Two PTSs today. I work a few hours a week at a veterinary clinic.

[spiderpig]

PTS = Put To Sleep.

Mr. pig's at work and I'm feeling melancholy because this is the first shift I've worked where we had one, let alone two.

Doctor has been our vet for nearly 30 years and he says he never gets used to it. We give him quiet time after a euthanasia.

Maybe I should move this to another forum, but I know there are many, many animal lovers out there who appreciate their vets who do their work with sensitivity and caring.

He's a great guy, has a great staff, and a wonderful clientele who truly love their pets.

[mopinko]

1. it depends on why.

it is always sad, but i am sure that someone doing the right thing for a suffering old friend, and someone who is pulling the plug because they dont give a shit, or someone whose actions led to the crisis in the first place.

sometimes it's the right thing to do, and sometimes its bullshit.

[spiderpig]

3. Exactly, mopinko.

I've heard about people pulling up to a clinic in a Mercedes and rather than spend a few hundred on treatment just say "time to put him/her down".

I guess the life-affirming thing about today was that the owners were mature adults who deeply cared for their animals, and our little group was able to offer them emotional assistance during a very hard time.

Big difference from when I was growing up. We had all kinds of animals and went to the traditional horse doctor, whose general analysis was "time to put it down". Boom.

I learned a lot today. Go hug your pet, if you have one (or ten).

[mopinko]

5. more than 10 if

you count the chickens.

right now i have the best dog i have ever had. he is 5, so we still have a lot of time. looking at getting a pup from the same blood lines just the same.

the hardest one ever was a white boxer that was the nanny when my kids were little. a perfect boxer. i sat on the floor with her and sobbed for over half an hour afterward.
she had a palsy in her face that made it hard for her to swallow correctly. she was getting inhalation pneumonias. we treated it once, but it was back again in a little over a month. having trouble breathing is so frightening, and, of course, i couldnt explain to her what was happening. she was 12.

i really, really hate seeing a dog allowed to get terribly sick and old, and the person just doesnt have the stones to do the right thing. i have stories about what happens to dogs like that sometimes, and it just burns me.

[spiderpig]

6. My family was nuts when it came to human relationships

but they were all crazy over animals. I remember my grandfather uttering only three words in his lifetime. "Marilyn Monroe died" while he was puffing his pipe. But he rescued dogs and orphaned squirrels after tornadoes.

My parents didn't argue over custody of their kids, but they sure did over our dog. My sis and I always call him the best dog ever. At age 10 or so we saw that not only his breathing was labored, but he couldn't lie down. Then the edema in his paws was so bad that they were bleeding. No question - I took him on his last ridey and was holding him during his peaceful exit.

We did the right thing, but I still cried my eyes out.

[Sanity Claws]

2. Even when the animal is terminal and in pain?

I had to put an old cat to sleep last fall. She had liver failure secondary to lymphoma. We were sad but now we did the right thing. We ended her suffering.

[spiderpig]

4. You did the right thing. Both owners knew it was time.

One was a 17-year-old cat who was flagged as aggressive and would bite/scratch with no provocation. The man who brought him in (in tears) said he knew it was time when kitty was too weak to attack anybody.

The other was a tiny dog with an awful oral tumor. An adorable sweet thing and both parents were in tears too. But they knew it was time.

We honor our pets by crying for them, though.

[heaven05]

7. I've got one

who is really a first rate human being.....he has gone through two PTS's with me and always compassionate and sensitive to feelings....of animal's family members. The staff is always friendly and knowledgeable. Sounds like a rough day....listen to relaxation music...stress reliever.

[spiderpig]

9. Thank you for this, heaven05

P.S. - Mr. pig is a Vietnam vet.

[WhiteTara]

8. My vet put 2 of my animals to sleep

both were in extreme pain and would not ever get better. It was hard for all of us. She treated me and my pets with kindness and dignity.

I saw her a couple of weeks ago with my 2 healthy pets and had their nails trimmed. It was the first time I brought her my living animals and she looked stooped and bent and didn't seem as cheerful as I had remembered her. I thought that maybe all the PTS hAve taken an incredible toll on her and I felt compassion and was grateful to her for her work that has been a source of her misery.

[spiderpig]

10. I recently read of the unusally high cases of suicide & depression

among veterinarians. My own doc knew what I was going to say before I did.

It's worse now than in his med student days (he went to the best, and his tuition was $6000). Vet schools are even more demanding than human med schools, and vet graduates often carry a larger student debt than their counterparts. Yet their income is significantly lower than physicians.

Add to that, most vets go into the profession with empathy for animals, and they not only have to deal with innocent animals, but giving sympathetic yet realistic counseling to their owners. I could never do it in a million years.

Maybe we should have a Hug Your Veterinarian Day.

[WhiteTara]

11. Hug Your Veterinarian Day

is a great idea. Vets are really incredible doctors...they do all of it without being able to have a chat with their patient.

I also saw in the same report that women vets are more susceptible to suicide because of the stress of being responsible for so many creatures dying.