to have a variety of things to try to help them understand the loss of their pet. And then there's webinars as well that you can watch too.
So, there's lots of different resources. People tend to feel very isolated and alone during this time because nobody else can understand the loss of their pet because they were the best dog or best cat in the world.
And you'd be surprised how many resources there are out there and how many other people are actually still grieving the loss of their pets as well. So, I do think that those are great resources. Alright, let's talk about real quick, just some of the common questions that I get.
So, one of the most common questions is, “Well, can my pet be euthanized for any reason?” Like if you walked in and you were like, “I just don't want this pet anymore, can they be euthanized?” So, no, the technical answer would be that it's at the veterinarian’s discretion.
So, one thing you have to remember is this is not just your decision, it is also the decision of the veterinarian. If I don't have a history as to why we're euthanizing that pet, then I'm not going to do that. If there's some other resource that they could find, like maybe they said well, the dog has a behavioral issue and urinates in the house all the time.
Well, there are other resources that you can do. You can do training, you can rehome them, you can take them to the Humane Society. There are other resources besides just euthanizing a pet that has this behavioral issue.
Somebody else may be able to deal with it better especially when they're younger dogs. Maybe it's that they're coming in because they're aggressive, but we're going to ask about things like, “Have you done training? Have you tried rehoming them? Have you tried going to the Humane Society?”
You have to remember there are other resources and veterinarians, we do not want to euthanize a pet that could potentially still live a healthy life. So, it is also our choice as well and that's something that's been put into law, that we are able to have that choice.
Another question is, “Do I have to be with them?” That is a personal preference, you do not have to be with your pet. I know there's a lot of Facebook posts that go around about how you should be with your pet because of the fact that they've been there for you this whole time. But I understand when people don't want to be there for it or can't be there for it.
I remember having to put my first pet to sleep and just the look in her eyes was the last thing that I saw, and that was a really hard thing for me. And I had already been in the veterinary hospitals, in the veterinary community for a long time, I think like 20 years at that point.
I had seen many euthanasias and lots of death, and to have it with my own pet was a very hard thing to do. So, I do understand when somebody can't see that as the last thing with their pet, they want to remember all of the good things.
I will tell you that if you aren't there, there's always going to be some veterinary technician or assistant who will hold your pet and who will give them love or give them food or treats or whatever so that they don't feel alone.
And then when they're sedated, they don't know what's going to happen anyways, they don't know that that's what's happening to them. But if you want to be there, for most clinics there, that is always going to be something that you could do.
You can always be there with them. Most of the time, we let you hold them. I know a lot of people will ask like, “Is it okay if I hold them or do I have to put them on the table?”
For me, I'd much prefer you hold them. I want them to be in your arms and for you to be the last thing that they hear and feel and see. So, like I said, this is a very personal choice, and you should make sure it's the choice that you want and not something that somebody else wants.
I've definitely seen spouses that have said, “No, we don't want to visit,” and the other spouse being really upset and wanting to be with their pet. So, you'll make sure it's what you want, this is going to be your final moments. So, just go do what you feel is going to be right.
Another question is that people think that … they'll ask me like, “Well, isn't my dog just going to run away and find somewhere to die? Or aren't they just going to die in their sleep?” So, that doesn't usually happen. Same thing with people, most of the time, people don't die in their sleep. It depends on the situation and what kind of disease they have.
Some dogs have heart disease, they're usually not going to just die in their sleep, a lot of times they are going to almost drown, and so they can't breathe. It's just not great, I think it's kind of traumatizing for kids to see it when it happens like that as well.
When we try to do it, we try to do it very peacefully so that way they don't have all of those things that you see. But most of the time they aren't just going to go run away. Most of the time they do want to stay close to home and most of the time, they're not going to fall asleep and just pass away. Unfortunately, it's usually during a time when you're there.
So, thinking about that as well, again, like we don't want them to suffer and so we want it to be a good death or a humane death. We want them to be fast, we don't want it to be that they're suffering. So, for us, we just prefer them to come in or have somebody come to your house if possible.
Another question is, “Well, should I have my kids there?” I do think, again, that's another personal choice. With my cat, he was very attached to my son and so my son was there for when I put him to sleep. And you have to expect that they're going to do things that to you might be a little bit horrifying, but to them they're just exploring.
My son, he was touching him all over, moving his paws. I touched his eyeball, but he needed to know that he wasn't there anymore. There's not a good way to describe that their body stays there, but they're not there anymore. So, I do think that if you think that your child can handle that, and I think my son was five at the time, if I remember correctly, four or five.
But if you think that your kids can handle that, then I do think it's good for them to be in the room to see why their pet isn't going to come back. Other people, I know that's really hard for them to have their kids there because they maybe just can't handle that.
They can't comprehend what's going to happen, maybe you have to wait until they're older to be able to describe those things. But I've definitely seen young kids there and I've definitely seen older kids step out. It's always up to you and what you think that they can handle.
And then another question is, “Are there any times that a pet cannot be legally euthanized?” So, yes, again, this is up to the veterinarian's discretion and whatnot, but we have a very specific problem if a dog bites a human.
You have to talk to the state, or the veterinarian has to talk to the state to determine whether they can euthanize a pet or not. Because there's very specific protocols that each state has to follow as to whether they can euthanize the pet or if they have to be isolated for 10 days.
Sometimes, you just have to provide rabies certificates for a certain amount of time. Sometimes it's that they have to be isolated for 10 days before they can be humanly euthanized. And so, we have to follow those rules as well.
So, if the state says that they have to have two rabies certificates or be isolated for 10 days, then that's what we have to do, we have to follow their rules. So, I usually say that if you have a pet that's bit somebody to call that vet or that vet hospital wherever it is that you've decided, to let them know what the situation is so that you can get all of your paperwork together beforehand.
You can have all of those documents together and also, so that you know if it's going to be okay to bring them down or if you're going to have to wait 10 days before they can be euthanized. So, I would always call and ask to see if that's the case.
I'd say another last question that I get very frequently as well is people will say, “Well, I know you can't tell me, you're not legally allowed to tell me whether I should euthanize my pet or not, but what do you think?”
So, that's kind of a misnomer. So, yes, we can actually tell you what our thoughts are and whether we think that they should be euthanized or not. We can recommend humane euthanasia as well, we don't want these pets to suffer. And so, for us, we want to do everything we can to help the ones that we should help.
But if we feel that that pet is suffering, it's okay for us to tell you that. I will tell people all the time, like these are your options. You can hospitalize or like that dog who had a tumor that I was talking about in the spleen and had bleeding in the abdomen.
I can tell the owner, this is likely cancer, we can do surgery. But if we don't do surgery, the right thing to do is going to be to do humane euthanasia because again, my oath is that I'm going to want to alleviate pain and suffering, whether that's through surgery or through humane euthanasia. So, it is okay for the veterinarian to tell you whether or not you should or should not euthanize your pet.
Alright, I know that was a lot and I'm very sorry about that, but I hope that that kind of clears things up. I hope that you have a better understanding of when it is time, and also, what that process is, what the process afterwards is, and that it's okay to grieve, and there are resources out there for you.
So, let's talk about a fun fact real quick. I chose dogs today, and I picked something that I think that people don't realize is not actually true. So, people always say, “Well, my dog is three-years-old, that's essentially like 21-years-old. Seven dog years to one human year,” that’s not actually true.
So, they kind of based that off of a medium sized dog that lives an average lifespan. And then they took an average lifespan of a human and they said, “Well, that dog lived a seventh of that average human's lifespan, and therefore, for every one year of human years, it is seven years of dog years.”
So, when they're one-year-old, they're essentially seven-years-old, when they're two-years-old, they're essentially 14-years-old, that's not actually true. So, there's lots of things that go into that. One of the things, is it depends on the breed.
So, if you have my dogs, for example, I have a Great Dane who is six, and for me, for a Great Dane, she is old. She is probably going to be nearing the end of her life soon, that's just what happens with Great Danes, they don't live very long.
So, typically they're going to live maybe seven to nine years, like some of them I've seen to 13 years. There are very few that I've seen to 15, and when they are, they have a lot of problems and they're usually small.
So, for me, I already know unfortunately that my Great Dane, who's not even seven, is not the equivalent to a 14-year-old, she is closer to the equivalent of like a 50, 60, 70-year-old.
Now, let's take my Lab. She would be an average medium-ish size dog. So, yes, I would equate her as to every one-person-year would be every roughly seven dog years, roughly about that. She's the same age as my Great Dane, but she's going to live longer, most likely.
She'll most likely live at 13, 15, 18-years-old even so she'll live a lot longer. And then I have a little Shih Tzu-ish mix, we're not really sure, but a little small breed dog. But she is roughly (we're just guessing at this point) seven-years-old.
And for her, I expect her to live quite a long time, 20, 21 years old. So, even though she's seven, she's older than my other two, I really don't think of her as being in her 50s, 60s, 70s. I equate her as being more closer to somebody in their 30s or 40s, because she's going to live quite a bit longer than my other two, or at least my Great Dane.
So, it really just depends on that dog, how big they are, their breed, as to how long they're going to live. So, really unfortunately seven dog years is not exactly one human year.
Alright, I'm sorry that I just busted your bubble there about that. I know that's something that everybody says to me. Like I constantly get that from people who are asking me about their dog and whether they're going to live that much longer. Because they're, let's say, 10-years-old and they're 70-years-old at this point.
Well, if it's my little Shis Tzu type dog, she's going to live another 10 years, so yeah, she's going to do great. If you're asking about my Great Dane, I'm going to say, well, that's really old for a Great Dane, you're doing really good.
I don't base age on human years, I really just base age on how is that pet doing? Like what is their expected lifespan? Alright, well, now, that we've debunked that, and I'm sorry we had such a sad topic today, but like I said, I do think that this is a very important topic.
So, if you have any questions, again, as always, you're more than welcome to email me, suggs@vetsplanationpodcast.com. Find me on social media and as always, you'll please tell a friend about this, because I'm sure there are lots of people who are probably thinking about when it will be time to put their pet to sleep.
And I do think that this would be really helpful information for them. And I'll have somewhat of a more upbeat topic, at least a more curable one.
We're talking about permethrin toxicity next week, so flea prevention for cats that are dog flea preventions put on the cat. Alright guys, I hope you have a great week, and I will see you next week.
Thanks for listening this week. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or you just want to say hi, feel free to email me at suggs@vetsplanationpodcast.com.
You can visit our website at vetsplanationpodcast.com, or you can find us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok at Vetsplanation.
Thank you all again for listening and we'll see you back here next week.