How does an animal not feel pain or discomfort from being put down?
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Vet student here. I’ll give you the maybe a bit gritty explanation, if you think this might trigger you don’t read past the tldr.
Tldr: we sedate them first with the same drug type that we use to put them under for a surgery, so we know they can’t feel physical pain. Virtually the only discomfort is from placing a catheter in their vein that we can inject the drugs through. We don’t really know about emotional discomfort but assume the drugs also take care of that. It helps to have the owner present as a familiar and trusted figure to reassure the animal.
When we put down an animal we usually give them two separate injections. The first is identical to what we’d give to put them under anaesthesia for surgery and they’ll feel the same: getting woozy, uncoordinated, eventually pass out. Some can feel nauseous and gag as a side effect of the drug but it doesn’t last long. The owner is now typically given time to say their goodbyes in peace. The pet is unconscious but still alive, heart beating, breathing. It does not feel pain anymore.
The second injection is a strong overdose of sedative of euthanasia solution. It can be injected in the vein or, if you want faster effects/don’t have access to a vein, straight into the heart. This is what effectively stops the heart. It can sometimes come with some involuntary spasms, which is why proper sedation with the first injection is usually done as a courtesy to pet owners who may not want to see it. The first injection is technically not strictly necessary but more for the comfort of both animal and pet. Without sedation, the line between loss of consciousness and death is more blurry, and as we normally euthanise animals we care about and don’t want them to suffer, we don’t want to run the risk of them being conscious when their heart stops.
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