Brownie was put down in Feb due to an aggressive cancer closing off his nose. A vet told me it was merely bone growing because of a tooth it was trying to hold in after he removed the tooth.

He was VERY wrong. The knot swelled INSANE within like a month or two... there wasn't anything I could do. He was 15 years old and wasn't getting better... but quickly worse.

He couldn't sleep well anymore, he was constantly making this snuffy, congested sound when he was breathing, and he tired easily and wouldn't rise or eat much anymore.

Took him to the vet, who saw that it was cancer right away. No way could Brownie live through intensive chemo (which probably could not have fought such a cancer anyway), and the tumor was inoperable on his face like that. It had manifested into his facial bones. Vet said it was a "squamous mast cell tumor" or something.

Decided to put him down on the spot. He had to be muzzled to be lifted onto the table... and he snarled and growled. He passed out immediately after the needle went in, with only a tiny whimper though.

It took another shot for him to die... but he felt nothing, heard nothing. Very peaceful. Sad, but I saw it coming... he was an old dog and they don't live forever. Having a dog put down is... IMO far better than waking up and finding him dead.

They gave me a sheet with his body. Took him home and buried him here... where he belongs. If I end up putting down Jade and Nigredo (like say they don't die of natural causes) they will be handled the same way.

My beautiful dog, I will call her 'Lady' because I don't want my kids to search her unusual name, and find this post one day, was PTS on Monday.

She was 14 and a bit and had dementia for the past couple of years. Recently, she was no longer continent, kept being sick, and really hadn't wagged her tail once in months, or recognised us for quite some time. The light had gone out of her eyes, even with me (she was a total mummy's girl).

The past month she was also losing weight rapidly but starving hungry all the time. It was pretty obviously cancer.

Now to my question. I have been present when several dogs (usually mine but once, a friend's) were put down. They have always gone quickly, peacefully and without a struggle. Except for the friend's dog who did make a weird vocalisation and had absolute fear in his eyes, as he was dying.

My other dog died in 2008 and it was the same vet practice but different vet. He was only a young dog and seemed at the peak of his fitness (the vet even remarked how muscly and healthy he looked the day he died). But he had a brain tumour. In his case, he was taken to a back room, and a canula inserted - I have since read online why that is done. When the vet injected, he died standing up, in seconds. Zero pain, zero anything. There one split second, gone the next.

However, this week my dog died in a way that distressed us considerably. Same practice, different vet and she did not use a canula, or sedate (my dog was very scared of the vet's but always a calm, gentle dog who would never bite someone, however unnerved she was). She just went straight for it with the OD of anaesthetic which is standard, still, in many vets, I know.

But my dog... well she was already scared just being in the vet's. We thought her dementia was so advanced she wouldn't remember her fear anymore. Wrong. She was very scared when the vet shaved her leg. Then, the vet injected and she died in what seemed like the best part of a minute, not just a few seconds like our last dog.

But, after the vet listened at her heart and pronounced her dead... she took these awful gasps. Not one. But quite a few. The vet said it was just reflexes (I have since looked it up online and apparently it's a well known thing called 'agonal respiration'). The vet said as she was old, her circulation might be compromised and that was why she had reflexes and it seemed a bit slow.

All this AFTER her heart stopped. Also, she arched her back and kicked her legs after she was 'dead'. (Since looked it up online and like the agonal breathing, apparently it happens). As I say I have seen a few dogs put to sleep and never seen any of this before.

The gasps she made were awful. The vet left us alone with her for a while, and even a couple of minutes later, she was STILL gasping. Although I believed the vet that she was out of it, dead, and would not be afraid or suffering - can anyone else reassure me? It was truly awful to watch.

She also emptied her bladder after another minute. Which again from what I see online is not unusual but again, I have never seen it.

Does the drug get to the brain before the heart, I suppose is my question? I want to know that those reflexive 'breaths' we saw after her heart stopped, meant nothing...

I came home and we told the kids she died 'peacefully'. But it was such a shock, to see, and we felt like she didn't.

One reason I had hesitated so long was remembering my friend's dog as he died (same vet practice again, coincidentally).

The vet didn't warn us it could happen (I see apparently it is more common with old dogs). And I have never been warned about it in the past.

It made me wish I'd researched beforehand and asked for her to be sedated first.

All these things have happened to me when I have had to take my dogs on their final journey, and I have just held them and talked to them, even though they I knew they were gone, until they were still. Surprised you've never seen them empty their bladder after death, obviously they have no control over it anymore, so it is going to happen.
You've done the best and kindest thing , and she never knew, would have been gone in seconds, its us who have the after effects, not them. She retained her dignity till the end and thats what everyone wants I would think, for their best friend to go without pain or struggle to live and breathe.

You mustn't worry.

I too have seen these things and it happened to my old girl who was over 17.
The vet had warned us in our case but the gasps are upsetting and I understand your anxiety.

It's a dreadful time and you have to go through the grief but don't let this add to it.

My girl, who i lost in Feb this year also took the gasps.. and it still haunts me every day.

She was a relatively young dog (7 years) and had Multiple Myeloma. I asked the vet to sedate her first as she was still very much 'with it'. He told me the sedation would lower her blood pressure so the drug would take longer to stop her heart.

The whole thing tore me apart, so i can completely understand how you must be feeling. I am hoping for the both of us that time is a healer.

Thanks to all who have replied, so far. Janey, let's both try not to be haunted by it. 'Haunted' is the word for how I feel, too.

But from what I have now read online, I think because the barbiturate hits the brain and essentially closes the dog's consciousness down even before it hits the heart, then, as the vet said her heart was stopped before she started gasping - there is no way she can have been conscious at all. If that makes sense.

I hope I am not kidding myself, but I'm one of those people who can cope with things better if I understand what has happened. Although it was a shock on Monday, I am now determined to accept that she was utterly gone by the time she was doing the agonal breathing and that if we had left putting her to sleep any longer, she'd have possibly died a 'natural' death when not in her sleep which could have gone on for minutes, or hours, and been truly terrifying for her. So I am trying not to be haunted by what we saw...

Writing this reminds me of when one of our cats was run over, and as I went to lift the body - don't want to be explicit but what I saw haunted me for ages afterwards. Was months before I could let go of that image and remember this cat as he had been in life. By the time that happened to his body, he was gone from it. Same for my beautiful, beautiful dog.

Hi All,

As we recently lost Zane unexpectedly I thought I'd post here too.

Zane had already been thoroughly examined physically with no obvious signs of illness. On that Monday nighf if was clear he had crashed completely clinically and I knew we wouldn't be bringing him home.

Zane was nof responsive when at ths vets but was already sedated anyway for xrays to be taken. The tumour on his spleen (hemangiosarcoma) showed up but hadn't ruptured.

The only thing to do for him was PTS. Oscar, my Son was with us too but went back into the waiting room after saying goodbye for the last time. I watched the blue anaesthetic being injected. The only "regret" I suppose, although maybe the wrong word, is that once the anaesthetic was started to be injected, that I didn't ask to finish it. Until that point I did everything for Zane. This would have been the last thing that I personally could do just for him.

I opted for simple cremation. I don't have the body back, partly because my garden would be a full graveyard by now and partly because I believe it's an empty shell. Zane's soul had already made it's way to the Bridge. Zane was no longef there.

I also dont have thd ashes back either. This is because if I did this for all the animals over the years I'd have room for nothing else in thd house. Also I don't know fof sure that it is MY animal and ONLY my animal when I get them.

When PTS, Zane had only one agonal gasp. He didn't twitch, move or empty his bladder. Maybe this was because he was already sedated.

I do know that before the agonal gasps though, Zane was already gone. Once the OD of anaesthetic is given (if I remember correctly) the medulla oblongata at the base of the brain when the respiratory centre is, is depressed to the point where breathing stops altogether very quickly. Straight away the brain will start to die because no oxygen is going into the body. The brain is unable at the point to detect thd ridising levels of carbon dioxide and force breathinb to resume.

It is soon after this that the heart will stop beating and circulation will stop completely. If ths animal is very old of had poor circulation the whole process can be a little longer.

Agonal rsspiration and muscle twitching etc are perfectlg normal occurences and happen with people as with animals. By the time these happen the animal is already dead and is not suffering or feeling any pain.

I'm not sure if this is the case but I tend to tjink that the muscle twitches, if they occur, and because maybe those are the last cells of the body to run out of oxygen and die. It's natural for cells to survive and rejuvenate but its not natural for the air supplg to be cut off. I think it's because of this that we see physical movement where we may sometimes think the animal is still alive. I could be wrong as I'm not medically trained.

Something else that helped was that I weng back to the vet to havd him explain properly what hsppened to Zane on that last day. Nothing came up on the physical exam of blood tests. The tumour on his spleen hadn't ruptured. I spent almost an hour with the vet. I was questioning his diagnosis or my ultimate decision to PTS, but I now have an in depth understanding of what was wrong.

It was also a relief in a way to know that I really couldn't have done anything else for Zane and with hemangiosarcoma, regardless of potential treatment, the outcome is always the same.

Sorry if I've gone a little off track. I tried to get everything in before I forgot what I was typing about.

Laura xx

My vet told me when she put Hal down that the terrifying half howl half shriek accompanied by his leaping up for a split second is a fairly common occurrence in some dogs. It is a primeival (spelling?) response going back hundreds of thousands of years to the wild wolf. It haunted me I have to say because he was lying in my arms when the anaesthetic was injected and he leaped to his feet out of my arms. I was convinced he was still alive somehow, but of course he was not.

He now lies at peace under the hawthorn tree in the back of our garden. His son, Ben, regularly lies on him! I am always worried that he will attempt to dig him up, but thankfully that has never occurred. That would finally give me the heebie jeebies for ever more, poor Hal.

Oh Gnasher

I didn't know your Hal howled as well.

FFS there's me running on about Harvey doing it and poor Hal did it too.

I am so so very sorry

(((((Big hugs)))))

I've had two dogs PTS. Both of them had lived long lives.

Sam was about 15 years old, we didn't know exactly because I adopted him from Battersea Dog's Home at an estimated age of a year to 18 months after he'd been found as a stray. He was a Spitz type mixed breed. He was a healthy old dog, apart from a bit of arthritis, until he suddenly became very sick and unable to walk. I took him to the vet, who kept him overnight to treat him to try to save him.

The vet phoned me in the morning and said that Sam was not responding to treatment, and he felt the kindest thing would be to put him to sleep. I asked if I could be with him. I went there alone, as my husband was at work. My husband had sort of said goodbye to Sam before I took him to the vet, because we thought he probably wouldn't be coming home. Sam was much more attached to me anyway, he was my dog for ten years before I married. When I arrived I was shown into a consulting room. The vet brought Sam in, who wagged his tail when he saw me. But as the vet said, he was a very sick dog. I held him, stroked him and spoke to him. I know he was happy that I was there as he peacefully slipped away. I let the vet send him for cremation, and got his ashes sent back to me.

Patch was the Border Collie we adopted from Battersea after we lost Sam. He was diagnosed with lymphoma just over a year ago, but was still well enough to enjoy life for a while with palliative treatment, so we had time to plan for the end. He lived a reasonable quality of life for three and a half months after getting sick, we had some good times and made some lovely memories. But then one Sunday last August I knew Patch was ready to go. His last night I stayed on a makeshift bed on the floor downstairs beside Patch, as that was the only place he would sleep at that point. In the morning I called the vet surgery. I had thought of asking for a home visit, but my husband was on a late shift, and we both wanted to be with Patch, but didn't want to delay the inevitable and prolong his suffering. So I asked if we could come in as soon as possible. When we arrived, the receptionist got a nurse to show us to a beautiful garden they have behind the surgery so we could wait there instead of in the waiting room. The vet and nurse took Patch inside to have a cannula put in, then brought him back out to spend time with us, and when they were ready they came back out, Patch went to sleep peacefully in the garden, with both of us holding him, eating the dog biscuits my husband had brought with him.

When we were ready to leave, the nurse helped my husband carry Patch to my car because I wanted to take him to the pet crematorium myself.

I arranged with the crematorium for the cremation to be at a time when we could go and say our last goodbyes to Patch just before he was cremated. After he was cremated I brought his ashes home, and they will be buried with the first of us to go, along with Sam's ashes and any other dog's ashes we have by then.

The crematorium also took a paw print from Patch to keep on file so I could order jewellery with his pawprint. My husband had a pendant made for me for Christmas.