Bad euthanasia

Dr. Marie replied:

I'm so sorry to hear of your bad experience with euthanasia. I have occasionally had a similar experience.

It is very common for us to give an injection of sedative before giving the final intravenous injection. From past experience of doing it both ways (with sedation and without) I have had much better experiences doing it with sedation. Sometimes with no sedation the dogs can react to the needle going into the vein or can even bite. I found that when I gave sedation I get a much lower chance of a reaction.

With that being said, there is the rare time where an animal will react to sedation.

It's hard to say what happened to Jessy. It may not have even been a reaction. Some sedatives can affect the brain first but the body can still have some function. When this happens, even though it looks bad, the dog is not consciously aware of what is happening.

It is also possible though that Jessy started the process of dying when she received the first injection. This can happen if a dog is very unwell. If this is the case then we don't know whether or not she was consciously in distress.

I have done hundreds if not thousands of euthanasias and despite my experience and my best attempts to make things as smoothly as possible for everyone involved there is still the odd one that does not go well.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

Dr. Marie




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