"PawsForThought" wrote in message
...
From: (A.J. Rivett)

(PawsForThought) wrote in message
...
From: (jamie)


Kathryn Stein wrote:
(A.J. Rivett) wrote:

When the time comes and I have to euthanize my cat, I would like to
do
it in the kindest way. I think this would be a nice meal of tuna
juice and tuna with some morphine in the tuna juice.

I have been told that 5 mg of morphine should be enough and that my
cat would just fall asleep after eating her last meal. She wouldn't
be traumatized at all and her last thoughts would be how nice the
tuna
tasted and now just a long nap until her next life.

My question is whether 5 mg of morphine is about right. I don't
want
to traumatize the cat by having someone give her a needle or by
having
to take her to the vet (she hates the vet). I know that they don't
give morphine, they give potassium chloride or something like that
and
I think morphine may be more expensive but it's a nicer way to go.

The most humane euthanization, imho, would be to have the vet make a
house visit. I've had that done and it was very peaceful.

Agreed. In the drugged-tuna scenario, there's no way to be sure the
cat wouldn't vomit the drug, or if he would eat enough of it mixed
in food in the first place. Opiates cause vomiting in a percentage
of humans, I would expect the same in cats. A semi-conscious cat
aspirating vomit could turn this idealized scenario into a nightmare.

Also, how many cats that are so ill that euthansia would be considered
would
even be able to eat?

I've had the vet come to my house too and I think that's the least
stressful.

Lauren


Thank you for your response. I was aware of the vomiting scenario as
this is a problem in humans. I will probably opt for the vet visit
although when the initial sedative was given to one of my previous
cats, it was not appreciated by the cat. She couldn't figure out why
she was losing her coordination and she became agitated. That is why
I'm looking to something that will allow her to sleep without knowing
that she is being snuffed.

My belief is that cats know when somebody is trying to off them and a
needle in the butt is a sure sign that something's up.

Yes, unfortunately, I also had a bad experience when one of my cats was
euthanized. She was very ill and the vet had a hard time finding a vein,
plus
she was protesting greatly. My husband tried to remind me that anything a
vet
did to Queenie always made her upset. But still it was really horrible.
So
like you, I would also like to know of a better way.


A IM injection of a sedative and then a direct cardiac stick with the
euthanasia drug would be easiest on an animal that had hydration problems or
other issues with finding a vein. Unfortunately, most pet owners are more
upset by this procedure than repeated attempts to find a vein. A direct
cardiac stick on an already sedated patient is painless and exceedingly
quick. It's just not "pretty". I've participated in probably 200 animal
euthnasias by a veterinarian with me acting as a tech, and on the small
kittens or sick cats, this was the optimal procedure for shelter animals
because it was the most humane. The vet rarely offered this to any but the
most medically knowledgable pet owners however, because of the poor reaction
that most of them had to the image of a needle to the heart.