Dear Jill,
When I lost my beloved Siberian, Vixen, I had the "house call" vet come
to our home. Vixen was 11 years old when she had her first Grand Mal
seizure. It came out of nowhere. We rushed her to the emergency vet
and were told that it was probably an isolated incident and to just
keep an eye on her. Well, the frightening seizures continued and
phenobarbital (60mg 2x daily) was prescribed to treat them. The
medication's side effects were horrendous. My poor Vixen was
ravenously hungry all the time, (I gave her carrot sticks to try to
appease her), she was groggy and unsteady on her feet and became very
lethargic. It was so hard to watch. I knew the time was coming and I
asked my vet if I'd be able to rush her in when the time came. She
instead gave me the name of a wonderful vet that makes house calls.
I'm so glad she did. When Vic's time finally came, she went out into
the yard and did not want to stir. She refused food, and was retching
stomach fluids, she looked at me imploringly, and I knew it was time.
After he was called, it took the vet several hours to get here and my
husband and I laid down with Vixen in the grass and told her how lucky
we were to have known her, we thanked her for sharing her life with us
and told her that soon she'd be out of her pain and never be sick
again. Each one of our animals one by one came and sat by her, they
all seemed to know it was time to say goodbye. The vet was so kind, he
knelt down beside her to give her the shot, spoke soothingly to Vixen
and to us, and then she was gone. I'm so glad we didn't have to put
her through a trip to the vet's office, she got to die at home
surrounded by those that loved her. I will always miss our sweet angel
Roo.
Jill Poe wrote:
I wish someone who loves me
enough, could do the same
for me when the time comes.
Nina, I have to reply to this, as this is exactly the
same thought that went through my mind after Semuta
passed. It became shockingly apparent to me that
illness before death can be very ugly, brutal, and
painful (Semuta "crashed" 3 days before his last day -
it was a frightening experience). After seeing how
phenobarbital can so easily and seemingly painlessly
rescue an animal from the physical pain of death, I
kept thinking for weeks about how unfair it is that we
have to see our human loved ones suffer in the same
way without the same relief.
I certainly don't mean to open a philosophical or
moral thread with this, just that I would never want
to see an animal or human suffer unnecessarily and
that I was grateful to have had the option, and the
very sympathetic and kind vet that night, to give my
beloved friend a painless death.
I wonder if any of you have administered phenobarbital
at home (if that is even legal?) I was fortunate to
have an emergency clinic with greiving rooms so that I
could sit on a carpeted floor and hold Semuta while he
was injected, instead of being in a brightly lit room
with a metal table. I didn't have the option at 2am
to have a vet come to the house (I was sure he would
crash again before morning) but I wondered at the time
if there is a way that we can do this at home,
especially when you and your vet know that death is
imminent?
I hope this email doesn't seem overly morbid but I
think the next time I have an animal showing signs of
severe illness and the vet agrees, I'd like not to
have to stress him more by taking him to a clinic to
have him euthanized. Plus there's that whole
difficulty of trying to drive while crying!
Jill
--- Nina <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Kerry, thank you for taking the time during your
grief to acknowledge
our emails. Something else that gives me a small
bit of comfort when I
feel compelled to help my animals cross, is the fact
that I can help end
their suffering. I wish someone who loves me
enough, could do the same
for me when the time comes. I absolutely believe
there is life after
death and when our bodies become our enemies the
kindest and most humane
thing we can do is help them escape their pain and
speed their
transition in an atmosphere of love and compassion.
Holding on, when
hope for recovery is lost, is something we do for
ourselves, not for
them. Having gotten to know you from reading your
postings, I'm sure
you made the decision based on love, and I'm sure it
was the right one.
About using Doxycycline, from what I've been told,
it's more
encompassing in it's effect on different types of
bacteria than
Clavomox. My vet called in the prescription to my
local pharmacy and it
is quite inexpensive. The tabs I get have to be
quartered and therefore
loose the protective coating on two sides. It is
pretty nasty tasting,
(I always taste any meds I give the kids), and it
also has the potential
to do damage to the esophagus if not swallowed all
the way. My vet's
liaison told me a story about a human friend of hers
that swallowed it
dry and burned a hole in his throat! It also can
cause stomach upset.
When I first started giving Grace Dox, she would
vomit a few minutes
later. I experimented with lots of different ways
to coat the quartered
pill, but what seems to work the best is using a
paper thin coating of
taffy made with corn syrup, and then roll it in
chicken fat (kept in a
small dish in the freezer), or butter. Now I know
that giving Grace
sugar is not the best thing for her, but it helps
hide the taste and she
hasn't had any problems with vomiting since I began
doing this. I also
follow the pill with an eye dropper of water
squeezed gently into the
corner of her mouth, I give her time to swallow and
as far as I can tell
it washes the pill down pretty effectively.
Nina
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