Euthanasia At Home

I believe every euthanasia should be as pain and stress free as possible for your pet. The kindest and most gentle way to put your dog or cat to sleep involves giving a sedative by injection under the skin, no different to the simple vaccination type injection which does not hurt. The sedative which is a combination of three powerful drugs, ensures that the whole process is totally pain-free.

This will provide a transition period where you can sit with, and comfort your pet before the sedation is deep and your pet is calm and relaxed. It can take anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes to take effect (but occasionally more in agitated or aggressive pets) but this is a calm and gentle process with very rarely any unwanted side effects.

The Final Goodbye

The second stage involves the placement of a catheter in the vein of the front or back leg in dogs and when you are ready the administering of the final medicine to stop the heart. Very occasionally this is not possible if your pet is very ill. If this is the case a non-painful final injection is given into the abdomen. This is the preferred route for the final injection in cats. At all times your pet will remain heavily sedated and totally pain-free, and unaware of the procedure.

As your pet passes the breathing stops and then the heart. Sometimes there will be post life breathing motions or muscle twitching but your pet will not be aware of this. The vast majority of the time death will occur gently and peacefully.