We had to put down our cat today due to congestive heart failure. We are devastated, and unfortunately, it did not go smoothly.
The vet came to our home and explained to us that she was going to sedate the cat. I held him and she injected a drug which she called a "dissociative" into his hind leg. Somehow, on the first injection, either she missed or the cat struggled in such a way that the needle was bent to a 90 degree angle, and the cat got none of the medicine. At this point obviously the cat was kicking wildly, and I got some decent scratches on my hand.
So she gets another needle, injects the sedative, and says that he should be feeling "sleepy" or something in a few minutes. So, I put the cat down. He walks to the other room and lays there for a minute, but the look in his eye is...wild. Not sedated. I go to pick him up and he bolts, but he seems unable to use his back legs suddenly, and is totally disoriented. He runs and bangs his head on our TV stand. My girlfriend is sobbing uncontrollably at this point. It was honestly horrifying.
After that, I am able to pick him up and the vet gives him another dose of the sedative. However even after that the cat is less combative but still fully conscious and breathing fast and hard. She then offer to give him another medicine which she says will make him "sleepier", but will likely make him throw up. He doesn't throw up, and seems to physically calm down significantly, but his eyes are STILL open. She shaves his leg, gives him the final injection, and he dies in my arms quickly.
The thing that is messing me up is that he seemed terrified after getting the first sedative, smashed his head against a piece of hard plywood, and never actually seemed to go fully unconscious (which I am inferring because his eyes were open, please correct me if I am wrong). I also feel like the vet seemed totally unprepared for this...our cat was feisty, but he can't be the only one she's seen that had some energy left, and it just seemed to go...poorly.
I was under the impression that when animals are euthanized, they are typically rendered completely unconscious and then injected with something lethal, but are already totally asleep. Lots of people describe it as "beautiful" and "peaceful." This didn't feel that way. Did the vet screw this up? Or does this just happen some times?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/ce5gp2/did_our_vet_botch_our_cat_euthanasia/
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