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I was lucky enough to own a house next to the vet clinic that ended up being my first dogs final veterinarian. Her sickness was very gradual; a boil grew on her

• heyoni 3y ago
  I think one of the worst things about society right now is we don’t share the burden amongst ourselves. The dirty work so to speak is delegated to specialists and our hands stay completely clean. I’m not saying pet owners should euthanize their animals but staying there in the room while the vet did their work probably helped, and the article mentions that owners leaving is part of the problem.
  • giantg2 3y ago
    I think there are still a number if people who would euthanize their own animals. But to your point, it seems a large part of society has completely detected from the realities of life. How many know what it takes to grow/process food, or butcher an animal for meat, etc? No, that just comes in a package at the store...
    • Arrath 3y ago
      > I think there are still a number if people who would euthanize their own animals. I would lean towards agreeing with you. Anecdotes aren't data etc etc but my uncle couldn't bring himself to take his dog into a sterile and impersonal vet's office when it was his dog's time, nor could he bring himself to doing the deed himself, so he and my dad worked together to do it. For a stoic old logger, army mechanic, and construction worker, it broke him for a while.
  • Exuma 3y ago
    One of my favorite cats has a bad tumor and a 3 month expected life span. I found out a few days ago. I’m shattered and the thought of having to be in the room or not is just super depressing. I’ve never lost a pet before or even someone very close to me. I’m scared for how bad it’s going to hurt Part of me (most of me) wants to be there to feel the pain in the deepest way and not bitch out. To be there for the last breath Oh man I feel so bad
    • mozman 3y ago
      Never let your friend die alone.
      • pengaru 3y ago
        We all die alone.
        • nyc_data_geek1 3y ago
          Except those of us lucky enough to die in the arms of the one we treasure most in this world.
          • pengaru 3y ago
            Keep telling yourself that. It's a solo experience.
            • jhardy54 3y ago
              [flagged]
    • rm_-rf_slash 3y ago
      You can ask your vet for a home visit. Let them pass in a place that they know is safe and loving.
      • 3y ago
  • bengale 3y ago
    I wonder if that's true. You're putting the animal out of its misery in many cases, but for a lot of people in the room you're a key part of one of the worst moments for them. I think of the last one I went though that was unexpected, how many people have to stand in a room and watch two grown adults lay on the floor and truly sob, to see their hearts break. I can't imagine the empathy for the love people feel for animals makes it any easier.
  • the_doctah 3y ago
    I often think that I would prefer to euthanize my dog myself. He is absolutely terrified of going to the vet (of strangers as well), and having to do it there makes it that much worse. I'm one of only a handful of people he trusts.
    • akamia 3y ago
      That was why we used an at home euthanasia service for our dog. He hated going to the vet and had to go multiple times a week toward the end. We didn't want to have him scared and stressed in his last moments. Look into at home options if the time comes. We actually found that the cost was not much more than doing it at our vet's office. I think it was $500 at home vs $400 in office. $100 extra to give him the best end possible was the least I could do.
      • bigmattystyles 3y ago
        Same, he was mostly bed bound as he had been for months, the vet came to our place. My wife and I were crying like no other, was this the right time, the question was haunting us, still does. He still appeared to like to eat, but he was paralyzed, needed help to poo and pee, even to stand to eat, but he could still sit on lap and seem happy but even that was mitigated by the fact he was on a lot of gabapentin. The moment of euthanasia came and he was asleep throughout the whole thing. Broke our hearts but gave him a painless exit. I will say this though, kids under 10 need not be there. I love and miss you everyday W.
    • heyoni 3y ago
      Yea there are services. I assume you can hit a vein based on your username? Only thing I'd worry about is making sure you have extra drugs and know what to do in case your initial dose doesn't work. It can happen sometimes.
    • deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  • DoesntMatter22 3y ago
    I take care of a lot of feral cats and it's really tough. They die often, due to feline HIV or feline Lukemia. It sucks. 9 have died since January (3 were kittens). But it's just not practical to put them to sleep. The first one I did but it was 300 bucks. Idk it does suck.
    • rurp 3y ago
      Oof yeah, this is tough. I have done some fostering of kittens and on the whole I highly recommend it; it's a great way to have kittens in the home without committing to long term adoption, and it helps out shelters that really need the help. But this part of it is tough. Feline lukemia and other terminal illnesses are not uncommon with shelter cats and it sure hurts to lose them.
      • DoesntMatter22 3y ago
        It's crazy how fast they go down hill. Go from like just fine to holocaust skinny in 2 months. Brutal to watch, especially hard when the kittens die or dissappear. I had 2 tabbies that were born this year. One had a white tipped tail and the other a black tipped. I loved them both but loved black tipped the most. She would sit in my arms and purr just staring in my eyes. So cute. Then one day it got run over. Not much you can do really. In a very weird and minor way it gave me insight into why losing a child during pregnancy or very young is so painful. I always thought "What's the big deal? You just have another one". I mean I wouldn't say that to people but that's just how it seemed to me. But then with the cats some had great personalities or super soft coats and I was so looking forward to petting them and playing with them when they got older. Then they died and there is a bit of a hole. Obviously this is nothing compared to a human life, but it made more sense now. You have a child and you think about their first day of school, how you will dress them, what their interests are, what special skills they have. It gave me a lot more insight into what it's like to be a parent and lose a child and how devastating that probably is.
  • agumonkey 3y ago
    That is a very interesting view point. Existence used to be cohesive, ritualized, we were all close to and part of every aspect of it. Now it's all industrialized, and it's not surprising that it's dehumanizing to people in charge.
    • heyoni 3y ago
      My wife thinks that in time of peace we should require kids that turn 18 to spend a year doing some community service. Somewhere far from home.
      • agumonkey 3y ago
        I so wish our cultures did something like that. I think Denmark has a habit of 18yo kids going away for a year, to live freely with new found majority status. I was also thinking international community swaps.. people from one country would have opportunities to go, not to their direct neighbours, but one frontier further. To make people know about other countries on the field. The plan would be to have kids all around develop a clearer bond with people far away and avoid dehumanised reflex hatred.
      • rurp 3y ago
        Totally agree. In college I lived in a transfer dorm for a year which was mostly filled with kids who had either transferred from another country or had taken a gap year before college to do something interesting. It was great! The group was full of interesting people and there was dramatically less of the typical dumb college freshmen behavior than usual.
  • raducu 3y ago
    > I think one of the worst things about society right now is we don’t share the burden amongst ourselves Watched a reddit post about a romanian mother making a fuss about her and her small autistic son being kicked out of an uber because the son threw a tantrum and somewhat dirtied a chair. I was appaled by the lack of empathy of some of the redditors. Nobody is entitled to anything, nobody owes anything to anybody, but the sharing/safety net thing is what makes us an advanced species.
  • rendx 3y ago
    Generally speaking, I think it's totally okay to try and align interests. I know people who feel a lot of gratitude to be able to accompany people through hard times, and would never want to call that "dirty work".
• tacocataco 3y ago
  " the caveat that "the time" was when she wouldn't eat for three days." Same as my cat. We were trying to force feed her and eventually she couldn't breathe when she choked on her food.
• julianeon 3y ago
  I'm curious, since you mentioned this, and I've never really understood the alternative to euthanasia. Your vet said to take the dog in when it wouldn't eat for more than 3 days, and you did. What would've happened if you didn't take the dog in? If you kept leaving food out for it in case it did eat, but expecting that it probably wouldn't. I imagine the dog would die on its own, but I have no idea of the time frame or what you could expect in that situation.
  • oooyay 3y ago
    Good question. During that time we didn't know exactly what was wrong. I brought her in for the boil, we ran lots of tests, and the only thing we could determine was that she was anemic. If she ate more she was anemic less as long as the wound continued to aspirate. I cleaned it up every night, kept a patch on it, and fed her whatever would make her eat her dog food. That ended up being lots of hot dogs, burgers, and pumpkin puree but it varied by the day. Sometimes she really liked this gut flora powder. If I didn't add this stuff, she plainly just wouldn't eat. By the team she wouldn't eat food with the additives for three days is when I brought her in. At the time I didn't know it, but the cancer she had was sending her into a sort of liver failure. When she passed away her abdomen relaxed and the vet was able to feel her liver. It was covered in tens of tumors. Without a way to clean her blood her body was expelling the blood. On the day I put her down had I not given her a blood transfusion her tiredness would have shifted towards being weak and achey, probably pretty painful, and she would've been susceptible to severe infection, stroke, or a seizure. After the blood transfusion she would've immediately needed surgery to attempt to remove the largest tumors and chemotherapy to attempt to rid her of the cancer. The odds of surviving the surgery and chemotherapy were relatively low. I didn't listen to much the vet said as I just kind of zoned out while she explained the options that day. What I do remember is the vet noting that both of those options would result in a lot of pain that she wasn't going to understand and that the odds of survival were very low while the cost was going to be high. In my mind, humans have the privilege of letting a pet leave this world with marginal suffering - a privilege we don't even really extend to ourselves. In the end, I made the choice that I'd want for myself.
    • cmrdporcupine 3y ago
• crmd 3y ago
  The worst day of my life was a few years ago when I had to put down my greyhound. I will never forget opening the door to the examination room, beside myself in grief bawling my eyes out, and stepping into the waiting room full of horrified people. And then going up to the desk to pay and trying to keep my shit together. I felt so sad and vulnerable it was just awful.
• iancmceachern 3y ago
  Totally. Putting Jimmy down was the worst day of my life.
• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]