Do animals know?
 

When their time is up?
Had to take our 21 year old cat(inherited 5 years ago when we moved house) to the vets last week to be 'put to sleep'(don't like saying 'killed').
That's 3 dogs and 2 cats I've had to take over the years.
My point- on the vets table they all behaved in exactly the same way.Obviously they were all ill but once on the table they just seemed to shut down. No reaction to strange people dressed in white and smelling of disinfectant(2 of them normally hated vets on sight), no reaction to noisy clippers, legs being shaved or large needles pushed in! They have all just laid there totally relaxed(?) and quiet while it happened.
Do they sense the inevitable happening and accept it with a different attitude to death than ours? If so how?
Has anyone else seen this happen with their pets or is it just my imagination?
I hate playing God, even to a pet. I can't imagine how someone feels when asked about switching off a loved ones life support and I can't imagine how they handle it afterwards.

Re: Do animals know?
 

You have a point Gordon, but Joan had exactly the opposite reaction when she had to have her springer put down a few years ago, it was about 20 year old and she'd had her since a puppy, but when they got to the vets the dog came to life and perked up, but it was kinder to her her to sleep her kidneys had gone and her legs were shot at but it didn't stop that last brave attempt

Re: Do animals know?
 

I had my elderly cat euthanised at home last summer.
The vet injected a sedative before he shaved a leg and the lethal injection was made.

He (the cat) was angry when the first needle went in but was too drugged to care about what happened next.

Re: Do animals know?
 

I have to say that I have only had one cat put to sleep...he was a stray that had found his way into our garage......he was full of infected bites and fleas. I treated him, gave him antibiotics washed and cleaned his infected bites....and he was almost better.
I had found a new home for him where he would be loved and cared for.........he was almost ready to go to his new home. I went out one morning to do his antibiotics and clean his healing wounds and found him almost comatose with a severe head injury.
I wrapped him up and took him to the vets and he was put to sleep.... he was much too sick to know much about it.

All my other cats(I've had quite a few) just seem to stop eating and drinking and fade away......I'm too cowardly to take them to be put to sleep.

When they are gone I feel like I have lost a member of the family.

Re: Do animals know?
 

I am sure that animals know that you are putting them out of their suffering. When we took our dog to the vets in pain with cancer , he seemed to look at us and say goodbye.

Re: Do animals know?
 

I think my cat's soul hung about a few weeks afterwards.

The bathroom store cupboard door opened on its own twice.
He learned how to do that when mice were getting in there up the ducting from the flat below.

Re: Do animals know?
 

I'm sorry, about your cat.

I don't know, why they acted like this.

If you're very poorly, perhaps being restful, and at peace, is preferable to being agitated, due to strangers working around you, in unfamiliar surroundings.

Re: Do animals know?
 

Acrylic-Biff, the Terrier with Attitude, has given me to understand that he knows a lot more than he lets on.

I'm not sure how I would cope with having to have him put to sleep though. Tricky one, that.

Re: Do animals know?
 

We stayed with our Ben when he was put to sleep. It is hard to do, but you know that you are helpingb your pet by stopping their suffering and pain.You know that they have had a good and happy life with you and you have done your best for them.

Re: Do animals know?
 

It's very tricky, but faced with them suffering you would make the right choice-I'e had to over the years several times.

Acryllic-Biff of course is still a nipper in dog terms and is sure to carry on bossing you around for quite a while yet -being a dog with attitude:dancedog::D

Re: Do animals know?
 

As to them "knowing" i think animals do - working with them every day for the last 25 years on the farm, have seen all sorts, and they have great dignity when they decide "that's it I've had enough"!

Re: Do animals know?
 

I've always found over the years with our cats, it's a hard decision to make, but once the deed is done and you can see that your companion is at peace, it's a great relief.

On a couple of occasion vets have not let it be done until they were sure there was no other option. This is quite hard to bear as you can sometimes see that it would be better to end it sooner and let the animal go, but it's hard to argue with expertise if they want to keep trying.

At least we have the option to end it for our pets when the time comes rather than them carry on suffering.

Long may Biff continue to enrich your life.

Re: Do animals know?
 

As has been hinted at, the general consensus seems to be that it's kind and humane to end the life of a much loved member of the family, if it's sufffering, if it happens to be an animal.

Yet there isn't this option, if that much loved family member happens to be human.

Re: Do animals know?
 

Its wrong, but doubt if there ever will be n option,least in my lifetime.:( as fer animals personally i'm sure they know when its the end of the line, not summat i'm looking forward to wi ours, but thats the way it is.

Re: Do animals know?
 

I don't believe animals know 'it is the end of the line'. They don't understand about death, so how could they ? Just that they are suffering and tired. Maybe you forget how many times your pet has looked at you sadly when visiting the vet on less distressing occasions. Perhaps they just bounce off your mood ?

You will argue that pets know when someone close to them has died, but this is only because things are just different and is confusing, so that is why they go into a black mood.

The other week, a lovely horse at the stables, where I work, had to be put down. Paddy, the labrador, just couldn't understand where his pal had gone and was extremely quite for some time. Because something had changed in his life.

Re: Do animals know?
 

Why would the vet inject a sedative to shave the leg before the lethal injection,why not just the lethal injection?

Re: Do animals know?
 

I'm not a vet so I don't know.
The same procedure happened when a cat I had was put down (at home) in the early 80s, although I didn't witness it, my friend did, and he described it to me.

PS on thinking about it - I did notice that the lethal needle was much larger and would likely be more painful.

Re: Do animals know?
 

it is kinder to sedate the cat before any other procedure is carried out.

Re: Do animals know?
 

My brothers used to help out at a farm up Sandy lane....the would help drive the sheep through town to the slaughterhouse........the sheep were always fine until they got to the start of Union Street and then they would go bonkers(trying to run in the opposite direction, jumping over one another..generally freaked out)........the lads always said they could smell death....and knew their time was up.

Re: Do animals know?
 

Is there some difference between the sedation and lethal injection though which is why they sedate first?

I have had animals put to sleep before and it was just one injection

Re: Do animals know?
 

I think the sedation is to bring about muscle relaxation so that when the heart stops it doesn't go into spasms and cause suffering. It's always two injections here for the animals as far as I've seen.

Re: Do animals know?
 

I have only had one cat put to sleep and he had a sedative first(this, despite the fact that he was almost comatose from a severe head injury) then the lethal injection.

Re: Do animals know?
 

The lethal injection is a massive dose of anaesthetic which is past its use by date( the vet said) and I don't remember any of our pets getting two injections. Perhaps different vets do it different ways.
Katex, I'm sure you're right, animals don't understand death- at least not in the way we do but I think they have instincts and senses that we lost long ago. Who knows?
It was the way all five pets behaved exactly the same way which caught my attention. Only one of them was really ill before I took it, the others were up and about until they got into the surgery.

Re: Do animals know?
 

I have found an explanation of two injections

Animal euthanasia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pets are almost always euthanized by intravenous injection, typically a very high dose of pentobarbital or sodium thiopental. Unconsciousness, respiratory then cardiac arrest follow rapidly, usually within 30 seconds.[2] Observers generally describe it as a quick and peaceful death.

Some veterinarians perform a two-stage process: An initial injection that simply renders the pet unconscious and a second shot that causes death.[citation needed] This allows the owner the chance to say goodbye to a live pet without their emotions stressing the pet. It also greatly mitigates any tendency toward spasm and other involuntary movement (i.e., the pet's facial or eye movement) which would tend to increase the emotional upset that the pet's owner is already experiencing.

Re: Do animals know?
 

I also think animals can sense death, or smell the places where it occurs. In the 1950's dogs, and cats used to be put down, in a place in the Fire Station yard, there were electrocuted, seen many animals brought into the yard, and then panic as they got near the place, chap had to grab them quick, and put them in a chamber, soak the neck with water and attatch a heavy chain, then close the lid and switch on the power.
One day a woman brought in a big alsation that went beserk, they finally got it jammed in the doorway, and a young copper was sent with the humane killer (a Cash Captive Bolt Pistol), he was so nervous that he flinched, and the bolt ripped across the dogs head, the woman started screaming the place down, I took the pistol of him, reloaded it, and did the job properly, they closed the place down not long after.
Now you have to take them to the vet.
Retlaw.

Re: Do animals know?
 

That's helpful to know, Margaret.

Re: Do animals know?
 

I know about that contraption. I had to repair it when I worked on the council. It was a horrible piece of work