My vet of 20+ years always sedates before euthing…he is a master for giving a very stressless, peaceful passing. In fact, he’s often used by others who don’t want to use their own vet practice.
But in one case it went bad anyway. So I’m not the first one to blame the vet.
“EXVET” who posted earlier made things very clear and personally I find peace in that.
My old boy, who I choose to put down as well due to declining health, was, in my vet’s words, “in the top 3 for easiest euths in my almost 45 years as a vet”. I was so thankful for that, for the scenario posted in the OP. That said, I am so sorry things went down like that for you 
I am not surprised at the vet’s briskness over the situation. Vets, like most medical professionals, will not outwardly say “I’m sorry” generally for any reason because of the liability of those two little words. We don’t know why the euth went so poorly: could be the cath wasn’t properly placed, could be an issue with the barbituates, could be something with the pony. Plenty of horses, even with a perfect technical euth, react poorly, flip over backwards, etc. We also don’t know what the drug used was: most vets use barbituates, but not all vets are licensed to carry them, so other drugs are used instead.
When the vet came out to put down my old guy 3 years ago, we brought him down to the burial site, sedated him, and got it over with quickly and quietly. While I said goodbye after he fell, the vet gathered his things and left. I saw him in the barn a week later, when he gave me the bill and told me that it was one of the easiest euths he’d ever done. Vets need to completely separate emotions from their job, otherwise they’d take home every death with them.
I have only been present at one euthanasia and that horse didn’t belong to me and it was horrific
The regular vet was away and this was a stand in vet. The owner was asked to go to the house to get something for the vet, and as soon as she left, the vet proceeded to kick the horse violently in the gut to see if he could get her to rise on her own. After 30 or 40 seconds of kicking her hard, he gave up and I was in shock and her owner returned.
This happened about 20+ years ago and I still remember so clearly how horrible it was. He got out this huge long needle and had me sit on her head and he jammed that needle into her spine and she started thrashing and he was yelling at me to keep her down and the owner was just standing there bawling her eyes out witnessing this. I still have no idea what he stuck into her neck that day …
Then he gave her the Euthanol IV and she was VERY active and trying to get up, and falling down, and scrabbling along on her side and crashing down again. The owner was crying, I was crying, I was trying to keep this poor mare down and it was like a scene out of a horror movie. It seemed to go on forever before that poor mare was finally still
I know they don’t all go like that. I assisted in the euthanization of our kitty when it was time for him to cross the Bridge and it was quiet and low key and peaceful and I could have hugged my vet for the compassion he showed
I have no idea if the first vet was the height of incompetence or if it was just “one of those things”.
That scene gave me nightmares for so long and it can still recall it like it was yesterday …
When we euthanized my old pony he went down instantly and quietly, our vet said it was rare that they were that quiet, that it’s not uncommon for them to thrash to one degree or another, and that he was surely ready to go, was very nice about it and assured us again that we were doing the best thing for him and that it was his time. He’s an old farm vet and has seen a lot of euths so he seemed to have the “bedside manor” down.
My vet generally explains what is going to happen, what will happen, what medications she is using, and why. She first sedates them pretty hard and they fall in less than a minute. Then she runs two tubes of the blue stuff. She says most of the time they are close to dead with the sedation, already dead with the first tube of blue stuff, but she wants to make sure.
That’s really terrible and I am sorry for your loss and the added trauma associated with it.
But yes, stories like these is why I have chosen gunshot over drugs when I have had to make the decision.
One comment about using anesthesia (ketamine mentioned) between sedation and euth. My gray gelding had a bad, active, nearly spastic flight reaction to ketamine when he was being anesthetized to be gelded. Broke away from us, collapsed before he’d gotten too many feet, but those few seconds in between were frightening. The vet was very quick to tell me that he was fine and that, while it was a rare reaction, sometimes they do react that way to ketamine. He had seen it before. The horse woke up just fine.
Anyway, from this vet’s tales, chatting while gelding that day, medication reactions can occur with just about anything, including sedation, anesthesia, and euth solution. They are fortunately rare, but there is no guaranteed won’t-happen answer, according to him.
Sorry for your loss, OP.
Rest in peace, little pony.
[QUOTE=Beverley;7871247]
It’s why I’ve always preferred shooting to injection. Though it’s probably true that there are few vets who will do that, these days.[/QUOTE]
I hate the sound of the gun…it is SO final, but we ONLY shoot our horses and have for years. Heavy dose of tranquilizer then an expert shot. No mistakes or suffering. I’d hate to have OP’s memories to deal with and not even a “sorry” from the vet. A friend of mine had a mare with a bad colic >twisted gut. The attending vet came and did routine colic treatment, left, said he’d be back soon… and took FIVE hours to get back to relieve the mare’s suffering even though he was well aware of the severity of the situation. My friend had to hold and watch that poor mare suffer for all that time. No apologies, either. I don’t do it myself, but would if I had to!!
[QUOTE=Incantation;7871265]
…The vet that euthanized her didn’t use a tranq. (I have had many vets tell me that they don’t tranq because it takes longer for euthanasia agent to work). …[/QUOTE]
^THIS^
I specifically requested no tranq be given to my old guy. He very peacefully and easily sank down, folded like a camel. No thrashing or tremors.
I’ve had one bad euth out of 4. He had EPM…vet said that the neurological problems led to the violent reaction.
Vet has always used a catheter and two syringes of pink juice. It took 3 for the EPM horse. I’ve had them tranqed and not tranqed before. Two just dropped, the third was already down.
[QUOTE=TrueColours;7871488]
I have only been present at one euthanasia and that horse didn’t belong to me and it was horrific
The regular vet was away and this was a stand in vet. The owner was asked to go to the house to get something for the vet, and as soon as she left, the vet proceeded to kick the horse violently in the gut to see if he could get her to rise on her own. After 30 or 40 seconds of kicking her hard, he gave up and I was in shock and her owner returned.
This happened about 20+ years ago and I still remember so clearly how horrible it was. He got out this huge long needle and had me sit on her head and he jammed that needle into her spine and she started thrashing and he was yelling at me to keep her down and the owner was just standing there bawling her eyes out witnessing this. I still have no idea what he stuck into her neck that day …
Then he gave her the Euthanol IV and she was VERY active and trying to get up, and falling down, and scrabbling along on her side and crashing down again. The owner was crying, I was crying, I was trying to keep this poor mare down and it was like a scene out of a horror movie. It seemed to go on forever before that poor mare was finally still
I know they don’t all go like that. I assisted in the euthanization of our kitty when it was time for him to cross the Bridge and it was quiet and low key and peaceful and I could have hugged my vet for the compassion he showed
I have no idea if the first vet was the height of incompetence or if it was just “one of those things”.
That scene gave me nightmares for so long and it can still recall it like it was yesterday … :([/QUOTE]
Strange things here. First of all, yes, many times a vet, groom, or owner WILL try some strongly coercive things to get a downed horse on its feet–in an effort to save its life. I have seen this done in the case of a downed mare who had colic, and had to be gotten up for the vet to do a rectal exam and determine if she COULD be saved possibly or not. It isn’t pretty, but it’s life or death at that point that they have to rise. Adrenaline is the horse’s friend, and if they CAN get up they often will. If the horse has a spinal injury or EPM, hate to say it but that’s one way you find out that it’s now all over. . .
Can’t imagine any vet who has heard the word “lawsuit” ordering a distraught ammie-owner to “sit on the head” of a non-tranquilized, struggling horse. Every vet I’ve ever worked with makes damn good n’ sure we have 100% control of the situation one way OR another before using the drugs, and they generally set things up so people emotionally impaired are not the primary handlers. Was this an emergency, a traumatic injury?
There is no possible reason I can THINK of that a vet would put any kind of needle in the SPINE. There is no chemical euthanasia I am aware of that would work that way. If the horse is unruly, neuro-compromised or otherwise dangerous, the right way is to use an anesthetic drug first, then the fatal dose.
If the horse could not get up when being induced to, I seriously doubt she was able to get up after the euthanasia solution was given. What you more likely saw was the “paddling” and neurological “agonal response” which occurs (hopefully, please God) beyond the level of conscious control. Sometimes when circulation is poor, or they’ve been given the “wrong” drug that works actively against the euth. solution it takes longer, but I have NEVER in 45 years seen a horse once fallen from the stuff try to get up again.
I’ve been primary assistant at 16 or more of these, and with the exception of the one cranial neuro case all of them hit the ground in under 5 seconds from pushing the first dose.
A few years ago I attended an Equine Science conference and they discussed the ethics of Euthanasia and one of the conclusions was that death by rifle, or captive bolt pistol (what they use at the slaughter plants) is quicker, more humane, and far more environmentally friendly as well…and cheaper!
I am strictly small animal now, but did my internship at an equine hospital and euthanized a couple of horses each week. Many were quiet, but many were not. It is much easier to do a “cosmetic” euthanasia on the small animal side. It is very rare for me to have one of those which isn’t smooth.
OP, sorry for your loss.
Are there any studies published on why animals have the excitatory phase during euthanasia? Is it because certain parts of the brain ‘shut down’ before others (laymen terms here)?
[QUOTE=BEARCAT;7871622]
That’s really terrible and I am sorry for your loss and the added trauma associated with it.
But yes, stories like these is why I have chosen gunshot over drugs when I have had to make the decision.[/QUOTE]
^^^ This. Done properly, they are gone before they hit the ground. It’s far harder on the owners, though.
OP, I’m so sorry for your loss and for those last few memories of your beloved pony.
I had my 24-year old mare put down this spring after her suspensory ligament gave way. She had been tranqed many times in the past, and had a massive resistance to it. However, I didn’t expect that she would also have such a resistance to the euth. She was absolutely awake and fighting every step – I harbor no hopes or delusions that she wasn’t. I knew this mare well and knew her reactions well, and I know she was awake. It took two full syringes, and I will never forget her going down and me jumping on her neck and looking at the vet and saying “Hit her. Hard.” She was barely 13 hands. I was there when she was born.
It shook my vet up pretty hard. Later, he said that he hadn’t expected it because just a week earlier, he’d put down a much larger horse who had gone down with just half a syringe. There one second, gone the next. I honestly wasn’t expecting it either, as the previous summer I’d had a gelding put down. He was there one second, gone the next.
[QUOTE=Alex and Bodie’s Mom;7872458]
OP, I’m so sorry for your loss and for those last few memories of your beloved pony.
I had my 24-year old mare put down this spring after her suspensory ligament gave way. She had been tranqed many times in the past, and had a massive resistance to it. However, I didn’t expect that she would also have such a resistance to the euth. She was absolutely awake and fighting every step – I harbor no hopes or delusions that she wasn’t. I knew this mare well and knew her reactions well, and I know she was awake. It took two full syringes, and I will never forget her going down and me jumping on her neck and looking at the vet and saying “Hit her. Hard.” She was barely 13 hands. I was there when she was born.
It shook my vet up pretty hard. Later, he said that he hadn’t expected it because just a week earlier, he’d put down a much larger horse who had gone down with just half a syringe. There one second, gone the next. I honestly wasn’t expecting it either, as the previous summer I’d had a gelding put down. He was there one second, gone the next.[/QUOTE]
You just never know. My OTBB (91 starts) was very resistant to tranq and he dropped like a stone on the first syringe.
Can’t imagine any vet who has heard the word “lawsuit” ordering a distraught ammie-owner to “sit on the head” of a non-tranquilized, struggling horse. Every vet I’ve ever worked with makes damn good n’ sure we have 100% control of the situation one way OR another before using the drugs, and they generally set things up so people emotionally impaired are not the primary handlers. Was this an emergency, a traumatic injury?
I wasn’t the owner in this case. The owner was standing off to the side, VERY distraught and crying. This wasn’t an emergency / traumatic injury situation. The owner came into the barn and found the mare in her stall unable to get up. By the time I arrived, and the replacement vet had arrived, the mare had struggled enough trying to get up that she was now partially in the stall doorway and mostly still in her stall. The shoulders forward outside of the stall and the remainder still in the stall.
If the horse has a spinal injury or EPM, hate to say it but that’s one way you find out that it’s now all over. . .
EPM was very much suspected in this case based on the clinical signs …
There is no possible reason I can THINK of that a vet would put any kind of needle in the SPINE. There is no chemical euthanasia I am aware of that would work that way. If the horse is unruly, neuro-compromised or otherwise dangerous, the right way is to use an anesthetic drug first, then the fatal dose.
This gigantic needle very much was stuck in her spine - about halfway down her neck. Cant remember what colour the liquid was inside now and neither of us asked what it was or why it was administered this way. Neither of us had been present at a euthanization before. We had no way of knowing that this wasn’t standard protocol that every vet followed. It absolutely wasn’t Euthanol - that was given IV a few minutes later
I don’t think you could hit a horse in the spinal (epidural) space without fluoroscopy guidance of some sort.
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