Dog Euthanasia

[YurtGirl]

Aloha fellow puna webbers. I've been doing exhaustive research on what to do about this heartbreaking time that is quickly coming up for me and Max, my best friend of almost 14 years. Max is a big, sharpei/lab mix, aka Scooby Doo. We've been together since he was just a tiny wrinkly pup, it's been a long and wonderful journey. But Max's problems have gotten progressively worse over the last couple years. The prednisone has quit helping his sore joints, glucosomine, baby asprin, etc., his immune system is weakened from a skin condition that we haven't been able to cure in spite of countless trips to our local vets. He started with incontinence several months ago and we try to let him know that it's okay, but he definitely feels bad about it when it happens, which it happens several times a week. We came back from visiting family after Christmas and I realized that he is pretty much completely blind now. It happened very suddenly. His time is nearing, fast. If I can, I will just try to keep him comfortable and hopefully he passes easily in his sleep. But if it takes another step or two past that and he is in major pain but can not pass on his own, then I want to be prepared.

I've called all the vets in the phone book and couldn't come up with anyone in our area that does house visits for euthanasia. Max is old, and he's stiff. Now he's blind. He doesn't like vet hospitals and I want to give him that last gift of letting him have the comfort and dignity to die at home, with me there comforting him. I'm SO frustrated at the lack of decent and sensible care here, for both humans AND animals. In my research I have even tried to find a way to do it ourselves, humanely of course, but there is no information to be found on the web except a bullet or the vet's office. This is crazy. There has to be another way. I'm not shooting him. And I'm not dragging him into a cold clinical office to be shaved and injected and laid on a cold table to die. Options please???!!! Not interested in awful stories, or more of the same info I've found online. Just names of people who can maybe help or effective, fast, painless measures that we can take that don't include a lot of blood, any pain, loud noises, stress for him or a failure stat. And if you're a PETA freak and want to chastise me for being inhuman because I want to save my friend from suffering, all I ask is that you live here and you share your name. Otherwise, take it somewhere else.
Peace to the rest of you, and Happy New Year~~

[Rob Tucker]

Well YurtGirl,

I have been through this myself and it is not easy any way you choose to go. This last act is for your old dear friend and it will likely come down to either you do it yourself on your terms, you have someone else do it on theirs or you let nature take it's inevitable course.

In either event there are ways to do it humanely. You already know this. You will need to reach a point where you can accept it. No one can make this decision for you.

Best wishes

[lostboystoy]

Aloha Melissa
I feel for you my boy Kuma is 14 also.. Knock on wood he acts like he is 4.
I would try dr. Castro in Hilo he will do house calls, you may need to do at least one office visit before he will do a house call. As far as the euthenasia here lies the problem, most vets don't allow you to take your animals body after euthenasia for the simple fact that the body is so full of narcotics that if anything were too eat from the body it would kill. I have always worked closely with my vets on the mainland and have not had problems with this scenerio but know others who have. But this is Hawaii enough said. But do try dr. Castro
Aloha
Craig

setting my soul free....

[hooligal]

YG, have you tried any of the livestock vets? I would imagine that their license lets them euthanize on-site, since you can't drag a horse or cow into the vet office. If the problem is euthanizing in a private residence, what if you offer to go out in your yard? I empathize, so I'm grasping at straws looking for a solution for you. Hugs from me and my precious pooch.

* I'd rather fail at happiness than succeed at misery *

[Kelena]

No one from PETA, or who donates to PETA (me) would criticize you for being inhumane when you are, in fact, trying to handle this as humanely as possible. I admit PETA goes to extremes sometimes, but when you have people like Michael Vick running around and getting paid millions to do so, you are going to get an equal an opposite reaction on the side of caring for animals.

My beautiful boy, Ben (who you can see in the foreground here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/punaguy/2134602580/)is 13 1/2 and is showing some signs of age now. He tires on long walks and falls down once or twice a day. He cannot get up from the tile floor on his own, so I have to put ugly throw rugs everywhere so he can get traction, and he has begun having accidents, which are humiliating to him. Worst of all for me, is he cannot climb the stares and so I have had to abandon the master bedroom and and all its comforts to sleep downstairs on an inflatable mattress so I can be near him (when I go upstairs he yelps and yelps and yelps). He is the most loyal creature I have ever known. We have been through so much together. I once left him at my dad's farm in Northern California while I went to New York. When I came back late at night, the silence in the house was too much, and so I got in the car that night, and drove 400 miles to retrieve him, instead of driving up the next day as I had intended. I love this guy and he thinks I hung the moon and festooned it with snausages. But I can see where this is going. I am hoping I will have him for a couple more years. I will know when it is enough and so do you. I will not let him suffer, cry, or yelp or be humiliated.

All we can do is give them a really great life in return for all they do for us. Sounds like you've done that. Hopefully, someone will contact you with a good humane solution. Not being on island I'm not of much help, but here is what comes to mind: 1) Contact the Hawaii Humane Society and see if they have a suggestion. 2) Contact that vet in HPP and see if he will travel within the neighborhood or nearby. 3) Contact someone on the Kona side (they have more vets). You may be able to go to an area that is near a vet, but which is not in a vet's office, if they won't come to you (a beautiful park, someone else's house in HPP, etc).

Thank you for taking such beautiful care of Max and for approaching his aloha with such tender care. There is a way, and it will find you.

[Frankie Stapleton]

There used to be a vet who did house calls by the name of Dr. Skip Pease, located on that curve beyond CD Wizard and before the 3-way Kukila St. backdoor to Walmart. Don't know if he's still around ... I see his ad in the 2007 phone book.

Also, I've had humane treatment when I've taken an elderly, dying cat to vets here. At my request, there was no shaving, no bright, clinical operating room sorta thing going on, just me holding my poor kitty, sitting in a room with no light on and the vet simply administered a shot to the leg or shoulder muscle in a serene manner. No hysteria (other than mine internally at loosing an old friend) and then I'd take it home and bury the kitty on my houselot where all our other kitties of 30 years' living here are buried.

So please don't go jumping to conclusions about the vets here.

[dcl]

We have had some good luck with outside the box thinking from the vet in Keaau. I am not sure if she would do this but give them a call, the receptionist is very knowledgeable and helpful.
966-8582. I do know she is out of state right now, but she helped us greatly right before leaving for vacation, when even our regular vet that we have spent tons of money with on our animals would not even see us, and it was an emergency.

Best wishes, we have an old cat that has been with us since he was a baby and moved here with us years ago, he is going down hill as well and we will be facing this very thing sooner than we want.

[YurtGirl]

Thank you Rob. What you say is true. Craig, Castro is our vet, has been for a couple years now. He's a good and caring vet, I like him, though I must say that I have had to research and diagnose many of Max's issues myself since we moved here 5 years ago. Same goes for mine and several friend's health issues throughout the years. There's a strange lack of follow through and innovative thinking in these fields here on our island. If it isn't a common condition then most health care providers often shake there heads and throw cures for the symptoms at the problem, never touching the main issue. It is that way many places, but it is the norm here. But I digress. My background is heavy in medical training and education, but even still, I am not accustomed to having to be the one who does 90% of the research to come up with a logical explanation even after going to the 'professionals'. Regardless, Castro won't do a house call for this, I've asked, on the verge of tears a couple months ago during a particularly bad spell for Max. I don't know his reasons for that, I trust they're good ones, but it leaves me still searching. I've contacted the Humane Society and the Pease clinic as well. Same story, Pease won't do it unless he's a previous patient. I called Dr. Almond, a horse vet, no return call. This isn't jumping to conclusions about the vets, Frankie. This is me at my wits end, after having contacted all the vets I've been able to find in this area and surrounding areas. I've considered searching around Waimea where there is more ranching and such, though I'm sure the bill would be astronomical if it were possible to even get a vet to come - I would pay it if it made it easier for him.

I had hope when I saw the 'traveling vet' sign near CD Wizard the other day, but if that's Pease, then I've tried that route too. The problem with taking Max anywhere at this point is the miles of bumpy roads on his painful joints. He's a big dog. And I will be burying him at home. I need a solution where he can die here, comfortably.

Glen, no offense meant on the PETA comment, but honestly, after trying to find solutions on the web for a while now, people can be SO shortsighted in their convictions and many of the comments that got me riled up were PETA fanatics. I am an animal lover, obviously, so the good work they've done doesn't go unnoticed. I just don't want to deal with comments saying that I'm an awful friend/pet owner if I consider helping to ease his suffering in unconventional ways if/when that time comes. That would be too much at this point.

Thank you all for your words and sharing your experiences, keep any ideas coming. I'll keep you posted. Tonight he's calm. Seems to be really honing his other senses to compensate for losing his eyesight. He got yummy table scraps and gets to sleep inside, so it's been an okay day for him. And for me.

[MarkP]

So far only invasive methods have been discussed such as drugs. What about taking something away? If you could find someone who could insert an IV or whatever they use to draw blood, could you not simply draw enough blood that the big guy just loses consciousness, then dies? I think that it is a rather peaceful death. True, most times it happens due to non-peaceful circumstances like a car crash or other trauma, but without the trauma he may never know it is happening. I have had blood drawn many times when I never felt the needle. There would be no drugs involved so if you did this at home there would be no issue of handling controlled substances or toxic substances in the body. You could hold him the whole while.

One of the symptoms of hypoxia that pilots have to watch out for at high altitude is a false sense of euphoria. Non-traumatic blood loss might have a similar effect. He could go out happy. I am almost certain he would lose consciousness rapidly and well before his heart began to labor.

Forgive me for letting my inner engineer treat this as a mere problem to be solved but I know for a fact that people have passed out and died in mere minutes in an atmosphere of pure CO2. The example I heard of was when large amounts of dry ice were stored somewhere that the CO2 could build up in a low spot. Someone entered the low spot and just keeled over. CO2 is not poisonous but it also isn't air.

[MarkP]

Sorry, I should have done my research first. I was groping for an effective method that the pet owner could do themselves in a pinch. Both the "exsanguination" and the CO2 methods are practiced but it seems like you need to know what you are doing. Exsanguination requires sedation first and CO2, while it is widely practiced for small animals is not recommended for dogs. The CO2 sounded like a good method because in low doses it acts like an analgesic, in moderate doses like an anesthetic. Nevertheless it is not recommended for the larger animals.