A long time ago when I was a new vet just staring to practice in Louisiana I had three roommates come in with their very old, arthritic German Shepherd type dog.  In fact she had to be carried in and placed on the exam table because she couldn’t walk well anymore at all.

It was a hard decision for them and we took some time talking about the options (at that time, there were none except euthanasia or pain).  They decided to euthanize her and stayed in the room while I gave the injection. I listened to make sure the medicine had taken effect and told them that she had passed.  I said for them to stay as long as they needed and left the room.  A few minutes later, one of the roommates came out of the room saying that she really wasn’t dead and to come back in.  I felt for a pulse, listened for a heartbeat…the pupils were fixed and dilated.  I asked them what had happened that they thought she was still alive.  They all looked at each other and finally one of them spoke.

“We really weren’t sure that we had made the right decision.” He said.  “We asked her, did we really do the right thing for her, and well, she wagged her tail.”  What they described was not a muscle twitch.  It was a full wagging of the tail for three or four wags then she was still again.

I could not explain it then and after twenty years, I still cannot explain it. 

Euthanasia is the hardest, most personal decision anyone will ever have to make.  People always want their pet to die at home, in their sleep.  I can tell you that it almost never happens like that.  There is usually vomiting, trouble breathing, seizures, not eating for a week or two, pain…sometimes all of the above.  Anyone who has ever had to watch a human loved one die knows that it is not much better for us.  Although the doctors frequently give us a morphine drip to fog us out while we’re dying…is that really a “better” way?

Aside from the religious issues concerning euthanasia, it is a personal decision done to end suffering.  We do not take euthanasia lightly. We do not do convenience euthanasias.  There really needs to be a reason.  And the reasons are many…kidney failure, uncontrollable seizure disorders, cancer, severe arthritis, dementia.  It is done to end pain and suffering.

There are times when we euthanize animals for preventable diseases.  We all hate those euthanasias because we know that it didn’t have to end that way.  Sometimes we try to council the owners about their choices and explain to them how to prevent this in the future.  We have annoyed people doing this and we have people tell us that we are cruel and insensitive by telling them how such a death could have been prevented. Ending a dog’s life because its teeth are rotting out or because it has heartworms is not something that had to happen.  And it is on our conscience that these deaths weigh heavily like the chains hanging around Marley in “A Christmas Carol”.