Worst Euthanasia Yet

Honey, an 18 yr old chihuahua, comes in for euthanasia. As the owners are crying, we politely take her to the back to place an IV catheter. As we are trying to place the catheter, the dog begins to scream like a hawk being mauled by a bear. Of course, the owners can hear everything and likely think we are abusing their poor baby. Did I mention the sweet little thing has a tumor in its mouth that is rotting out? After we pass out from the horrid smell, we finally get the catheter in and it's intact. Yay! Problem solved. But why do I still have this sinking feeling in my stomach like something bad is going to happen?

So I walk back into the room as the owners are eerily peering through the window in the door, trying to figure out why their animal is screaming. I go through my little schpeel about how this is going to go. "She will go to sleep quietly and then her heart will stop, but non of this is painful," I say. As I am injecting the solution into Honey, she dog leaps off the owners lap, does the dying hawk scream, and the t-port (the top part of the catheter) comes off with my needle. With "oh shit" written all over my face, I quickly reattach the t-port, push in the rest of the solution just to see it spray all over the owner.

Now I really panic and what do I do when I get stressed? I laugh of course. So as I am trying to hold in a laugh, I begin trying to see what went wrong with the catheter, all while the owners are still holding this 18 yr old dog, crying their eyes out, with pink euthanasia solution sprayed all over them. Damn, the dog pulled out her catheter. So I regretfully explain that I will have to take their dog away one more time to place another catheter. At this point, she had recieved 1/2 of her total dose and is sleepy, but breathing heavily, much like a dying chain smoker.

I take her to the back, but due to the lack of blood pressure, I can't get another catheter in this dog. Now I'm about to cry. So I go into the room and explain that I couldn't get a catheter in and must stick the dog straight in the heart. The stick goes well, but the dog begins to scream and after about 15 agonizing seconds of panic, she dies, but is still twitching. Well that was fun explaining. "Yes, the dog is dead, but the neurons are still firing. No she cannot feel pain." Of course, they wanted to take the dog with them, so who knows what other shenaningans Honey pulled after death.

Typical chihuahua, trying to ruin the vet's life even on its last leg.