I feel so guilty

[rockybalboa]

I had to have one of my lovely cats PTS by the emergency vet tonight. He was diabetic and had a massive high blood sugar crisis and was really really sick. He was insured but it was more an issue of his suffering than any cost. Anyway, he was so sick that he couldn't even recognise my voice when I said goodbye but I wimped out of staying whilst they did the deed. I have read (on here I think) about how the kindest thing you can do for your pet during euthanasia is hold them so they know you are there and love them but I didn't. I let my own selfish feelings of not being able to handle it win over and now he's gone and I feel awful. I promised myself I would be strong and stay with any of our cats when the time came but I couldn't. I feel weak and guilty.

He'd have been held, rocky and if you couldn't have held it together then possibly better that it was one of the practice nurses - that is if he was still conscious of what was happening around him because he might not have been at all.

Nothing to feel weak guilty about. Every situation is so different.

I'm so sorry for you all.

i feel for you some of my animals i have had to make the sad decision i have stayed and others i havent each one is different, dont feel guilty he has had a wonderful life with you just take time to greive for him and then remember all the lovely funny cute things about him and his life (((()))

The last animal I had to have put to sleep was not a cat but a much-loved dog - and he truly no longer knew where he was, who he was with or much of anything about his situation. I didn't stay with him. I just wanted his suffering to be over and almost my main concern was to support the poor vet. She knew him socially as well as as a patient - she'd fought hard for him for 24 hours straight and was crying so badly that I didn't know initially whether she'd be able to keep it together for the final moments.

Every time is different. You gave your boy a good life and then allowed the final loving act - there is no guilt in that.

You cared for and loved your pet. You made the hardest ever decision. From the sound of it he wouldn't have known at all. He would have been held by them and he's at peace now.
You did a good thing. xx
Sorry for your loss.