Let me start out by saying I don't make this post to be mean, but simply to inform other pet owners…read moreof my experience.
That being said, I have had a lot of cats and dogs in my life. I currently foster and rescue with animal care and protective services, meaning I have nine dogs of my own who are various special needs or seniors, and I also have nine cats.
I have a registered vet that I usually use however, due to the nature of my visit today, I was unable to get my cat there, so I chose somewhere closer to home and I regret my decision.
My 16-year-old cat needed to be put to sleep. She had been going downhill for a while, but the last 48 hours we have noticed swelling in her paws as well as her throat area, which could've been anything from fluid retention to an allergic reaction. Either way, we knew it was gonna be her time and we were hoping she would pass on her own, but she did not
My husband made the appointment for 330 this afternoon for me and him to go bring her to be put to sleep.
As I said, I've had a lot of dogs and cats, so this is not the first time that I've had to put an animal to sleep. Most of the dogs that I rescue our seniors, so this has happened before where I've had to help them along.
I've never gone to a vet that did not want to do an initial exam before putting the animal to sleep. I had to ask them to please make sure there was nothing that we could do in order to have her live longer, within reason. I still don't think they even looked at her much just to say that she was anemic and it was her time.
I was OK with that as I expected that was going to be the situation, but I did want to make sure that I was doing the right thing, and as I said, I've never met a vet who does not do an exam before euthanasia. In fact, I'm pretty sure we paid for an office visit and they didn't even examine my cat.
The vet themselves, without me sounding rude, should not have been practicing medicine. She was older, much older than I have ever seen still working, and she could barely stand up on her own. Because my cat's legs were swollen, they were having a hard time finding a vein. I think it was maybe 20 minutes of them trying to stick my cat, over and over. Thankfully, she was mostly sedated by then, but still. The vet did have an assistant who was trying her best, but I realized once my cat was sedated that I brought her to the wrong place. Unfortunately, at that point, she was already sedated and I was not sure what else I could do.
Neither vet informed me when they were going to do anything, I kept having to ask what was going on because I just kept seeing them trying to stick her over and over again. The main vet, kept saying that they were gonna have to gas her and then the assistant that would remind her that they couldn't do that because the gas thing was in surgery I guess. That must've transpired at least four times in the 20 minutes that we were doing this. I also felt like the vet was not very sympathetic to my loss, she was making comments about my cat, as if I wasn't there.
The assistant vet was slightly more empathetic. I felt bad for her because she was trying her best and it was not working.
I'm not fully blaming them, as I understand that my cat was obviously not in the best of shape, but I do feel like I've never had an experience like this in all the animals that I've had to put the sleep in my 35 years of being on this earth.
The whole process took about an hour, and I had to make sure multiple times that she had actually passed because I really didn't even trust them at that point. I almost had a panic attack quite a few times because I just did not understand what was going on, and nobody was talking to me and telling me what was going on.
If there's another vet there, I would suggest asking for them, however, I was there last minute, and I think I was the last appointment of the day.
I just hope my cat was not suffering during those minutes. It took for her to get sedated and then put to sleep.