Posted by Camille Dumont on March 29, 2004, at 9:01:10
In reply to To Camille, posted by Elle2021 on March 29, 2004, at 4:53:48
I'm ok ... the meds and my supposed PD are doing a great job of making me not much care about other's opinion recently.
As crazy as it may sound I'm a total softy for animals as well. You have no idea what mental images and internal dialogue I had to bring up to summon the resolve to go ahead with it. Perhaps it will be the only time in my life that I'll be able to say that depers. was usefull for something.
Unfortunately, many people do not know how small rodents are put down by the vet while you are not there.
The veins in the body of a rat are extremely small and its near-impossible to catch one and do an intravenous injection like they do for most pet euthanasia. What they have to do is an intracardiac injection (directly into the heart). If the person does it properly ... the only pain is the needle ... which, incidentally, compared to a rats body is about like you getting injected with something the diameter of one of your finger ... not nice but the medicine stops the heart and its very quick.
However, the person misses and the liquid ends up somewhere else like the lungs, the liver or even the belly ... which means a much longer and painfull death.
Some will use gas first and then do the injection ... but not all vets ... and not all will let you stay with your pet and you cannot hold him/her until the end.
I didn't want to go to the 24h hosp because I don't know them and I didn't want to end up with some vet who thinks that small rodents are "worthless" or "disposable" or simply "vermin" ... like many are. My regular vet is a darling ... I would have trusted her but it would have meant waiting 10 hours until they opened. My baby did not deserve 10 hours of struggling just to breathe.
I did for her what I would have wanted for my should the roles have been reversed. She fell assleep ... and she didn't struggle or fight it.
Going to a vet is always preferable but not always doable unfortunately. But if you can, by all means go to a vet ... it will leave you less scarred on the inside.
I just hope I didn't upset someone too much ... didn't give flashbacks or SI triggers. Thats all.
poster:Camille Dumont
thread:328660
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040324/msgs/329768.html