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Pets MEGA Cats VS Dogs - POLL!

The Big Question - Cat v's Dog

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    171
Putting your pet down

Would you do it in the right circumstances?

My mum called me this afternoon informing me she was planning to put down our dog sometime next week, he's 11 years old and suffers from diabetes needing regular insulin injections, he moves around alot slower then he use to but he's still relatively active.

I live out of home and have been doing so for almost 2 years so i don't see him often, the reason behind putting him down is we're going away for 7 weeks to Europe, and my mum is concerned he will fret as he is very attached to her, and may need to be put down whilst we're away by her sister.

When she told me this, i was a bit surprised, i grew up with this dog.. but in recent years had been very separate from him because i live out of home. I do see her point of view, and at most he'd probably only live another year.. but at the same time i feel a sadness.

Would you put your pet down, if you felt it was the best decision.. or would you wait it out?
 
malakaix said:
Would you put your pet down, if you felt it was the best decision.. or would you wait it out?
Click to expand...

That's the whole crux of it, eh? You and your family should do what's right for your dog. It sounds like you already know the answer, but it's hard for you to accept it.

I've always had dogs around, usually labs or other medium and large size dogs. They really become part of the family. Over the years I've had to put a few down, so I've seen it done different ways. It's heart wrenching every time. I had to put my eleven year old labrador retriever down a few years ago. My vet and an assistant came out to the house and gave Roxanne the injections in our backyard, while she was in our arms. It gave us the chance to hold her while she slipped from this world into the next. It was really, really, sad, but it was nicer to be able to hold her and comfort her and be with her in her last moments, and I know she was more comfortable in our backyard under her favorite tree. She had some dignity, and was loved until her last moments.

Hope my story helps you.
 
The right circumstances are whats right for the animal, not for us. We have to put our emotions totally to one side & act on the course of least suffering for the pet. Only you guys can make this decision.
I will say one thing though, I've looked after peoples dogs and they were sure the pet would be sad or 'miss' them. I've heard some dogs do pine, but the ones I've looked after don't seem to give their owners a second thought, very much living in the present. Have you any experience of how your dog reacts when left? Could you send him to your aunts for a day or two so they can observe how he reacts to the separation? If he's an old, sick boy and he's distressed it would be kinder to let him go IMO.
 
I have made that ugly decision for our cat a few years ago. If I think about it, I will cry.

I cancelled the appointment twice as she was having good days and I felt it was not time. I was not ready and I wasn't sure she was either. She was old and had many ailments. She was in pain some days We spent thousands of dollars on her. We did everything medically neccessary. The vet was in agreement with our choice.

It was very hard to do but I stayed for the process. I felt if I was making the decision to assist in death I needed to witness the process. My husband could not handle it so he cried in the car.
 
Before taking this advice to heart I'd like to hear opinions from people involved in veterinarian care (n3o, I'm looking at you :)).

I ask this as a disclaimer first because I wouldn't want to put someone in an ethically-difficult and possibly unfair situation. Is it appropriate to ask the vet his opinion of the health of the dog? I can see why this may put the vet in a hard spot but I'm guessing it's fairly common.

I guess maybe you could frame the question in a "do you feel comfortable commenting on whether we should put him down?" instead of a straight "what would you do?" sort of way.
 
malakaix said:
Would you do it in the right circumstances?

My mum called me this afternoon informing me she was planning to put down our dog sometime next week, he's 11 years old and suffers from diabetes needing regular insulin injections, he moves around alot slower then he use to but he's still relatively active.

I live out of home and have been doing so for almost 2 years so i don't see him often, the reason behind putting him down is we're going away for 7 weeks to Europe, and my mum is concerned he will fret as he is very attached to her, and may need to be put down whilst we're away by her sister.

When she told me this, i was a bit surprised, i grew up with this dog.. but in recent years had been very separate from him because i live out of home. I do see her point of view, and at most he'd probably only live another year.. but at the same time i feel a sadness.

Would you put your pet down, if you felt it was the best decision.. or would you wait it out?
Click to expand...

I don't think that's any reason to put the dog down. It sounds selfish on her part. I couldn't imagine putting my dog down. He's only a year and five months old and very much still a rambunctious dog, but he listens well. He really is my best friend, he's a great dog.

I had to put my cat down a few months ago. We had her for seventeen years, and it was just time for it to happen. She lost a lot of weight and was just skin and bones, she couldn't make it to the litter box to go to the bathroom, she was throwing up a lot, she had terrible arthritis and she'd meow in agony if she moved the wrong way or if she sat down wrong. Oddly enough our dog would try to take care of her, he'd lay down beside her and nestle his head close to her body. It was cute. To put her down broke my heart. I held her while the vet gave her the two shots to put her down. One to knock her out, and the other to make her take the deep sleep. The first shot made her go limp and the second shot drained the life out of her. Feeling her body just give out killed me.

It's a tough decision. I hope your mom doesn't put the dog down because shes going away. 11 years is a bit old, but the dog still has a few years left, diabetes or not. I hope your dog doesn't get it done.
 
I'd do it. I'd euthanize myself if I was really sick though too. I'm all about mercy killings and if they serve a good and decent purpose.
 
Our golden retriever was 9 years old when she got diagnosed with canine autoimmune hemolytic anemia. What that meant was that her body was basically rejecting her blood, and it made her very sick and the vet said there were treatments but the prognosis was going to be slim.

Anyway, none of the treatments worked. Her best bet was to get a blood transfusion and hope that her body didn't reject it, but that's what happened. The only other option was to bring her in for regular blood transfusions once every week or so, and they were nearly $1,000 each. My parents spent thousands on her but in the end they knew they couldn't afford it, so we took in her to be put to sleep.

It was horrible because I lived away from home at the time and when I came back that day to see her one last time she was so excited...had as much energy as ever despite being so ill. It was so hard to take her into the vet but we had to. My brother and sister and I held her while the doctor administered the lethal cocktail...my mom tried to stay but bolted out the door crying as soon as the doctor prepared the syringe. I wanted to do the same but I felt I owed it to her to be there in her last moments since she was always there for me growing up. I fucking loved that dog. One time she chased our cat and tried to go through the cat's door, only to get her head and shoulders stuck (noone was home at the time). When we got home we saw her sitting on the floor with a 3 foot chunk of drywall around her neck, looking at us like "please don't be mad", lol. I loved that dog.

Oh man, I'm tearing up....losing your pet sucks :(
 
That's a good story, haha. Not about the part of the dog getting put down, but she sounded like a great dog.

My dog listens so well. If I tell him to get out of my room, he gives me those "aw come on man, please let me stay?" looks, when he needs to go out to go to the bathroom, he'll try to talk to me, not barking, but not moaning, just making noises and motioning his head toward the door. if I tell him "get ready to go to the bathroom", he'll go to the door, grab his leash off the door knob and come back to me with it in his mouth. He's such a smart dog, and losing him is gonna be as bad as losing a parent.

I miss my cat every day. She was with us for so long. Each night I'd be making a midnight snack, she'd come in the kitchen, waddling her [at the time] fat ass up to me, and just looking at me, closing one eye at a time and sniffing the air, waiting for some scraps. She was a good cat, and I freakin hate cats. I have two other cats, but they don't come out as much and don't keep me company, they just sleep all day and do nothing. They don't like the dog, they're just worthless imo.

My cat that was put down and my dog got along so well together, they'd even play with each other when my dog was only a few months old. It was cute. My cat owned the house, and she didn't budge for the dog, and they co existed beautifully. Good lord I'm gonna tear up now.
 
^haha yeah, I was never a cat person either growing up. We had two, one that was mean as all hell and wouldn't let anyone touch her, and the other was afraid of her own shadow and just hid inside the bed all day.

Then my sister got this black cat and I swear he thinks he's a dog. He comes when you call him, sits by the door when you come home, jumps on you when you pat your leg, and plays almost anytime you want him to.

There's this blue russian cat that comes by where I work almost every morning and he's the same way.

Basically I've concluded that guy cats are way cooler than girls, because the two we had growing up that were no fun at all and mean as hell were both females, lol.

I've actually considered getting myself a cat now because of these other two, but I'm hardly ever home for it to be fair even for a cat.
 
Thanks for everyone's personal experience's and suggestions, it's given me a different perspective of the situation; in the past he has become distressed when we've been away.. he's very very attached to my mum, to the point where he will follow her around the house all day every day (Not so much recently as he's been quite sick with diabetes)

She's concerned he'll become very distressed while we're away, and go into a much worse condition then he is now.. needing to be put down by her sister, and i think she wants to be there when he goes. Maybe she will change her mind, she said she's trying to work up the courage to do it..
 
The dog is gonna miss its master, it's expected. That's NO REASON to put the animal down because it's sad about not having its owner around. That's just down right cruel.
 
Over the years my wife & i have been married we've had a total of 18 pets euthanized . The wife works for a vet so its nice because he just stops by after work and puts the pet down then takes the body away , the ashes are then just brought to the clinic to be brought home. We now have 13 cats and 4 dogs so it looks like it won't end anytime soon , i think some of them will outlast me.
 
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