Putting A Dog Down

Okay, so I was involved with a discussion over putting down a dog. I was with a friend when he ran over a Siberian Husky with his 1 ton pickup truck, we were visiting a friend out in the boondocks of Idaho(this was about 5 years ago). It was around 8:30pm, well the dog belonged to our friend we were out to see, his dog was about 1/4 mile from his house and jumped from the snow banks on the side of the road under the tires of the truck. So we picked up our friend and took him to his dog. After seeing that his dog would not live much longer, he shot the dog on the spot and we took our friend and his dog home. This friend of ours lives about 25 miles out of town(1400 people population) and 40 miles away from a large city(25,000 people population).

So I was telling this story to a friend today and they thought it was so inhumane to shoot the dog instead of taking it to a vet and having it euthanized. I explained to this friend that these farmers in Idaho do not use vets like large city folks do. The farmers I knew see the dog suffering and shoot it to save the dog from the suffering of hours before seeing a vet to determin if saving the dog is possible or not, than there is also the financial issues, thousands of dollars is just too much for some families to afford.

What are your thoughts on this situation of my friend shooting his dog? Do you think it was it inhumane or not?

IMO
I think it was Humane given the circumstances

Originally Posted by Junkyard

What are your thoughts on this situation of my friend shooting his dog? Do you think it was it inhumane or not?

Michael, it would totally depend on what kind of condition the dog was in, how far away a vet was, and the chances of it surviving. All of these things can be incredibly difficult to gauge and assess, but when in the situation, you have to make a judgement call. If someone isn't right there witnessing what you are, and under the same circumstances, I don't think they can really offer a legitimate judgement on the decision. I know it sounds harsh and cruel, but it may have been the best thing for the dog. I don't know--I wasn't there. I worked at a vet clinic for a while and saw a lot of emergencies come in (including one of our own dogs). A lot of them didn't have a chance before they were even loaded in the car to come in, and sometimes the owners knew it. I think in fatal injuries, a lot of owners still take them to the vet just in case there's a chance, because they don't know what else to do, they're in denial/shock, or they're afraid of losing their pet and wondering IF they could have done something to save it.

Just my opinion.

First off, I have always found it hard to understand how so many people think a shot to the head and instant death is inhumane.
In my opinion most of the people who say the only humane way to euthanize a dog is to have the vet give it a shot have never actually seen it done.
I had one dog euthanized, and I won't ever do it again.
The vet made all assurances that the dog was in no pain, but she howled and cried for nearly ten minutes before finally dying. The same sounds a dog in pain makes. Within one minute of giving the shot I would have done anything to take it back. I just couldn't believe she wasn't hurting considering the sounds she was making.
I swore that day that if it ever had to be done again I'd do it myself. I would have done it that time, but I just couldn't stand the thoughts of looking at her and pulling the trigger. After watching her die from the shot though, shooting her would have been far easier on the both of us.

Originally Posted by Clay Davenport

First off, I have always found it hard to understand how so many people think a shot to the head and instant death is inhumane.
In my opinion most of the people who say the only humane way to euthanize a dog is to have the vet give it a shot have never actually seen it done.
I had one dog euthanized, and I won't ever do it again.
The vet made all assurances that the dog was in no pain, but she howled and cried for nearly ten minutes before finally dying. The same sounds a dog in pain makes. Within one minute of giving the shot I would have done anything to take it back. I just couldn't believe she wasn't hurting considering the sounds she was making.
I swore that day that if it ever had to be done again I'd do it myself. I would have done it that time, but I just couldn't stand the thoughts of looking at her and pulling the trigger. After watching her die from the shot though, shooting her would have been far easier on the both of us.

Sounds like an incompetent vet to me. Last year I brought in my 8 year old Golden Retriever who had terminal cancer for his "final visit". The vet and her staff knew Sam quite well. They placed an IV with a large dose of a barbiturate and he was asleep and dead before she finished giving the injection. She said afterwards that they give a dose that is many times what is necessary to cause death to make absolutely certain. I cried, the vet tech cried, and we all hugged.

Having said that, if I lived in rural Idaho and had a fatally injured dog, I would have no issue with how the above situation was handled. I agree that a bullet to the head likely causes instantaneous death. Long before any sensory receptors have had a chance to report back to the brain as to what has happened, the brain is dead. After all, as it is said, they shoot horses, don't they?

I, too, live out in the "boondocks", and the nearest vet is 40 miles away. If something happens after hours or weekends, you're looking at 85 miles to get to an "emergency" clinic.

Truly rural people are used to handling their own situations as much as humanly possible. They have generators for when the power goes out, they keep extra tanks of gasoline, they occasionally stitch their own wounds. You'd be amazed at the stockpile of food they keep, and don't even ask about how well armed they are. They're quite an independent bunch.

While I personally couldn't shoot my own animal, I have several friends down here that would do it for me in the situation you described. Sometimes you just have to do what must be done.

I too live "out in the boonies", and while I've never been faced with the situation with a dog, I was once in the same situation with a dear little pet Pygmy goat I had..."Tilly". I DID, however attempt to call the vet, since I was the only one home and could not do it personally. It was a Sunday, and he happened to already be out on another farm call, and between the fact that it could have been hours before he could get back, and the amount of suffering she was in, I called a dear friend of mine to come and take care of her. Mind you, he's a big, gruff, real "hillbilly" looking guy.....he came over and did it, said we did the right thing.... he had tears in his eyes when he left.....but her suffering was ended.

As long as you are certain that the shot is properly placed, it is an INSTANT end to their suffering. You have to think....would it have been more humane to prolong the animal's suffering while dragging them off on the long trip to a vet (which they may die en route anyway) or end it immediately?

I wouldn't agree with it necessarily in a case like Jim described, where it was a long bout of an illness, where you knew the time was coming, and it's not an "immediate" situation. In that case, I too prefer to hold them in my arms and comfort them on their journey.....but in a case where an animal is CLEARLY suffering, it is only human self-pity that makes someone prolong that suffering.

And no Jim......they don't ALWAYS shoot horses....but usually when a horse at the point where it needs to be put down, it IS an immediate need. A gal I know had her horse put to sleep by a vet....he was sufffering from West Nile, and they knew he was too far gone, even after extensive treatment, to be saved. She chose to end his suffering, but she was lucky enough to be able to hold his headd in her lap as he passed.

A well-placed bullet to the brain is about as humane as you can get. Instant death. If I had the choice between shooting a mortally wounded dog or allowing it to suffer the 40 minutes + to get to the vet who could humanely euthanize with an IV barbiturate, I would shoot the dog. I wouldn't want it to suffer any longer than necessary. It may sound more brutal to us, but I'd rather let the dog go sooner, rather than make it suffer for my own sensibilities.

And I agree, for the dog who didn't have a euthanasia go well, it sounds like the euthanasia solution wasn't in the vein. It doesn't take 10 minutes, it takes less than 30 seconds and they just go under, just like with anesthesia. The solution does sting outside of the vein, though, and sometimes animals that are debilitated enough just don't have good veins to get the injection IV. Sometimes you have to give a shot elsewhere and allow it to absorb, and that does take 10 minutes. It really depends on the medication used what the dog's reaction is. My own preference is to have a catheter in the vein for injection, that way the last thing the dog remembers isn't getting restrained and poked. With a catheter, the solution goes directly into the vein, no pain, no restraint required, and it's especially nice for animals with poor veins because it isn't always easy to give an injection with a needle and syringe into fragile veins.

I'm sorry to hear the euthanasia of your dog didn't go perfectly, but I will say that that is the rarity, rather than the rule. Unfortunately for you and your dog, it happened to you. Sorry to hear.

It is good to know that my experience wasn't the norm. That was the only time I have ever witnessed a euthanasia but it was terrible.
The injection was given via syringe in the foreleg. She wasn't an old dog so I know her veins were good.

What happened was this. She was a chow. I had bought her for my wife before we were married. We lived in a trailer park at the time and I worked nights. The place wasn't the best place to live so we bought the dog and trained her for protection. As she got older we discovered she had a thyroid problem, and even with the daily medicine she was not entirely predictable with any person or animal other than us. An extrmely dangerous animal.
She was completely protective of my wife, which was good, and we never feared the dog in the least. I saw what she was capable of on more than one occasion though, going from completely calm to excessively violent with another person in a second.
The vet gave us tranquilizers for free to give her prior to her visits there to make it safe to treat her.
Long story short we eventually had a child. When my son was a year and a half old and starting to play with the dog more we had a long discussion about it and decided even though she had always appeared to be no danger to him at all we just couldn't bear to allow the risk of him inadvertantly doing something to set her off.
Given her attitude to every other human being she'd ever encountered, giving her away wasn't an option either. So after much debate we finally made the difficult decision to have her put down, knowing if we waited and she wound up hurting him putting her down then wasn't going to take that back.
So I took her to the vet to do the job, because I just couldn't bring myself to shoot her.
After watching her die I couldn't even bury her, my dad came over and got her and made a grave for her on his property.

Knowing it's not supposed to be like that, I might consider doing it again, with a different vet of course. We have a dog now that's getting old and arthritis is setting in. He's not suffering or anything yet, but it does cause you to start thinking about the future for him. We've had him for 11 years, and he's the best little dog I've ever owned. I couldn't possibly put him down myself if it ever came to that. Hopefully though it won't be a decision we have to make.

Being on the other end of the spectrum, so-to-speak, working as a Tech. being present for euthanasia was something I felt I wasn't capable of dealing with.

No matter how hard I tried to be professional and caring I ALWAYS ended up teary eyed and blubbering. I begged to be taken off that duty...until I found out people were actually requesting me to be present. It made them feel better that there was at least one person in the room who felt as they did about their pets and didn't strike them as unprofessional in the least.

I still hate that duty but I always had a nice clean blanket, and a couple boxes of kleenex, one was for me. I always allowed the owners time alone with their beloved pets, you'd be surprised how many people don't think they'll be allowed to say "goodbye". Even in a busy clinic, that small amount of time is important.

I hope that people will understand that it isn't a task any of us enjoy doing, but it is a necessary one. Hopefully, if anyone here has the misfortune to have to utilize that aspect of veterinary medicine they will have a competant and caring group of people with them.