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Old September 16th 04, 09:13 PM
Sunflower
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"A.J. Rivett" wrote in message
om...
When the time comes and I have to euthanize my cat, I would like to do
it in the kindest way. I think this would be a nice meal of tuna
juice and tuna with some morphine in the tuna juice.

I have been told that 5 mg of morphine should be enough and that my
cat would just fall asleep after eating her last meal. She wouldn't
be traumatized at all and her last thoughts would be how nice the tuna
tasted and now just a long nap until her next life.

My question is whether 5 mg of morphine is about right. I don't want
to traumatize the cat by having someone give her a needle or by having
to take her to the vet (she hates the vet). I know that they don't
give morphine, they give potassium chloride or something like that and
I think morphine may be more expensive but it's a nicer way to go.


The problem with administering it orally is that it slows the sytem down and
by the time you get a fatal dose in them, the organs don't work enough to
process it, leaving the animal more or less in a coma situation for hours or
days on end. (You don't even want to know why I know this.) Depending on
your animal's underlying health issues that make this a necessary decision,
some organs might not even work enough to get even a sedative dose of a drug
into the system and certainly won't process it enough for death to occur.
That's not humane. There's also the issue of regurgitation, which can
happen, and with the cat sedated enough that the gag reflex is disabled, the
cat could choke to death on the vomit. Also not humane.


Really, the only effective way to euthanize an animal is through injection.
Most vets will come to your home and do this for you and it's much less
stressful than you packaging up and going to their office. It's far more
peaceful than you may think, and you can be there at the end after their
last supper and hold them while they pass. It's quick, and painless, which
an oral dose of any drug is NOT. If you love your cat, give her the final
best gift any owner can give, which is a quick and painless death--from your
veterinarian.