On 16 Sep 2004 09:44:25 -0700, (A.J. Rivett)
wrote:

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.


Have a vet come to the house, and you can sedate the kitty first,
before the vet arrives. If you can, get your regular vet to give you
medication for it. If not, the human antihistamine chlorpheniramine
(Chlor Trimeton) can really knock a cat out at a dose of 2-4 mg.

When we had to euthanize my kitty, who had a painful cancer, we had a
vet come to the house. Since we already had pain medication for him,
(torbutrol), I gave him an oral double dose before the vet arrived.

Then we set up a nice little pillow with a trash bag over it and a
towel over the trash bag. (bodily fluids can leak at death. In our
case they didn't, probably because poor Victor was not eating or
drinking.) It was nice to have it be like a special place and a
little ritual.

The vet then gave him a shot of sedation, which was very quick and
since Victor was already pretty out of it, he didn't react much to. I
held him in my lap, petting him during the shot. Once he was
unconscious, we put him on the pillow, the vet gave him a stick to the
heart and then it was over. We carried the body out to the vet's van
and he took care of all the cremation and getting the ashes back to
us. That was very helpful, not to have to deal with all that.

I kind of wish I hadn't watched the cardiac stick, though. It's how I
remember Victor now and that's hard on me. On the other hand, it DID
leave me absolutely sure Victor was dead, and so I didn't have the
fear that some people do that their cat was still alive, might have
woken up in the van all alone. (irrational fear, yes, but some people
go through all kinds of stuff as part of grieving.)

It's wasn't cheap, but it was done with love, respect, no fear and
virtually no pain. If I ever have to euthanize another cat, that's
how we will do it again.

BTW, is your cat already ill? We let one of our cats die of old age
(22 years old.) Some people act like you HAVE to euthanize your
animals but our old cat, who was in kidney failure, went very
peacefully during the night. Not all things that kill cats are
painful and she had a good quality of life up till the end.
__________________________________________________ _

Camilla Cracchiolo
Registered Nurse
Los Angeles, California

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