My vet sedates and then injects a large dose of pink liquid. Never had a problem. Is this the same solution everyone else uses???
I have had 2 go very smoothly and they just dropped. When I have had small animals done they sedated them and then administered the lethal injection. Next time I have a horse done I will have then sedated and laying down just to be safe and I can hold them during the process.
I have had some mercifully peaceful ones and some downright horrific.
One of the latter was a horse that bolted partway through the injection and landed in the hole which had been dug.
I had to climb down in it to finish the job.
Afterwards, the owner said to me, “Well, he never did make anything easy, did he?”
[QUOTE=MustangSavvy;7872776]
The biggest reason that I have seen the tranq and other drugs not work is because of the cancer. The cancer just eats it. We once gave a cat a near fatal dose of tranq (the cat could not be handled safely) and it took forever for the cat to go under. That was riddled with cancer. I have seen it with pretty much all animals we have euthanized…[/QUOTE]
This is completely new to me, so I would like to find out more. Is this phenomenon - cancer suppressing tranquillizer action - documented somewhere? Does it also have this effect with barbiturates?
I have had issues with horses going straight up and over with some of the solutions available- especially the thicker ones. I typically do not sedate. I do hold off the jugular while injecting the full 120 mls for a normal size horse and then release so that the entire amount of barbituate is bolused. I have had horses with neurological disease need more barbitiuate than normal in order to stop the heart. I now am strictly small animal so it has been a couple of years since I have had to euthanize a horse. The last one I did went “well” for the situation I was in at the time. I know that I will have to do it again though as both me and my BF have geriatric horses.
I have also seen ketamine make horses crazed if they are not fully sedated by the xylazine.
Why are tranquillizers slower to act or less effective in animals that have cancer? Can any vets on here tell me? Thanks!
We had an older stallion go down easily with euth who was riddled with cancer, so I’m not sure that is always the answer. We did not know what was wrong with him, but knew we had to end his suffering. The vet found the cancer in the post-mort.
I guess I was pretty lucky in that the only euth I’ve been there for went very well. The vet did not use sedative first, saying she felt that things tended to go badly more often when it was used. The horse went down funny, but one of his front feet was very damaged/in pain, so he was not standing straight/even to begin with. He did have some reflexes but I had been watching his eyes, and feel he was gone before he even started to fall.
OP, I’m so sorry it didn’t go as peacefully as you had hoped. My condolences to you. I wish this stuff could be easy.
The vets who are really good know how to bend the horse toward them and push on the shoulder so he more or less “sits down,” then falls gently away from them.
Everybody at the firm I use seems to know this trick, and it works really well. Not something they usually let the owner try, sensibly.
The sedation/anesthesia is supposed to make them sleep, once asleep, the drug is given to stop the heart, and under the sleeping spell alone, they don’t know or feel anything.
But if the horse never went down to sleep, was active and moving, I don’t believe he was unaware of the second drug that is probably painful when injected and unsettling when the heart just stops working and the horse dies of lack of air being distributed through the blood.
All animals move, kick, etc when put down, some more obvious than others. Even with a drug, a shot to the head or beheading, the muscles still react to the sudden lost signal of the brain and that’s what you see.
But if the horse wasn’t asleep and continually thrashed about through the second drug, that’s a terrible way to go and he knew he was going.
I’m sorry things went this bad, I agree that lead would of been far more instant and with no suffering if done by a professional. Though, it’s almost harder to watch than a drug being used. But from what you went through with a failed sedation/anesthesia, you might want to find a vet to use lead next time. All three of you might get better peace from it.
Has anyone seen the show Dr Pol on Animal Planet? He did a few horse euthanasias. Sedated them and then a direct needle to the heart. I’ve never known anyone to do it that way, but they seemed to go very fast like that.
Again, 99% of them go very fast the right way and are gone before they hit the ground from the first needle IME. But nothing’s perfect 100% of the time. It’s still a lot more sure than it used to be.
I thought the first and primary action of a barbiturate overdose, administered after sedation (where sedative is given), is to suppress central nervous system activity to the extent that consciousness is lost and never regained. Breathing stops because the respiratory centres in the brain are also depressed. There are secondary effects on the heart that eventually lead to arrest, but it’s not an immediate action. For this reason, a preparation like Somulose is sometimes used which includes a another drug cinchocaine specifically to accelerate cardiac arrest.
But if the horse never went down to sleep, was active and moving, I don’t believe he was unaware of the second drug that is probably painful when injected and unsettling when the heart just stops working and the horse dies of lack of air being distributed through the blood.
I’m pretty sure it’s the other way round with standard barb euthanasia. The brain stops working before the heart does. However, if the heart were to stop suddenly, consciousness would be lost very quickly anyway due to the fall in blood pressure and the resulting hypoxia - so the horse wouldn’t suffer either way.
All this is independent of any lingering spinal reflexes or activity, which may give the mistaken impression that the horse is “fighting” the anaesthetic.
It’s hard to think of a reason why injecting an overdose of barbiturate anaesthetic wouldn’t work as intended, apart from a) there being something wrong with the solution, b) failure to inject into the vein or c) a severely compromised cardiac output/blood pressure which would result in a longer transit time of the barb bolus to the brain.
I worked as an Emergency Tech in very large referral hospital in S. CA we were very close to the Del Mar track and certainly the closest equine surgical unit. I saw just as many go well as go badly and most that went the later had a lot to do with either the horses personality / or the horses current state of excitement.
Just like sedatives don’t work well or often have negative side effects on already ramped up horses the same goes for a barbiturate overdose using Euthasol.
Of my own only two have gone “badly” One was an older Arabian who it took 24 hours to diagnose a intermittent Heavy GI Bleed ,he was shocky and upon dosing reared flipped over and thrashed for a few moments.
The other was my heart horse a 27 year old TB gelding with cancer who managed to lock his knees and even after 2 large boluses was still basically standing dead. Vet had to basically pull him down using his tail after realizing he wasn’t going to sink down peacefully …I am forever grateful I chose to turn away for those moments.
I am sorry for the OP and others. Having witnessed many chemical euths, and many cases of a .22 to the head, I would never choose to chemical euth. It isn’t always pretty. Plus, you end up with a large amount of toxic material afterwards. Much better to have a carcass that isn’t a haz mat.
[QUOTE=rustbreeches;7887303]
I am sorry for the OP and others. Having witnessed many chemical euths, and many cases of a .22 to the head, I would never choose to chemical euth. It isn’t always pretty. Plus, you end up with a large amount of toxic material afterwards. Much better to have a carcass that isn’t a haz mat.[/QUOTE]
Which is what I have discussed with my mare’s care giver as she will be the one “on the spot” making the decision. .22 with no toxic material afterwards. At that point, my mare will be gone and waiting for me.
I now keep the .22 for “backup.”
fburton, you’re pretty much on the money here.
What you say suggests that a large fraction (~50%?) of chemical euths do not go smoothly? Was that really the case? If so, I am shocked to hear it, because my personal small animal experience and involvement with equine vets paints a totally different picture - that bad reactions or failures are extremely rare events. (Of course it’s essential to distinguish cases where something genuinely went wrong as opposed to an aesthetically poor death occurring after loss of consciousness, which is likely to be upsetting to onlookers but of no consequence to the horse who has already “gone”.)
Just like sedatives don’t work well or often have negative side effects on already ramped up horses the same goes for a barbiturate overdose using Euthasol.
What was thought to be the reason(s) for the Euthasol not working as it should?
Of my own only two have gone “badly” One was an older Arabian who it took 24 hours to diagnose a intermittent Heavy GI Bleed ,he was shocky and upon dosing reared flipped over and thrashed for a few moments.
I’m very sorry to hear that. 
[QUOTE=rustbreeches;7887303]
I am sorry for the OP and others. Having witnessed many chemical euths, and many cases of a .22 to the head, I would never choose to chemical euth. It isn’t always pretty. Plus, you end up with a large amount of toxic material afterwards. Much better to have a carcass that isn’t a haz mat.[/QUOTE]
Only an issue if other animals / wildlife are likely to consume the carcass, right? Pentobarbital isn’t so toxic.
I am surprised by the number of responses and horror stories. I had a bad one too. Evidently a fairly common “bad one”. Vet made 2 trips back to truck for more so 3 hits. There are just too many bad ones to accept the continued use of the commonly used drugs implicated. It takes so long to die even without overt struggle. There is surely an alternative. Decades ago, were there the same issues with drugs used?
A well placed bullet is far more humane though not an option for most. I’m at a loss.
