How cats feel when they are put to sleep

I, for one, was completely disoriented and did not know the algorithm for dealing with these situations.

Testimonial: Putting a cat to sleep – Any hardship can be endured for the sake of your furry pet!

I want to share my experience and feelings after going through pet euthanasia.

I was 13.5 years old when I talked my parents into getting a kitten. The entreaties were long, tearful, and agonizing. I went to all the tricks of a child, because life could not imagine without the meow pet. After persuading my mother we were on the market and I was in love with the most expensive specimen attacked by onlookers. Mom saw me standing and not breathing still gave up and bought me this shaggy purring happiness.

We got the seller was unscrupulous. It turned out that the kitten is not accustomed to the litter box and can not even drink and eat. There was nothing to do. I took on
Get the baby accustomed to the litter box and barely. I taught her to use the litter box during the vacations and gave her milk from a syringe.

It's scary to think about, but together we grew up, graduated from high school and technical school, got higher education. We were together because he was always there, lying on my lap or under the desk lamp pretending to sleep, but he was shoveling pencils, chewing my copybooks, tearing up my term papers and sleeping on my diploma

All was well, but trouble crept up unnoticed. During a routine checkup Tomi was found to have a malignant tumor on his lower jaw. I could not believe it! The kitty was still happy and playful. I went to several qualified clinics and had several x-rays. But after examining the animal and giving the results of tests, the vets as one shook their hands. I was not satisfied and I kept fighting.

Only one doctor gave me hope, who said that in our case we could do an operation and remove half of the pet's jaw. The doctor was very tactful, he saw my condition and attitude toward my pet. While telling me about the surgery, he very subtly led me to the point that you can't think only about yourself, you must also consider the level of life of the animal, how it will continue to live and whether it will not be a burden to him + it was necessary to consider the age.

Putting to sleep. How are cats put to sleep? How do they feel? Are they in pain?

Kitten is 1.5 months old, hasn't eaten anything for 3 days and only vomits water and foam. Today we went to the vet. He was prescribed to take Cirucal and Gamamit. Bought a special food, on the advice of the vet. I can not stand it anymore and I have already tried to put her to sleep. How do you think we should do it or not? Tomorrow we go to the vet again.

As the vet said, he is not dehydrated.
The only diagnosis for such animals is that they were bought at a bird market.

I had mine put to sleep a year ago. They injected her and she started to vomit, she vomited all over, then she lay there for a long time and at the end her eyes went completely blank (((I think she felt terrible (((
It's unbearable.
It's better to fight to the last.

Wait, you can always put her to sleep, if you have at least one chance to recover, fight for it, the doctor did not tell you that this is the end, let him treat. Give the cat a chance, maybe leave him at the vet for a while to be under constant observation.

Have you thought about changing vets?
He needs IV fluids for dehydration and hydration, Fosprenil, antibiotic.

He has a tummy, let him fight to the last, give him more to drink, he is dehydrated, we put him to sleep this way, the injection acts on the neuro-paralytic, doomed more and more difficult to breathe, he slowly suffocates. easier to take an ax and blow his head off, this is instant and no agony.

It's easier to take an axe to blow his head off, it's instantaneous and painless. Of course it hurts to put it to sleep. It's poison. For about an hour the brain is still alive and understands everything… In short, he dies in agony. Don't believe those who say it's just a dream. That's what we think, because the kitten is paralyzed. So it's up to you to take his life or give him a chance.

It hurts! They're in a lot of pain! ! My friend's cat was put to sleep and she screamed. She screamed like a human. Try to cure it, maybe you won't have to do that! We nursed ours to the last moment (the diagnosis was dropsy + spleen oncology). She didn't get up for days. But we loved her dearly! And she felt it from the last force purring when they approached.

How to cope with the pain.

After how long will pass experience, it is very difficult to say. For some people, after the death of a pet, the most real depression begins. It is important to understand that if you made the decision hard and are experiencing great grief, it will not be possible to come to your senses quickly. You will need to go through five stages:

• Shock. Even if you knew exactly what you were doing, this will be the first state after you are put to sleep. Apathy, poor appetite, insomnia, headaches may appear after a state of shock;
• denial. As soon as the shock wears off, the person falls into denial; he or she does not want to believe that the situation really happened to him or her;
• anger. It is directed at himself, as the person begins to feel guilty about his own decision;
• grief. A depressive state, understanding that everything really happened;
• acceptance. After a while, when the owner wears off some everyday things that are associated with the cat, it becomes easier.

Speaking of how to come to terms with the euthanasia of a cat, the first thing to note is that one should not hold in one's emotions. This is the most important thing. If you feel like crying, you should cry. Another important rule is not to blame yourself. If you took good care of your pet, if you fed it well and treated it in a timely manner, it is not and cannot be your fault.

To soothe your own grief, you need to remove everything that reminds you of your pet. The litter box, toys, bowls – it's better to hide it all for the time being. It is also better not to look at pictures yet. Help from relatives should not be abandoned, support has never stopped anyone.

If the depression has become lingering, it is better to see a psychologist.

It is not uncommon for the owner after the death of a pet to begin to feel guilty about what he has done. The fact of making the decision to put him to sleep begins to weigh on him the burden of responsibility. Here, it is very important to understand that the death was not a torment for the pet, but a deliverance from them. You simply helped him to stop being sick and suffering. If you consulted several doctors and did everything possible to save it, and the animal still had to be put to sleep, then your fault here is definitely not.

How to help a child survive a loss

The hardest part of euthanasia is for a child to accept that their beloved cat is gone. Children are more intimate with pets than adults. In addition, the very fact of death frightens a child.

Psychologists say that kids still have to learn that the life of every creature is not eternal. And it's best to explain it to him on the example of an animal. If you already understand that the cat will have to be put to sleep, it is better to talk to your child in advance, explain to him that pets can not stay with a man for life. Think about how to make the loss less bitter. Make up a story about "cat heaven," for example, say that the pet will watch the baby from there.

If the child is prepared, the loss will not be a shock to him. He will more quickly accept it, as he will understand that his pet is fine.

But you should not deceive children. To say that the cat went to live in the village to his grandmother, or something like that, should not be done, because the deception will be revealed, and the parents will remain deceivers in the eyes of the child.

How euthanasia is performed

Euthanasia of a cat can be performed at the clinic or at home. The option of putting the cat to sleep at home is preferable for an animal that has rarely been taken to a clinic before, and for which such a trip can be very stressful. If, however, you have taken your pet to the clinic more than once and the cat has responded calmly to such trips, then performing the procedure at a treatment facility would be the best option. This is especially true for very impressionable owners.

It is important for the owner to learn in advance how euthanasia is performed, to prepare for it, to choose an appropriate place, a doctor who can be trusted. In order to avoid any remorse, one must be fully convinced of the advisability of the procedure.

So, how does euthanasia work? The main problem is the lack of quality drugs in the domestic market, so the humane procedure is forced to carry out in two stages. At the first stage, a strong anesthesia is administered. The animal must be sound asleep in order to survive as comfortably as possible the second stage – the administration of the toxin, which causes respiratory center paralysis and cardiac arrest.

Usually the owners are allowed to be present during the first stage, but after the cat falls asleep, they must leave the room.

Some doctors decide to perform euthanasia without anesthesia and are evasive when asked if the procedure is painful. It is worth honestly saying that in such situations, after injecting the toxin, the cat experiences panic and suffocation at the same time, but cannot even move, because the injected drug completely relaxes the musculature.

Therefore, if you want to know for sure that the pet just fell asleep and didn't suffer, insist on a preliminary anesthesia.

What euthanasia is performed with

In foreign countries, there are drugs that have a double effect: first they block consciousness, and then they stop breathing and the heart.

In our country, these drugs are banned; doctors use doses of drugs that are commonly used to treat both animals and humans.

• Sedation with a dose of propofol, droperidol, zoletil, telazol, xyla, etominal or other anesthetics. In this case, the cat falls asleep first. She has no excruciating sensations or seizures. Already in deep sleep, breathing stops and the heart stops. Anesthetics can be administered intravenously, intramuscularly, but for some diseases it is impossible to administer them and the drugs can be injected subcutaneously.
• Sedation is done in two stages. Anesthesia is administered first, followed by lidocaine, dithyline or magnesium sulfate.

It should be understood that all drugs of the second group without prior anesthesia cause excruciating death. And all this time the animal will remain conscious. For example, dithyline causes suffocation, magnesium sulfate first causes severe vasospasm and later paralysis of the respiratory center, lidocaine stops the heart. Therefore, make sure that your cat is anesthetized, otherwise the effects of the drugs will cause panic and pain.

It is important for the owner to understand that he or she has a right to know how euthanasia is performed, what it is done with, and what the animal will feel. It is important to understand all of the intricacies first before agreeing to the procedure, so as not to regret it in the future.

How euthanasia is carried out

Euthanasia can take place by stopping the heart or breathing. Special drugs are used for this purpose. But they are used only as a second step. The first is the use of anesthesia, which helps the pet go to sleep. This makes the departure from life as painless as possible.

Thus, the euthanasia of pets is carried out in two steps:

• Sleeping pills or anesthesia are administered. This drug disables the animal's consciousness. The practitioner must make sure that the pet has fallen asleep deeply enough. His breathing slows down, he becomes completely relaxed and stops reacting;
• A medication is administered to stop breathing or heartbeat. The injection can be administered either through a vein or directly into the heart or lungs. The patient will no longer feel this lethal injection.

After both injections are given, the heart stops, breathing is interrupted, and the body relaxes completely. For the next 10 minutes there may still be cramping contractions of some muscles.

After the procedure is over, one should consider burial or cremation. Cremation can be individual or group.

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How does a sick animal feel?

Often the owner worries that the pet will feel betrayed, that it will feel pain or discomfort. But in this way the person endows his or her pet with his or her own emotions and mental anguish. A cat or dog will have no such feelings. Understand, an animal does not ponder, does not assume it will be put to sleep, does not begin to blame you – these are all human feelings. What the dog or cat is really experiencing is pain. It exists here and now and doesn't let go for a second.

If you want to understand how things really happen, you have to admit that before the procedure, your four-legged friend experiences only suffering and pain. Additionally, he also feels stress, because the pain is grueling and long, of course, the nervous system suffers.

Fear of the clinic and unfamiliar people may also be present, so it may be better to perform the procedure at home. It will be calmer and more familiar in the home environment.

If we talk about sensations during sedation, they are also as comfortable as possible. It may be unpleasant at the moment of the first injection, after which all the negativity ends. How exactly does sedation work, we described above. The first component relaxes the pet, and he falls asleep, he does not feel further manipulation.

Euthanasia (putting an animal to sleep) – review

This is probably the saddest and most unpleasant review. I'm sorry it's going to be very long.

It's the hardest thing for me to write, but I really just want to get it out, even though it's been 2 years. I can't seem to escape the guilt and general pain. The pet is missed. I am very, very sorry for what happened. I had hoped that kitty would live to a ripe old age.

Up until 2 years ago I had 3 cats and now I only have 2 left. This will be about my cat. Her name was Felicia. I named her after the heroine from the Marvel comics — Black Cat (Felicia Hardy). Nevertheless, we just called her "Feliska. She was black, skinny, and beautiful.

Initially, my mother found her as a tiny kitten at work. Unfortunately, the kitty was originally born sick, as her mother picked up some kind of infection during pregnancy. Feliska was all swollen, like a huge balloon, because her whole body was covered with some subcutaneous blisters. I want to note that all these swellings were not on the skin, but deep under it, that is, the cat was absolutely swollen inside. That kind of clinic was disconcerting. It looked scary.

My mother took her from work and someone even gave her a small carrier for it. Then I took the cat to the vet. There they clearly said that they didn't know what was going on with the cat because they had never seen anything like this before. The doctor suggested that the kitten had a malignant disease (I don't remember the name of the tumor anymore) and she needed to be put to sleep for her own good. I didn't agree to that and took her to another doctor. The doctor had already said that she didn't quite understand what was wrong with her either, but that she would try to treat her. She promises no results. They gave the cat shots of antibiotics and antivirals. Days later, Feliska's body responded to the treatment and her blisters visibly shrank from the inside. Then disappeared altogether, and on the head remained a small such pimple like a horn, which felt only when stroking.

Where does a fish get a shot?

"Sometimes very strange patients come to us. Soul sick people feel the weather, now, in the fall, it is most pronounced. A woman brought a cat in a bag. She said at first he didn't eat, lost weight, then he recovered. He had been lying near the radiator for two weeks and wouldn't eat, but he drank water. She takes a cat in rigor mortis out of a bag, dried out. I said to her: "Why do you think the cat is drinking? If the water is by the radiator, it just runs out. Your cat is dead." She raised a scandal: "Cure it! He's not dead!" I understand that it is useless to argue with this person, and with a clever look I connect the IV line, pretending to pump it. She calms down, contentedly takes away the body of the animal, thanks me, and leaves.

Once they brought a fish from the tank for sedation. A fish! They say it is old, it has stopped eating, the water has become muddy, it has lived ten years. What's a fish got to do with an IV? The owner decided she needed to be euthanized.

The guy brought the turtle in and said, "The turtle's sad." I see it's bloated. I ask him how long has it been sad? Five days, he said. I said, that's it, your turtle is sad.

Every 3-4 months they bring a healthy animal to be put to sleep. I always ask if they've ever tried to adopt a cat. And who, they say, needs it? I answer: "Well, if you don't need it, why do you think no one does? Well, sign a contract on the refusal of the animal, and that's it. And I tell people about him on Instagram and put him up for adoption. Now a cat lives in the clinic, he is now our favorite, we don't give him away to anyone. He was brought to be put to sleep because he scratched the wallpaper and curtains in the owner's apartment and scratched her grandson. The animal lived with her for a year and a half. Somehow she didn't like him during that time.

A dog shouldn't chew on bones

We are as worried about our difficult animal patients as fellow doctors are about the people they treat. Constantly calling the clinic, "How's my Utah? How is my Bonia? How is he feeling? Is it bad or good?" If something isn't right, I start thinking about something, prescribing something.

People have a lot of stereotypes about animals. For example: a dog should chew bones. A dog shouldn't chew bones! I get a lot of bone fragments out of dogs' stomachs. Or: a cat should eat fish. A cat should not eat fish! Fish has phosphorus in it, which provokes urolithiasis. Or: A cat should eat sour cream. The cat must not eat sour cream! It's a blow to the pancreas, especially if the product is homemade.

A dog in general is expensive. It's professional food, treatment against fleas, ticks, vaccinations, time. That comes out a lot! My advice also: always buy a vaccinated animal with a passport. They come in saying, "We're vaccinated," but no passport. No passport – no vaccine. The breeder is not a volunteer, he is driven by one instinct: to make more money.

The dog is littered every six months, it is just pathetic to look at her, all the calcium goes to the puppies. They always bring her in to be caesareaned, she cannot give birth by herself. We have one such client, he uses the dog as an incubator. Lately, though, I've been hearing less often: "Let's not treat the animal, it's expensive, let's put it to sleep." It used to be like that all the time. I offer to make an installment plan, people agree. Although once a man brought a cat: "Pay for the surgery? No, I don't really need it. This is my daughter's pet, she left it for me. I operated, this is the cat Easy, whom I found a great new mistress through Instagram, he lives there, and he's doing great.

If an animal is sick, but the disease is treatable, or you can live with it.

And by "liveable," I don't mean a condition where the animal is lying flat in pain and can barely eat. I am referring to diseases which, with the proper treatment (perhaps even ongoing supportive care), allow the animal to enjoy life without suffering.

Unfortunately, treating a pet is not cheap and not everyone has the opportunity to do so. In this case there are several options. The first – go to the state veterinary clinic, where treatment will cost less than in private ones. If you cannot afford it either, you can turn to volunteers and organizations that raise money for medical treatment of animals. You can join relevant groups on the Internet and ask for help. If for some reason this option does not work for you, try to find an owner for your pet who can give him the proper treatment.

Allergies in the owner or family member

Unfortunately, any body can behave unpredictably, and it is not always possible to influence it by your own will. If this happens, you need to find the animal a new home. Yes, it hurts to part, but at the same time you will give your pet a chance for a long and happy life.

Of course, moving is not a reason to euthanize. Now it is quite possible to take your pet with you wherever you go, although you will have to struggle with vaccinations and documents. And if that's not possible, you need to find the pet a new home.

Some owners put it this way: "I don't know what awaits my pet in the new family. I don't know them, I can't trust them, and I will spend the rest of my life worrying about what my dog will do with them. I'd rather put him to sleep so I don't have to worry. Such reasoning is pure selfishness.

In fact, there may be some unscrupulous or not very responsible people among those who are willing to take care of an animal, but there are far fewer of them than those who are really open-minded and willing to take care of our little brothers and daughters. There are many ways to test the family that you give your pet to. Humane people are willing to meet you halfway, tell you everything and show you everything. They don't mind signing a contract for the responsible care of the pet and unobtrusively monitoring its fate.

It's not fair to deprive a pet of a chance at a long and happy life because of some vague fears of yours.

When you take responsibility for a pet, you commit yourself to making decisions in its favor, to putting its interests above your own selfish worries. And rightly so, because no one loves us as unselfishly as our pets.

So, if your pet has an incurable illness with excruciating symptoms, or if it has suffered life-threatening injuries and is suffering but is still alive, it is better to let it go. If the medicine is powerless, if you have tried everything and there is no result – euthanasia is necessary.

Response: Putting a cat to sleep – We had to do this.

It all started when a kitten was brought to us by someone in our building and we took it in without thinking twice and we had three adult kittens living with us. The kitten turned out to be very bright and we fell in love with it. From the first day this little cat was given life very hard. At first we had a long time treated for intestinal infection, coped with it, our kitty blossomed and began to come to norm, then bald forehead, cleared with a lamp-lich, a long time was struggling with this nasty disease and then, when everything seemed far behind, four months later, the kitty began to walk badly, began to plait his hind legs.

The doctors at the vet prescribed us traumatin and a bunch of other drugs, saying that the kitten could pinch or crush, the drugs did not help, the kitten was getting worse and worse. We put her in the hospital, visited her every day, her condition worsened, my nerves meanwhile gave up, the cat was dying right in front of us. It turned out that the prescribed therapy did not help, the cat began to die, only thanks to a strong heart, she held on. My strength to look at all this ended, it was decided to put her to sleep. We cried so many tears that words cannot express, but we had no right to torture the animal anymore. Some would say that we are not Gods to decide who should live and who should die. I say we did everything possible to put the kitten to sleep only at the stage of "agony" when we really could not do anything. With great difficulty we got through it all, our "girl" ran away to the rainbow. It is hard to write about the process of putting her to sleep, I will only say that it was quick and not in front of our eyes, then they just brought us a box. It was the most expensive box in the world.