...to be fucking Horrified that my neighbour Killed His Dog??

[ahhyesiseeyouvepooedonyourfoot]

Was chatting to our next door neighbour who is ok (I thought), in his late 40's with a lovely family and his own consultancy business. He mentioned that his dog was incontinent and probably dying and how sad his daughters were about it, all innocently I said 'Ahh thats sad when will you be taking him to vets' he said 'I'm not paying any bluddy vets I'll take him out and shoot him' (he does have guns for hunting)...cue stuttering WTFS??? from me..

He was quite indignant and said 'With our last dog me and a friend took him to a forest and injected him with ketamine, he went straight to sleep its EXACTLY what the vet would do'
I said I'm pretty sure it WASN'T exactly what the vets did and bluffed a bit about knowing they used a cocktail of drugs for different things - which in fact don't know - can any vets confirm for me?

Anyway I asked him to leave my house, I wasnt being all 'PC gorn mad' was I??

maybe wannabe he bores us senseless with his pre marriage 'hilarious drug fuelled escapades' you know the ones 'this-one-time-me-and-my-mate-gary-took-a-fruit-bowl-full-of-coke-and-ended-up-on-a-flight-to-milan-with-kidnapped-womble' or whatever..yeh cos its cool and funny to drink/snort yourself paralytic. bless.

my dad killed our cat once. a neighbour had run over it in our driveway having arrived in a flap to drop his kids off because his wife was in labour. i didn't actually see it, but it was apparently pretty mangled and unlikely to be put back together by the vet so my dad shovelled it up and took it up the garden and whacked it with a spade... as far as i can remember. i've also seen him stand on mice etc. (not pet variety!)

the cat thing was about 30 years ago iirc. how weird. i had completely forgotten about it until this thread...

i've known quite a lot of people who have referred to putting their animals out of their misery in this manner (usually shooting rather than ket, to be fair!) but i have no idea if/ how many of them ever have. we've always been quite rural though.

my home town is currently in uproar over a 'kill the bunnies' mandate by the town council. they do have a contractor for trapping and euthanization though, rather than a few blokes with shotguns.

Thanks jooly.

She was muzzled because the vet shaved her with beard trimmer type thing, and that made her a bit growly. She would never have snapped (she'd been through much, much worse in her time), but I respect his judgement.

Can I just ask (hijack alert) if vets actually still do home visits?

Only a friend of mine had an elderly dog that was distressed, being sick and crapping everywhere, dragging itself about and whining, it's elderly owner was very upset and the vet informed them that they don't do house calls anymore and they would have to get the dog, in this state, to the vets to be put down. Apparently some daft reason about health & safety or insurance or some such bollocks was peddled out and they said they couldn't come out.

Really??

Jooly you do sound like a lovely vet.

I think people get astonished with the amounts that vets charge, as we are lucky to have free healthcare in the UK, so are not actually used to having a monetary value to health treatment.

Vets bills are an unavoiudable part of pet ownership, there is no use in complaining about feeling shafted by the bills imo.

I really wouldn't pay to have a gerbil put down, sorry, I'd just set it free in the woods and 'leave it to nature' (allow some big bird to have a meal.)

Anyway folks - just to let you know, thanks for the chat and insight am orff to bed! Hopefully not to have dreams about dead dogs. g'night

Wish you were my vet Jooly! (and I worked for our vets!).

Sadly, she was put down because one of the other gerbils had in fact started to eat her

It was horrible and I don't begrudge her a peaceful end.

Jeez

They shoot them and bury them with a tractor if they are not fit to go to the abbotoir. It might be illegal, but it is cheap.

Thanks, Ahhyesisee I must admit, to me that last visit is so so important to get right. We even have a special room, which is less clinical, and away from the main area, so owners can spend as much time as they like with their pet in more relaxed and private surroundings.

It is far more expensive to get the ashes back, as the crematorium does an individual cremation for your dog- takes hours. Actually, I just got OldBoy's ashes back today, and we are planning to scatter them on his favourite walk at the weekend In a weird way, it's nice to have him home

MrsJasonBourne- vets do still do house visits, if the circumstances warrant it, or the vet is amenable. The problem is, we can't leave a surgery full of clients to do it, so owners can't always get a visit easily just when they want it. We have a duty of care to see the animal, but the decision about whether or not a house visit is essential is left to the individual vet's judgement. There is, to some extent, a health and safety issue. I have felt extremely uncomfortable before attending a visit late at night, on my own, in a bad area with a case full of controlled drugs (and a sign round my neck saying "Mug me" ) But I will try to do it providing it's feasible.

This was in the evening, when my friend got home from work to find her mum and the dog in this state. She had to phone the emergency number to get through to the vet on call and they said they couldn't come to her house but they would meet them at the clinic. I thought it was awful.

This was Copdock, near Ipswich.

My vet was lovely when my cat had to be put down last year. They put her to sleep first, and then gave her the lethal shot. I cuddled and stroked her in my arms the whole time. I cried so much they sent me a condolence card.

it's probably difficult in an emergency, rather than booking a home appt MrsJasonBourne but very sad nonetheless - which vets? We are just a bit further down the A140 near long startton

elastamum - I'm sorry, but I think you are giving a lot of perfectly good farmers, that care for their animals a terrible name, and what you have just stated is bullshit (we live on a dairy farm) I don't know anyone who does that!

I think in the case of a dog or cat, then vet for euthanasia must be the kindest way to do it; either in the surgery (done it 4 times for cats over the years - every time I wept, but vets were fantastic) or at home, or as I saw in my vet's carpark recently, lovely old dog lying comfortably in the boot of 'his' car on his blanket and with his toys, and the vet went out to see him out there.

I would also take a small animal, eg hamster or rabbit, to the vet, because they are pets rather than livestock. BUT I have to admit that I did have to euthanise a quail last summer - pecked to buggery by its pen mates - and my method was less than orthodox, as I dont actually know how to do the twist the neck thing. However, what I did was very quick and although I cried afterwards I do know it was the right thing to do. note to self: go on poultry killing course.

stratton even.

I just wondered which vets as the ones we use came out to my mum's dog last year, and was really lovely, had a cuppa and stroked the dog and was not in a hurry at all

Another one here who thinks this is abhorrent. Vets will do home visits, a friend had recently to have her dog PTS and this was done, very peacefully at home.

For all those who think shooting is humane, can I refer you to the notorious case of Last Hope, the greyhound? Warning - very upsetting

As is common with greyhounds, when Last Hope was at the end of his racing career, a man was paid £10 to "humanely" put him to sleep. His ears were cut off (to prevent identification) and he was shot in the head with a captive bolt pistol, then dumped on a pile of rubbish on Fochriw mountain. He was found several hours later, still alive, and attempted to wag his tail when discovered. Obviously his injuries were so severe, he had to be put to sleep properly by a vet. The only good thing is that the man responsible was prosecuted. Unless you know what you are doing, this kind of cruelty is difficult to avoid.

Any decent owner will want a peaceful, pain free end for their dog (or indeed for any companion animal). Vets are equipped to provide this, either in the surgery or at home.

Perhaps the dickhead in the OP would like to volunteer for DIY dentistry since he is obviously so handy with his anaesthetics?

I think if I were a gun dog I would much rather die quickly from a bullet to my head whilst out enjoying myself, doing what I do. If he's a good shot, the dog would have died instantly and known absolutely nothing about it.

That's the best case scenario, better than going to a vets, which for some dogs is traumatic. I wouldn't, however, say that if he was a less than great shot.

Ketamine isn't awful. I had ketamine when I had a car accident and had to be cut out. I remember it vaguely, a tunnel like experience, which I remember as being very pleasant. I actually enjoyed the ketamine, and I can understand why people take it for pleasure.

I certainly wouldn't be scared of having it again. Just only if I had to have it.

Scuttle -that is truly heart-breaking and illustrates my point exactly.

MrsJasonBourne- the emergency vet scenario is a bit different. Most of us in small practices now sign our out-of-hours work over to an e-vet, just to keep our sanity get some sleep. These emergency vets will be covering several practices, and can expect a fair few emergencies in any given evening/ weekend. If they were to go to a visit, possibly miles away, that takes a/ the vet away from the centre. If an urgent emergency (eg an RTA) then comes in, the time taken for the vet to get back to the centre could be the difference between life and death for that animal, even if there is another vet there, as he/she could already be operating, so that is why they are keen for owners to bring the pet to them- half an hour travelling (plus more for getting lost, as I nearly always do ) each way is quite a long time to be away from the centre, and could be a real problem. But I am sorry- I realise this must have been distressing for your friend

I've witnessed two family pets being put to sleep at the vets. Both were quick and peaceful, the vets did a wonderful job. I can't imagine shooting them, especially if there was the slightest chance it would go wrong. I remember a gamekeeper on an estate we visited with school saying (in response to a question) that he sometimes had to finish the job when a hunter shot an animal and made a hash of it. So being a hunter does not qualify you to humanely kill animals if that is true.

JoolyJoolyJoo... I'd like to ask you something. A friend of mine in Northern Ireland said that there had been reports of animals, having been euthanised by vets, 'waking up' at the point of cremation and being 'burned alive'. Is this possible? Obviously I just want to be reassured that this would never happen. :(

LyingWitch - I can categorically say that this wouldn't happen. Usually after an animal is euthanased (with a HUGE OD of barbs, why would you scrimp?) the vet will check its heart thoroughly before ascertaining that it is definitely "gone". They are often then put into cold storage until they can be collected by the crem. Our local crematorium is lovely (I know that sounds odd!) and they take a real pride in what they do. I'm positive if they ever had a suspicion that an animal was not dead, they would call a vet, I am absolutely sure of that, so please do not worry about this. I (and I'm sure I speak for all vets here) am religious about making sure an animal is dead before moving it, I promise you. And if by some amazing fluke the animal survived beyond the euthanasia, the checking, the mortuary then the crematorium would never burn it alive Most of the staff at the crem have their own pets and are real pet people, this wouldn't happen.

The people at the crem we used were lovely too and I'm sure that would never happen. Urban myth maybe?

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Joolyjoolyjoo... It's been playing on my mind for weeks now. I'm so grateful to you.